I came
I raced
I crashed
My second and last attempt at NYC was a virtual instant replay of last
year, mile for mile, except that I blew up at a faster pace this year.
The start went pretty well as I managed to squeeze my way to within 30
seconds of the line. With a sub 8:00 first mile I was right on schedule
and by the middle of the downhill mile 2 the crowds were thin enough to
be able to hold pace and weave through without a lot of excess energy.
The first warning of the instant replay came by mile 3. The pace was
pretty easy at 7:10/7:15 and the breathing was easier than my normal
long run "breath pace" but my singlet was already completely soaked. I
never missed a single water station and took 2 cups at some of them but
at close to 7 minute pace how much of that actually makes it into the
stomach? I hit the half in 1:34:04 which was about a half minute faster
than the plan but I could tell I was working a bit harder than I should
have been at that point. I was working on my second salt tablet and 2nd
gell pack and was taking about 2/3 gatorade to 1/3 water at the
stations but the climb up Queensboro was deja vu all over again. On 1st
street I was starting to struggle by mile 18 and right on schedule I
had to walk about 30 seconds at mile 20. By 21 the pace had dropped to
a 10 minute run/walk and full lock up came at 22. At this point any
attempt to jog was met with immediate cramps and I resigned myself to a
4 mile walk. By drinking all I could at the next 2 water stations I got
enough back in me to do some jogging in the last mile but not enough to
stave off a personal worst of 3:54.
So in 5 attempts at this distance I've only managed 1 good race and the
thing that sticks out like a sore thumb is that it was 35 degrees at
the start of that race and I finished up with my 2 fastest miles at 25
& 26.
This leaves me with 3 potential problems for NYC.
Pace: Comparing NYC to my last 22 mile training run where it was warmer
and much more humid, I ran the first 20 at about 7:25 pace, hit the
onset of dehydration, and jogged a couple of 9:30s at the end. That
pace on that day was harder by a factor of 2 to maintain than the first
15/16 miles in NYC. My breathing was much harder start to finish and I
could tell I was really pushing the legs much harder than I was in NY.
Hills: In the last 6 months of training the only run where I went
through more than 2 feet of elevation change was a 10 mile race the
week before NYC where I crossed an overpass 4 times.
Dehydration: Every training run beyond 12 miles is an exercise in water
management. I typically drop from .5 to .75 lbs per mile on my training
runs. At somewhere in the mid 60's the usage will drop below .5 and in
cold weather can get down to around .3 lbs/mile. I can typically stand
about a 5 lb net loss before everything disintigrates.
So the most likely scenerio is instead of having filled 20 oz bottles
that I can suck down to the last drop on my training runs, the few oz
per cup I was getting at the water stations weren't enough to stay in
front of the dehydration curve.
JJ