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Olympic Trials Marathon

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Location:

Fort Collins,CO,

Member Since:

May 15, 2003

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Local Elite

Running Accomplishments:

Unaided PR's:
5K: 14:48 (Track - 2001)
10K: 30:45 (Track - 2001)
10K: 31:32 (Bolder Boulder - 2013)
Half Marathon: 1:06:09 (Duluth - 2013)
Marathon: 2:17:54 (Grandma's) - 2014)
Marathon: 2:19:47 (Indianapolis Monumental - 2013)
Marathon: 2:19:49 (Indianapolis Monumental - 2010)

Aided PR's:
10K: 29:38 (Des News - 2011)
Half Marathon: 1:05:30 (TOU Half - 2011)
Marathon: 2:18:09 (St George - 2007)
Marathon: 2:17:35 (Boston - 2011)

Short-Term Running Goals:

Diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis in June of 2008. Started taking Enbrel in March, 2009.

Run as much as I can, and race as well as I can. Make the most of however much time I have left as an able-bodied runner.

Training for the 2018 Colorado Marathon

Long-Term Running Goals:

  Run until I'm old, and then run some more. Stand tall.

Personal:

1 wife, 2 kids. 1 cat. Work as a GIS Specialist/Map Geek

Endure and persist; this pain will turn to your good. - Ovid

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. - Romans 5:1-5

 

 

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Saucony Trail Shoe Lifetime Miles: 247.50
Hoka Clifton Lifetime Miles: 491.50
Saucony Type A6 Lifetime Miles: 186.50
Saucony Zealot Lifetime Miles: 478.75
Saucony Kinvara 6 Lifetime Miles: 433.50
Saucony Kinvara 6-2 Lifetime Miles: 358.75
Brooks Pure Connect Blue Lifetime Miles: 337.25
New Balance Trainers Lifetime Miles: 314.50
New Balance 1400 Racers Lifetime Miles: 65.00
Brook Pureflow Lifetime Miles: 99.50
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
95.8028.206.000.000.00130.00
Saucony Kinvara 6-2 Miles: 24.00Brooks Pure Connect Blue Miles: 13.00New Balance Trainers Miles: 40.00New Balance 1400 Racers Miles: 39.00Hoka Clifton Miles: 14.00
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
14.000.000.000.000.0014.00

Got hammered with snow yesterday (14 inches), so I did not run. Thank goodness I'm tapering anyway. It's pretty amazing that yesterday was the first day I've missed in this training cycle due to weather (850 miles in 2 months). So not having a treadmill (or paying for a gym membership) ended up being a good gamble. Hate those treadmills.

Today I ran an easy 14 miles. The trails were plowed, but still slick in a lot of spots, so going much faster than 7-min/mile was pretty much impossible. So I did 8-minutes/mile. 14 miles.

Saucony Kinvara 6-2 Miles: 14.00
Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
14.000.000.000.000.0014.00

am - Kathy Fromme Praire with Kent. 5 miles, about 8:00/mile

noon - Power Trail to Spring Creek Trail. 9 miles, about 8:10/mile. Still pretty icy, hard to get a pace going.
 

Brooks Pure Connect Blue Miles: 5.00New Balance Trainers Miles: 9.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
6.000.006.000.000.0012.00

Medium Workout. Last workout of the cycle. Warmed up 3.5 miles, then did 6x1-mile at LT, wit 0.25-mile recoveries. Trails were still a little icy in spots, but much better. Still, was slowed down here and there.

Splits: 5:19, 5:20, 5:21, 5:12, 5:11, 5:06.

Cooled down 1 mile. 12 miles total, average pace of 6:33/mile.

New Balance 1400 Racers Miles: 12.00
Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
13.000.000.000.000.0013.00

am - Fossil Creek Trail. 5 miles, no watch

noon - Power Trail to Spring Creek Trail. 8 miles, 8:00/mile

Hoka Clifton Miles: 5.00Brooks Pure Connect Blue Miles: 8.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
14.500.000.000.000.0014.50

Ran with Mike, did the Fossil Creek to Mason to Spring Creek to Power Trail Loop. 14.5 miles, 6:55/mile.

New Balance Trainers Miles: 14.50
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
5.000.000.000.000.005.00

Power Trail. 5 miles, averaged 7:30/mile

Hoka Clifton Miles: 5.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
10.000.000.000.000.0010.00

noon - 6 miles with Mike on the Power Trail to Spring Creek Trail. Averaged 6:40/mile.

pm - 4 miles on the Power Trail. No watch.

Last double! Perhaps ever?

New Balance Trainers Miles: 10.00
Comments(5)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
8.002.000.000.000.0010.00

Little Workout. Warmed up 3 miles, then did 2-mile MP tempo. 5-mile cooldown. Boyd Lake route. Tempo splits were 5:24, 5:20. Feelin fine.

Saucony Kinvara 6-2 Miles: 10.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
4.500.000.000.000.004.50

Power Trail, 30 minutes. About 7:00/mile. Warm out, but a far cry to what I'll experience Saturday.

New Balance Trainers Miles: 4.50
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
4.000.000.000.000.004.00

Easy 4 miles with some strides on the Power Trail. 6:59/mile average.

