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Sicko Mode

September 1, 2018 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
LONG LOG AHEAD

Well this "race" was some shit. I put race in quotes because I never really thought of it as a race, but more of just a regular long run that I am trying to go a little faster and a little longer on.

Let's start with last night. It's not that I was nervous or anything for the run today, but I just wasn't tired and therefore got very little sleep. This was ok since it's two nights before that really matters and that was good. But like, for it being the night before a race, I was so freakin relaxed and in a general "i don't care" mood. Kinda weird. Oh, and another reason I had a hard time sleeping is because my body kept getting hungry and I really didn't want to go downstairs to get some pasta. So instead I hate about a half bag of peanut butter pretzels.

But eventually morning came around and again, I was so freaking relaxed. I ate a plate of pasta, a banana, a bunch of mango, and a cliff bar. Then my dad came and picked me up at 6am to drive me to the race. At about 6:20 I remarked that I was still hungry and I was worried considering how hungry I was last night and how 26.2 miles kinda burns a lot of calories. But I said fuck it and just went on with a mild feeling of hunger.

We made it to the start area for the marathon and I just sat on a bench (after shitting my brains out first) for 20 minutes waiting for the race to start. Really boring. About 3 minutes before the start time I got another shit in and I was ready to go.

It was raining and there were some heavy storms nearby and the race director told us all to be prepared to have to abandon the race midway if the storms came by. And honestly, at the start, I really didn't care if the race ended up getting canceled. I hardly prepared for this race so I didn't feel like I was losing much. Boston 2019 would be really fun to go back to and redeem myself but I had a feeling of "whatever" if that wasn't going to happen.

So the gun went off and with this being a small race, one guy (who actually ended up winning) took a strong lead while me and this one other guy and I chatted a bit for the first 3 miles. He told me was taking today's marathon as a training run and planning on doing a few more miles afterwards. He was training for some ultra coming up. Then he told me he holds a PR of 2:27 and was planning on taking the first 10 miles today at 6:20's, the next 10 after that at 6:00's, and then the last 6.2 at 5:30's. Obviously not long after that I was like, "yeah, I know what my training has been like, there's no way I am sticking with you."

So for the next 23 miles I was solo running like a time trial. Again, never felt much like a race. Which I was very ok with considering the condition my legs were in. Here are the mile splits (I missed some of the markers so some are estimates)

1 - 6:10
2 - 6:14
3 - 6:12
4 - 6:10
5 - 6:14
6 - 6:13
7 - 6:14 (The race organizers forgot to remove one of the barricades on the path here so I did some steeplechase lol. The course was two laps and they *thankfully* had it moved for the second time around though.)
8 - 6:10
9 - 6:20
10 - 6:26
11 - 6:16
12 - 6:27
13 - 6:14 (1:22:00 at the half)
14 - 6:13
15 - 6:23
16 - 6:31
17 - 6:25
18 - 6:25
19 - 6:40 (feet/ankles started to hurt here)
20 - 6:40
21 - 6:37
22 - 7:00 (Begin Death March!)
23 - 7:17
24 - 7:17
25 - 7:17
26 - 7:23
.2 - 1:17

avg. 6:31/mile

Whole race was in the rain which was a lot of fun. It also added some good weight training. Overall I am pleased with everything. And now that I have had time to think about it, everything actually went pretty much as expected. My low mileage and lack of extended long runs resulted in my feet and ankles really not being able to withstand 26.2 miles of pounding the pavement well. Aerobically, I was terrific. And actually my upper leg muscles even now after the race don't even feel that sore. BUT MY FEET HOLEE FOOK. They're not doing well.

I got third overall and the guy who won ran like 2:34 so even if I was in perfect shape with better training I still don't think I would have been able to win today. So I'll take the result. The goal was to get back to Boston and that's gonna be happening so we livin alright. Btw, if you're looking for a new favorite kind of beer, the one you drink immediately after running 26.2 is INCREDIBLE.

Log is entitled "Sicko Mode" because that was the song I had running through my head the whole time.

And if anyone was wondering, for fuel during the race all I took was a few cups of gatorade and some grapes some random spectator gave me.

Now time to really let my achilles fully heal and get an intentional break from running before getting back into things and *slowly* start preparing myself for The Hills of Newton.