Lehigh Valley Marathon

My "goal" race for the early fall was the Lehigh Valley Marathon for Via in Pennsylvania. It is a little odd to consider this a goal race, because I didn't put a tremendous amount of stock into it from the beginning. The sole reason I went to PA was to get a Boston Qualifier, and that I did. My training over the past couple months has been anything but "goal oriented" towards the marathon. My mileage was still on the high side (low to mid 90 mpw) and I did four 20+ milers, with a bunch of mid-week 15 milers. My workouts included two 6-mile tempo runs in the low 5:50 pace range, and a few track sessions of tempo repeats. I attempted a 10-mile tempo run at goal marathon pace (6:25-6:30 pc) but that didn't go very well. I tried it during the middle of a very hot day and made it only 8 miles before I thought I was going to croak. Other than this, most of my workouts have been geared towards shorter, faster races.

I thought going into the race that I could run in the area of 2:48. I linked up with a couple other guys wishing to run the same paces and we set out for the first several miles together. The course is a little deceiving, because when you look at it on an elevation profile it doesn't look too bad, and it really wasn't awful. There were a few things about it that made it tough: PA has gotten so much rain over the past 10 days that the course was washed out in parts. The race organizers made several changes over the past couple weeks which added more hills. Next, the course runs over several (10+) miles of canal tow path. This is generally flat, but is comprised of dirt, grass and cinder. There were long stretches of the course that had flooded and were soft and/or mud soaked. Finally, there were three 180 degree turns, the last one being at 25.75 miles. It was soul crushing.

As far as my race went, I made a few huge tactical mistakes: First, I didn't account for the soft muddy parts of the course and committed myself to running 6:25 no matter what. In retrospect, if I had slowed down to 6:40 pace over those miles I probably would have saved a ton of energy for the back half of the race. Second, once I hit ten miles I gave myself a false sense of security. I felt like I was jogging and the rhythm of the race felt awesome. When the guy I was running with dropped the pace to 6:15s I went with him and I still felt pretty good. Dropping those 10 seconds per mile at that point in the race cost me big time later on. Last, but certainly not least, I didn't take any fuel during the race. I had three GU packs with me, but I had an upset stomach and the thought of squirting that garbage into my mouth was making me nauseous just thinking about it.

For the first 15 miles of the race I was really thinking that it was going to be my day. I was running in 7th place and people kept coming back who started out too hard. But, then I started to slide. By the 19th mile I went over 7:00 pace and never could get it back. I tried playing games in my head and convincing myself that I only had to suffer for 45:00 more minutes.

When I started to hurt I took a minute to remember what my real goal was for running this race: qualify for Boston. I knew that I could have dug deeper and pushed the pace back down, but I feared that if I did I would risk blowing up REAL bad and end up walking, or worse, not finishing. I committed myself to relaxing and getting it done. I knew what I had to do to finish in the mid 2:50s, and that is just what I did. If this were Boston I would have squeezed the throttle down a little longer, but there was no point in risking it at this race.

All told, I am pretty happy. It is still an 11:00+ PR, and I subscribe to the theory that you aren't allowed to talk shit about a PR because they can be hard to come by. I learned a lot about what I need to do to get ready for Boston in 7 months. I accomplished my goal of qualifying and my body feels pretty good right now. Of all 5 marathons I have run, I feel the best after this one. I am going to take it easy for the next couple weeks, then I am going to get right back after my goal of breaking 17:00 in the 5k. I will re-visit marathon training come January. Here are my splits:

Mile 1- 6:24
Mile 2- 6:24
Mile 3- 6:25
Mile 4- 6:21
Mile 5- 6:29
Mile 6- 6:25
Mile 7- 6:20
Mile 8- 6:22
Mile 9- 6:24
Mile 10- 6:14
Mile 11- 6:13
Mile 12- 6:14
Mile 13- 6:14

Halfway- 1:23:30 (approx.)

Mile 14- 6:15
Mile 15- 6:26
Mile 16- 6:39
Mile 17- 6:47
Mile 18- 6:52
Mile 19- 7:11
Mile 20- 7:16
Mile 21- 7:26
Mile 22- 7:27
Mile 23- 7:40
Mile 24- 7:44
Mile 25- 7:34
Mile 26- 7:12
Final 0.2- 1:35

Finish: 2:56:45