Hoka Clifton Miles: 4.00
Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
2.000.000.000.000.002.00

Easy 2 miles from hotel in LA

New Balance Trainers Miles: 2.00
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Race: Olympic Trials Marathon (26.219 Miles) 02:27:24, Place overall: 49
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
0.8026.200.000.000.0027.00

Well, that's over. I can only describe the race as terrible and wonderful at the same time. Terrible in that the heat was brutal, times were really bad, and it was a complete train wreck out there. Wonderful in that it was the Olympic Trials, I had many chances to quit, but didn't, and got my best placing at the Trials ever (and made my overall goal of Top 50). So definitely not the race or conditions, I would have asked for, but the outcome was good, and I feel really good about it.

I went out in the back row, and stuck near the back for the first few miles. Felt pretty good for the first lap, and was not feeling the heat. Felt like I could keep up the pace (just under 5:20/mile) the whole way without problem. Body felt good, and everything was loose.

2nd lap, still held a good pace, but everything starting crashing down around Mile 11-12, and was strongly considering dropping out when I went through the start/finish line. It just got really hot, all of sudden, and my stomach was not feeling too good.

By the looks of things, everyone got hit with the heat at the same time though, as everyone's pace dropped. We had a strong pack for the first half of the race, but it just instantly blew up around Mile 14, and I can only describe it as carnage the rest of the way.

My best opportunity to drop out would have been while doing through the start/finish line (convenient and safe), but I decided to give it one more lap. Mainly I didn't want to drop out in front of my wife and kids. Plus I figured everyone else felt equally bad, and if I could just stick with it...maybe I could make my goal of Top 50 just by surviving longer.

And that's pretty much what happened. I actually felt pretty good at the end of the 3rd lap (about Mile 20), and had no doubt I would finish, and was starting to enjoy myself as well (after all, 5:55 pace is not very hard). I was passing tons of people, and that kept me going too. And not only that, the bib numbers were getting high and higher, and I was starting to take some scalps.

At about Mile 22, my quads started to feel hammered, and I worried a little bit that they would give out. That was about the biggest struggle over the last part of the race. I was absolutely crawling (5:50-5:55 pace), but everyone was crawling worse, and I kept passing people. Passed bib #6 with about 5 miles to go, which is cool (Bobby Curtis). Then with about 2 miles to go, came up on Bib #8...could tell by the Newton singlet it was Cabada. While I certainly do not think that I am better than any of these people (far from it), it just goes to show what the marathon + heat does to people. The heat is no respector of persons. The heat killed my race and cause  me to run a rancid 2:27 (disappointing after all those 100+ mile weeks)...but the heat also allowed me to finish Top 50, and beat some great runners that I really respect. I'll take the Top 50.

Anyway, I slogged on to the finish line, quads protesting the whole way. I passed 2 more people in the final 0.2 miles, which was the difference between Top 50 and not-Top 50. Final time was 2:27:24, and final place was 49th. Again, I don't think I'm the 49th fastest marathon runner in the U.S....but ran the 49th best race in the heat on the day of Trials. I'll take it, and I'm proud of that race.

What's really cool, is when I look at all the stats, I moved up 83 spots from Mile 1, 63 spots from the half marathon, 39 spots with 10K to go, and 10 spots with 1 mile to go. The moral to the story: don't stop running. Sometimes it pays to just finish the race.

Not sure what the future holds. I know I'm going to take 1-2 months off completely from running in order to try to let me body heal. I've had a sore groin for over 2 years, and I'm been stupid to run on it this long. If I can get it to heal complete through rest and core strength, maybe I'll try to keep running at a high level afterward. But if it doesn't heal, then I'm done...done with this crazy 100+ mile/week stuff. We'll see. But I'm definitely blessed to get in an Olympic Trials, and triple blessed to have 3 Trials...everything has to come together perfectly to get a qualifier, so getting 3 in is amazing. I've seen a lots of people get to Qualifer-level fitness, but not be able to get lucky with a nice day, so I don't take it for granted.

Mile Time Split Placing
1 00:05:26 0:05:26 136
2 00:10:45 0:05:19 130
3 00:15:57 0:05:12 129
4 00:21:15 0:05:18 132
5 00:26:37 0:05:22 119
6 00:31:59 0:05:22 105
7 00:37:28 0:05:29 122
8 00:42:50 0:05:22 121
9 00:48:07 0:05:17 120
10 00:53:28 0:05:21 117
11 00:58:52 0:05:24 108
12 01:04:18 0:05:26  
13 01:10:03 0:05:45 112
14 01:15:46 0:05:43 113
15 01:21:26 0:05:40 112
16 01:27:12 0:05:46 109
17 01:33:05 0:05:53 107
18 01:38:54 0:05:49  
19 01:44:54 0:06:00  
20 01:50:41 0:05:47 88
21 01:56:25 0:05:44 80
22 02:02:20 0:05:55 75
23 02:08:14 0:05:54 67
24 02:14:08 0:05:54  
25 02:20:16 0:06:08 59
26 02:26:10 0:05:54 51
26.2 02:27:24 0:01:14 49

New Balance 1400 Racers Miles: 27.00
Comments(12)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
95.8028.206.000.000.00130.00
Saucony Kinvara 6-2 Miles: 24.00Brooks Pure Connect Blue Miles: 13.00New Balance Trainers Miles: 40.00New Balance 1400 Racers Miles: 39.00Hoka Clifton Miles: 14.00
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