Well, already described some of it but here's the full story.
Nervous before the race as expected, but I had my act together, and everything
was ready.
Well, almost everything. The night before the race, I discovered NYRRC didn't
print my bus pass on my bib. And they'd taken the only proof I had, my
registration card, that I'd ordered the bus pass at the expo. So I was in a
spot of bother. Emailed my teammates. Fortunately, one of them -- the guy I
was planning to run with, had space in the car (he'd ordered car service).
So got up at 4:10 AM, had 2 bagels, yogurt, fruit juice for breakfast. Headed
uptown to catch the car. Dropped off my baggage as quickly as possible and
took water and gels up to 1hr before the race, then lined up at the front
thanks to my team start. A number of us emptied our bladders off the side of
the road near the start. Then the start came.
The start was a little fast, but hit the 2 mile mark in 13:10 -- not bad
considering a 6:40 pace game plan. For the first half, I was just jogging,
chatting with my teammate, and waving at the crowd -- "come on, Brooklyn,
let's make some noise!". And giving them the thumbs up when they yelled "go
GNY". Also had some teammates out there watching, making a hell of a racket.
Then we hit the halfway. I noticed a lot of people were dropping off already,
and realised I had to do some passing to stay on pace. I was on pace till mile
20. One of those miles was awfully fast, not sure if I just ran it too fast
or if the split was off.
At mile 20, the brakes came on hard -- between mile 20 and 22, I slowed to
about a 7:30 pace, and the last 10k took about 45:30. A lot of people were
struggling, some people were walking. At mile 23, I heard Bob yelling that I
only had 2 minutes or so in the bank and I'd need to push hard to get the sub
3. So I focused on getting to the finish and nailing the sub 3. The part where
we run along the bottom of the park at 59th street, mile 26, seemed to last
forever. There were huge crowds but I couldn't hear them. I just kept looking
at my watch, and telling myself it was almost over.
Then somehow I got to the finish in 2:58. After that, it was really hard to
walk. I took several gatorades and 2 bottles of water at the finish (though
I'd hydrated pretty well in the race). The medics approached me (because I
was walking so slowly) and escorted me to the baggage area. I wanted to hang
around and wait for the teammates but was afraid I'd pass out if I stood
still. Once I got to the baggage, I tried to stretch. Stretching quads made
my hamstrings cramp, stretching hamstrings made my quads and hip flexors
cramp. I worked out that I could stretch my calves without anything cramping,
so did that and left the rest till later.
Well, after all that, I still got to score for the team, so while I'm not one
of the super-duper sub 2:50 crowd just yet, I made the sub 3 hall of fame and
scored in my first race. So I'm pleased with the outcome.
Thoughts about this ?
(*) I really was expecting negative splits with that start. I suppose given
my experience, I'd advise any beginner to do what I did -- go out 10 seconds
per mile slower than "predicted" time. That doesn't mean that you won't crash
and burn, but it increases your chances of finishing.
(*) I'm still glad that I was just thinking of having a good race, and not
overly focused on running "the perfect race". Because you probably won't run
your perfect race the first time.
(*) Like Global, I wouldn't wear racing flats again. I think if you spend a
couple of seconds per mile of your speed, the extra protection that your
muscles get as a result will probably make you last longer. I'd almost
consider trainers, or at least heavy flats.
(*) It's interesting to note that the regression formula Anders posted gives
a huge weight to prior marathon experience, even when training milage is taken
into account. This is consistent with my observations -- the runners who did
well were the people with a few years of serious training behind them. For
example, I was beaten by two of our top female competitors, even though my
half marathon time is faster -- and the contrast between half marathon and
marathon performances was quite striking. They did about 8 minutes better
against me than you'd expect based on half marathon times.
I suppose this is consistent with what Doug is always saying about the
importance of having a few solid years of training exerience. Not only can't
you "fake" training milage when you're running a marathon, it also seems that
you can't fake experience.
Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi
http://pegasus.rutgers.edu/~elflord/