May 7th 2019, I made a bet with a friend. The rules were as follows:
1.I must run a marathon that’s timed by an official third party, in under 5 hours.
2.I must run the marathon before January 1st, 2020.
With a time of 4 hours and 56 minutes, I won the bet today at the Brooklyn Marathon!
And my legs are exploding. My legs are screaming and are so freaking sore. But I am so happy I was able to achieve this goal that’s been 6 months in the making. Here is my race report:
Training
My training was based Hal Higdon’s Novice I training plan. I deviated quite a lot from it due to life – shin splints, business travel, and laziness. Here’s how I progressed. I started on Monday, 5/13/2019.
Since Hal Higdon’s plan was an 18 week plan, and I had more than that so I decided to do the first week of the plan repeatedly until I was 18 weeks away from my marathon.
Everything that’s a red square is me not running due to injury, business, or laziness. The plan calls for me running on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Everywhere I am running on Monday or Sunday is me trying to compensate for something I missed. Wow. I missed a bunch of days!
Gear
Shoes: Brooks Adrenaline GTS 19
Headphones: Jaybird Tarah
Phone Carrying Belt: SPIBelt Waistpack
Water bottle: Nathan SpeedMax Plus*
Gels: Gu Energy Gels
Pre-run Caffeine Boost: Nuun Tablets
*didn’t use on race day
Prerace
My race starts at Prospect Park at 7AM. I woke up at 4:00AM. This is a bit TMI, but I get the bowel movement about 1.5 hours after I drink my morning, pre-run Nuun Tablet. Something I don’t want happening during the race. So, I woke up early so I can do the deed at 5:30AM. Then I took a Lyft to Prospect Park, arriving there at around 6:20. I was wearing a cheap sweatshirt I bought at H&M, and looked for a pacer.
A pacer is a person who holds up a sign saying that they will run the event in however much time. The idea is that you find a pacer who is running closest to your target time. I found my 5 hour pacer, and after a few teeth chattering minutes, it was 7:00 AM and I was off! I took off my sweatshirt and chucked it to the side of the road where a bunch of other runner’s sweatshirts were. (Apparently they collect and donate all of those clothes later.)
The air was brisk and I could see my breath. Perfect running temperature.
Miles 1-3
This was easy. My body was getting nice and warmed up get but the cool temperature kept any sweat from forming. At the three mile mark, I had my first watering station experience. After fumbling with a cup, I was able to take a sip, washing down a Gu Energy gel in the process.
Miles 4-7
This was pretty cool. The course went on to this stretch of freeway, and I was able to run on a four or five lane freeway. The crowd stretched for miles. We were about 30 seconds ahead in pace.
Miles 7 – 10
It was starting to get fatiguing. In my head, I was thinking, “You’ve done this distance before. 26.2 divided by 3 is a bit less than 9 miles. You are a third the way there!” At this point, my pacer, whose co-pacer was no where to be found, handed me the sign to carry on the pace as they took bathroom breaks. After a quarter of a mile or so, my pacer caught up to me to continue holding the sign. We were about a minute ahead in pace.
Miles 10 – 13.1
At this point I was starting to do my first loop around Prospect Park. The loop contained an incline that was pretty hard. Then I realized I need to do that incline four more times. Oof! While running there was a dead frog on the course. People kept on dodging that poor thing. At this point, 2 people who were running with us stopped keeping up with us, bringing the five hour pacing crew’s numbers down to three including the pacer themselves. We then hit our half-marathon point.
Miles 13.1 – 16
Things were getting tough. I did my loop again, this time was easier. The Prospect Park Track Club (the ones who organized the pacers), put themselves halfway up the hill, cheering us on. This was a really nice feeling. Speaking of which, along the course were brass bands, drumlines, and other spectators cheering us on the whole time. It felt really really good.
Miles 16 – 19
At this point I was in my third loop. At mile marker 18, I was getting into unknown territory – I’ve never ran more than that before. I checked my breath, I scanned my body – my right foot arch was getting a bit sore, but it felt like something I can power through. At this point I was alternating between Gatorade and water at the water stations. This was around when I started to feel a runner’s high. My instinct was to rip it, but the pacer kept me from blowing out. I had to make a conscious effort to keep my pace consistent and controlled.
Miles 19 – 22
Oh no. I’ve definitely hit the wall. I took another Gu energy gel and some combination of eating the gel too fast, drinking a gatorade, and hitting an uphill, really made me super nauseous for a second. It was as if my body realized I was running longer than ever and was screaming, “Hey! It’s time to STOP!” I trailed behind the pacer, and during a downhill section, pushed myself to catch up. Then, after two miles, it was as if my body realized, “well, okay, I guess we are in this for the long haul, here’s a second wind to keep you running away from some tiger you are so afraid of, or something”. I was again, on pace. Knowing I had less than 6 miles left was a huge morale boost as well.
Miles 22 – 26.2
At this point, it was just the pacer and me. Everyone else dropped out. They get closer and tells me, “so, my goal is to finish as close to 5 hours as possible. I’m not going to tell you what to do, but if you want to go ahead and run ahead, don’t let me hold you back.”
I said, “Sounds good. I was thinking I want to do that, when do you think is a good time to go for it?”
He said, “Definitely after the hill. Then you have 1.6 miles to go.”
This was fantastic advice – I was hoping to actually start pushing from before the hill. But this guy has 37 years of running experience. I trusted him and started my attack after the hill.
My “attack”, was super anti-climactic. I said to him, “thank you so much, I’m gonna go for it!” with the hutzpah of a daring athlete going for a Hail Mary play. What really happened was me high fiving him and then only going slightly faster in a way that I could hear his footsteps behind me for at least a quarter of a mile.
But eventually, my legs started to go faster. I looked at my watch, It was going to be close… I saw the 26 mile marker, 0.2 miles left. My legs really started to move. I started to hear music, my girlfriend and my friend (who I was happy to realize will be giving me $100.00 in a few more steps), were cheering. And suddenly, I was a marathon finisher for the first time!
Afterthoughts
My legs are exploding. It feels like a real release in a way. For the last few weeks, I just wanted to get this over with so I don’t have to run all the time anymore. I was getting sick of it. But as I finished the race, I can’t deny that I was thinking, “Hmm. Can I do faster next time?”
Now as I’m hobbling around in my apartment, barely able to walk, I’m back to thinking about being done with running. It’s strange. My immediate response to the idea of running right now is, “oh HELL NO.” But in the back of my mind, I am definitely thinking otherwise.