2007 USAF Marathon
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
15 September 2007
Time: 3:45:24
Despite having completed the Pikes Peak Marathon in 2005 and 2006, I had never run a normal street marathon before today. I started training for several marathons 10-20 years ago, but whenever I got up to around 30 miles per week, my arches would give out (plantar fasciitis) and stop me from running for months. In recent years I’ve been running with custom orthotics, on soft surfaces, and a very modest 10-15 miles per week. Still, I’ve long had the itch to run a marathon and the Air Force Marathon in my birth place of Dayton, Ohio presented a great target of opportunity.
I flew to Dayton Thursday night and stayed with my parents for the weekend. After picking up my packet and a big spaghetti dinner cooked up by my mom, I got a surprisingly good night’s sleep Friday night. Saturday morning I was up by 4:40 am and parked near the race start by 5:30 am. While a few runners arrived before me, I was there way earlier than I needed to be. In the two hours before the race I hydrated, took care of business, and reconsidered my strategy for running a Marathon with so few training miles under my belt. My longest training run was17.5 miles two weeks ago and I had no idea of what my body would do after 20 miles. Based on my 3:37 Pikes Peak Ascent 4 weeks prior, I reasoned that I should definitely be able to break 4 hours and that I might have an outside chance of breaking 3:30 if I had a really good day. My best guess estimate was 3:45 which is almost exactly what I ran.
About 20 minutes before the race’s 7:35 am start, I linked up with the 3:30 (8:01 minute/mile) pace group. I was wearing my Pikes Peak Ascent pre-race T-shirt and talked to a couple of runners who had run the Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon a month earlier. My basic strategy was to hang with the 3:30 pace group as long as I could, but expect to fall back at some point. While a little cool before the start, the weather was absolutely perfect for the entire race!
According to the microchip tied to my shoe, I crossed the starting line 17 seconds after the starting gun fired. As I expected it would, the 8 minute/mile pace felt very comfortable starting out even though I usually run slower than that these days. The first mile was flat and the second mile gradually gained a little over 100 feet up the hill to AFIT. Near mile 3, we went down the hill that many people had mentioned to me as a painful climb on the return. Despite feeling strong, I was having foot issues from the very start. My left foot was gradually beginning to hurt with each step, I assumed from a nerve problem that occasionally bothers me. This hadn’t happened in my recent long run training runs. At about mile 6 I took the “3:30” pace sign on a 3-foot stick from another runner in the pace group. I carried it for a little over a mile. I may have been going a bit fast at this point as we were almost 2 minutes ahead of pace when I handed the sign back to Eric, our pacer. The pain in my left foot increased over the next few miles and I stopped to loosen my right shoe since my right foot had started to get numb. That seemed to help.
At about mile 9 I realized that I was going to have to stop at a port-a-potty which I did at mile 10 – a minute or two very well spent. Since I was still a little ahead of the 3:30 pace group when I stopped, they didn’t get too far ahead of me and I was able to catch up to them by mile 11. Sometime around this point I tuned on my iPod Nano and began listening to music. While I seriously debated running with music, I’m glad I did as I think the music took my mind off my foot pain somewhat. At the half-way point I was still with the 3:30 group but my left foot was really beginning to hurt a lot. Despite never having tried them before, I took 2 electrolyte tablets around mile 13 in hopes of preventing leg cramping which had been a big problem for me during Ascent this year. I reached the 13.1 mi half way point at 1:45:29 (chip time) still on pace for a 3:30 finish. However soon after the halfway point, I began to gradually fall being the 3:30 pace group (as did several others). Around mile 15 my foot pain increased. I suspect that’s when I busted a large blister which I was surprised to find after the race.
At the mile 17 or 18 aid station I downed my first Gu. While I skipped a few aid stations, I drank a little water or Gatorade at most opportunities. Aside from my foot pain, I was still feeling pretty good. I crossed 19.8 miles at 2:40:23 (chip time). At this point my pace was a little slower than a 9 minute/mile. At mile 20 I took 2 more electrolyte tablets when I started feeling a little pre-cramp sensation in my calves. My legs never did cramp so the electrolyte tablets may have done their job. Beyond mile 20 my foot pain didn’t get any worse and I never seemed to “hit the wall”. Around this point I began passing lots of people doing the half marathon – many of them walking. On the hill climb near mile 23 I was passed by the 3:40 pace group, but I was pretty confident that the 3:50 pace group wouldn’t catch me. I downed my second PowerGel, the one I had been carrying with me, at mile 24.
I felt like I was on auto pilot for the last two miles of the race. I picked up my pace some on the long gradual downhill between mile 24 and 25 and continued to pass lots of half marathon runners. I ran the 5 miles between mile marks 20 and 25 in 46 minutes, just over a 9 minute mile average. That last full mile was flat and seemed to go on forever, but I half expected that. I picked up my pace a fair amount for the final 0.1 mile, as I ran between the airplanes on display at the Air Force Museum. I crossed the finish line at 3:45:41 (gun time), but was credited with a 3:45:24 (chip time) finish based on when the microchip tied to my shoe crossed the start and finish lines. My average pace was 8:37 minutes per mile, so I had slowed to well over a 9 minute mile for much of the second half of the race.
My mom and dad were at the finish line and snapped a couple of pictures of me crossing. Despite falling off the 3:30 pace, I was quite happy with my time. I suspect my lack of serious training more than my foot issue was the primary reason I slowed down as much as I did. All-in-all the Marathon was a great experience that I’m very glad I’ve finally gotten around to running!