My Las Vegas Marathon Report
Having done four previous ironman events, I was used to feeling sluggish after
them for a while, but I just didn’t bounce back after Ironman Lake Placid
last July. Who could blame me? I had a pinched nerve in my neck from January
30th until probably the middle of May and then did Ironman Lake Placid in the
middle of July! I did the race not being able to get into the aero position because
of tightness in my upper back from the pinched nerve, because I wasn’t
totally recovered, and did the entire race in a torrential downpour! That would
zap the energy from anyone! Right?
What I decided to do was join Arden Swanson and his buddies who follow the Run
Less, Run Faster program. This program was developed by two triathletes from
Fuhrman University. They wrote a book with the title Run
Less Run Faster. The
program involves a track workout on Tuesday, tempo run on Thursday, and then
a long run on Saturday. This is what I did. What I did not do was the two cross
training workouts. I just didn’t have the time, nor the motivation. Besides
doing my full time job (pain doctor/Prolotherapist), learning an electronic medical
record program (yes, the office went paperless) and coming out with the Journal
of Prolotherapy (for which I am editor-in-chief), my mental resources were just
not there to do a lot of workouts. But trust me, the three running workouts I
gave them my all.
At times there were up to eight guys doing some of the workouts. What I found
was that I was best at the shorter distances. In other words, in the track workouts
I could go faster than the planned pace to run a 3:20 marathon. During the tempo
runs (5-10 miles) I could go faster also, however in the long runs I had a hard
time making the times prescribed in the book to run a 3:20 marathon. To run a
3:20 marathon you have to run 7:38 minute miles for 26.2 miles. So the long runs
were to be run at a pace between 7:53-8:08. The last 20 miler training run I
was to run 7:53 or 7:54 and I ran 8:04, running as fast as I could. There were
five us planning on doing the Las Vegas Marathon on December 7th. Three of us
trained at 3:20 pace and two trained at 3:30 pace. The group was awesome. I was
optimistic going into the race that I could run 3:20 pace. My Boston qualifying
time was 3:30.59 for age group 45-49.
Marion and I flew into Las Vegas Friday afternoon. The race was on Sunday. We
went to the expo, had an overpriced meal, and then went to bed. Saturday was
a lot of fun, as we walked on the strip to see check out the race start and then
watched uplifting movies in the room. Yes all the movies were rated G! We then
met the buds and their families for dinner at a great Italian restaurant. The
race day plan was to meet about 5:30 a.m. at a designated spot and then walk
over for the 6:05 start. We were all staying at hotels within walking distance
to the start.
I got a reasonable night’s sleep, as did Marion. She, on a whim, signed
up for the Las Vegas half marathon. So she had a race to do also. Everything
went well until we realized that if we didn’t do something, we wouldn’t
make it to the race start! There were 10,000 people doing the two races the crowd
jammed up when you were about a block from the race start. I was planning on
running with Arden, so he and I had to jump two fences to get near the front
of the pack. We thought we were in good position until the race actually started.
Because we were bottle necked we had to weave in and out of people for much of
the first 1.5 miles. This actually cost us both about two minutes, as I will
explain later.
I had my Garmin on so I could tell Arden our pace. At around 1.5 miles I had
us at 8:14 pace. By mile 7 we were down to 7:40 pace. The problem was when my
Garmin said 13.1 miles, we were at 7:37 pace, but we didn’t hit the 13.1
mile mark until 0.3 miles later! This meant that Arden and I had actually run
0.3 extra miles zig-zagging around people at the start of the race! So my Garmin
pace was not our official race pace because of the extra miles!
The weather was perfect—very little breeze and 42 degrees at the start on an
overcast day. The course was more uphill than I would have anticipated. I hung
with Arden and a fellow from England until mile 16, but could no longer hold
the pace. So I told him to go. I did the best I could, but by mile 19 to survive
I had to run between mile markers and then walk for a minute. I understood that
3:20 was no longer an option and 3:25 was no longer an option. So from mile 20
on, I knew it would take all my strength to break 3:30 and qualify for Boston.
My legs were cramping and just to hold 9 minute miles was agonizing.
With 5K to go, I looked at the Garmin and knew I only had 28 minutes to qualify
for Boston. So for the last 2.2 miles I ran the whole way in. At 26.2 miles,
my Garmin showed me at 3:29.02, so I did break 3:30! The problem was Arden and
I ran 0.3 miles too much, so my official time when I crossed the Las Vegas finishing
line was 3:30.41! I had a 16 minute PR and qualified for Boston by 18 seconds!
I was truly satisfied!
Marion had to hold me up for about five minutes immediately after the race because
I could barely breathe and move when it was done. I knew I had given it my all
and my fastest marathon I can run at this point in my life is 3:30.41!
So how did we all do? The three runners gunning for 3:20 using the Run
Less, Run Faster program did as follows: Perry 3:08, Arden 3:21 (which actually was
3:19 if not for the extra mileage) and Ross 3:30. In the 3:30 training group:
Doug 3:35 (40 minute PR), and Chris 3:50 (still had some heat trouble). But anyone
looking at these results would come to the conclusion that those are awesome
times for just running three times per week! Marion with little training ran
around her PR time with a 2:29 half marathon.
It is now about two weeks after the marathon and I have had time to think. It
is clear that my time will be limited next year and it is best that I just do
short workouts and short events. Chicago Area Runners Association has a circuit
with a lot of 5K and 10K events. So hopefully I’ll do some of those. I’d
like to try my hand at some Olympic Distance Duathlon events also! Mostly though
I’d like to do more workouts with Marion and get back to the reason that
will all work out: fun and friendship! Well, it is a few days before Christmas
and I hope you and your families have a great holiday season and understand that
the most important things in life like the time you spend with your friends and
family are free!
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