August Roll Call (Rich)

August training has been a month for perspective. Eight mile runs that were long & painful at the beginning of the program have now become short mid-week runs that I now call "easy days." It was inspiring watching the long distance events during the 2008 Olympics. I was able to synchronize the start of one of my long runs with the start of the men's marathon. It was good perspective for me to find myself at mile 5 when the lead pack had just completed mile 8. It is amazing how the olympic runners can maintain a 5-min mile pace for 26 miles when I struggle with low 7's.

Somehow I have found myself 1 week ahead on my Intermediate I marathon training and am going to have to repeat a week to fall in line with the start of the Chicago marathon; 18-week Hal Higdon program has now become a Rich/Higdon 19-week program. This weekend I thought I had the first of my 20-mile runs scheduled and I decided to run a full marathon and simulate race day conditions as much as possible. I wanted to use this as a psychological boost to my training. I started the run at 8 a.m. having had a goo-pack 15 minutes prior. I ran at a consistent 3:10 marathon race pace (7:13 min miles; 8.3 mph). I had printed out the Chicago marathon course map complete with drink stations marked. I only hydrated at the marked drink stations alternating water and gatorade. There are drink stations at mile markers 1.5, 3.5, 5, 6, 8, 9.5, 10.5, 12, 12.5, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19.5, 20.5, 21, 22.5, 23.5, 24.5, and 25. I forced myself to use every single one of these rest stops to hydrate and view the course map to visualize my progress. The two most difficult sections of the course I found for hydration was between mile markers 6 and 8, and between markers 15 and 17. I absorbed my second goo-pack at mile 9.5 and my third coincided with the PowerBar/power gel station marked on the course for mile marker 18. At mile marker 20 I hit the usual psychological wall that I have experienced with past marathons, because my mind knows that I haven't trained for anything over 20 miles (the main purpose for completing a full marathon during this year's training). Hal Higdon might argue with what I was trying to do, but I believe that the mind is stronger than the body, and it can make or break your race, so you need to include it in your training. Starting with mile marker 20.5 I rewarded myself with pieces of fruit at each remaining fuel stations to coincide with the race day offerings. I felt really energized at mile 23.5 as I turned the hairpin corner up towards the finish line. Erica was really supportive during this experiment of mine; making sure that my fuel bottles were replenished. At mile marker 25.2 she surpised me by ringing a cow bell and cheering me on. Knowing that I only had 1 mile left I started my kick. I ramped up from my 7:13 pace to a 6 min pace. I sustained this through the final turn and sprinted to the finish line with a time of 3:08:20. This training day I killed my past best by 15 minutes. I felt pretty good afterwards. Erica said that it was the best I had ever looked, and I attribute it to how well I stayed hydrated. I felt that this little experiment was well worth the effort and has boosted my confidence considerably.