NOLA 2013

I signed up for the New Orleans Rock 'n Roll Marathon last June on National Running Day.  Good friends Scott and Celeste had announced they were going and I'd always wanted to visit New Orleans so I embraced my newly found freedom that enabled me to decide to fly off to Louisiana the following February without asking for anybody's permission and signed up.  I had been running well and breaking all my PRs so a fast marathon at sea level seemed like an easy thing.  I put down an expected finish time of 2:50 (my PR is 3:03).  The race was 9 months and thousands of miles away and I had bigger more immediate things to think about, so I filed NOLA away as something fun to look forward to way off. 

Well, life went on and February came with a trip to New Orleans with 10 wonderful friends from Colorado.  We flew south on Friday morning leaving fresh snow and single digit temperatures for the warmth and humidity of the Big Easy.  We arrived at the rental house to meet Brent who had told us "No need for a deposit, just bring cash," so we were a little nervous, but it all worked out fine and the house had a lot of character and was located conveniently less than a mile from the race start in the French Quarter, just a block from Bourbon St.  In explaining the house and the neighborhood, Brent gave us the friendly advice, "When you go out the front door, go left to party.  Go right and you'll get killed."  We always went left.

New Orleans is a pretty amazing place.  In modern homogenized America where there is the same Barnes and Noble/Starbucks/Taco Bell/Walmart on every corner, New Orleans is completely different.  In some ways, it feels like being in a different country.  There is a different culture, different rules (bars never close and you can walk the streets with open containers of alcohol), different smells, and a different climate.  On Saturday, we walked down to Cafe du Monde for chicory coffee and fresh beignets.  We wandered the French Market and I got some real gator jerkey to bring home for Micah.  Later Justin took us to Audoban Park for nice run and then we went to a great little Greek restaurant for lunch.  We ate in and tried to get to sleep early on Saturday night (not so easy when there is a party going all night just accross the street at Club Tango).

Sunday morning we were up early and finding our way through the morning cleanup routine (that includes sweeper trucks that spray Febreeze) to the race start.  I lined up in corral 1 with Cat, Scott, Justin, Kerri, and Eddie and waited for the gun.  Back in June I had predicted a sub 3 hour finish, but I stood at the starting line knowing that I was maybe in shape to run 3:15 if I had a very good day and ran smart.  Running smart meant not going out hard and trying to hang with Scott and Justin who both had faster goals and better conditioning.  The gun fired and I took off with the pack and focused on staying relaxed.  It was a beautiful cool and sunny morning and I ffelt pretty good.  I ran on my own for those first miles, but Cat and Scott were in sight not far ahead.  Justin was already gone.  My splits for the first miles were all 7:10 +/- a few seconds and I felt in control and relaxed.  At about mile 5, I met up with Cat and watched as Scott faded off in to the distance ahead.  Cat and I ran together for the next 13 miles and had a nice time talking about Western States plans for June and her very full ultra racing and pacing schedule for 2013 and beyond.  We ran pretty consistant splits of 7:08-7:11.  There was a 7:20-something somewhere in there when we ate and a 6:59 at mile 10.  We ran throught the 13.1 mile mark at 1:34 and we rolled along well.  At mile 16, we went over a bridge and much to my surprise (since I hadn't looked at a course map) Lake Ponchatrain opened up ahead of us.  This section was rolling and windy and the late race fatigue was setting in.  Cat and I got separated here and I had to really start to focus to maintain the pace.  At this point I knew that if I could keep the pace under 7:30, I could finish in 3:10 so why not go for it.  As I approached the turn around I saw Justin and then Scott running the other way.  They both looked good and we exchanged cheers and encouragements for a strong finish.  I was glad to make the turn around at mile 19 and know that I was heading back toward the park and the finish line.  I saw Cat not far behind me, running well.  There was a bit of a tail wind for the run back along the lake, but it did little to relieve the late race fatigue that was starting to hit me hard.  I kept pushing along and kept the pace under 7:30 and thought about the mental toughness training benefit that this would have for the ultras coming up on my race calendar.  After the turn away from the lake there was just 4 miles to go and it really took all I had to keep going.  The final mile in to the park to the finish line was much longer than I thought it should be and I crossed the line in 3:10:01 (chip time).  Justin and Scott were at the line waiting and Nora and the rest of the gang were cheering near by.  Cat finished just behind me less than a minute off her marathon PR and took 2nd in her age group.  Scott had finished 5 minutes earlier hitting his prerace prediction exactly and Justin took the race of the day title with a first time road marathon of 2:59:41!!!  Awesome.  Nora had also had a great race with a 5 minute half-marathon PR of 1:47!  Good runs all around. 

 

 

We hung out at the finished and cheered in the rest of the gang before we took the trolley back to the house to clean-up and eat to prepare for one last night on the town in New Orleans.  Our night included a lot of rain, dessert, a jazz show and Preservation Hall and some crawfish pie.  Some of the gang contiued on from there, but Nora and I opted to head back to the house and get some sleep before our early departure Monday back to snowy Colorado.

If you're looking for a fun destination race in February, I would reccomend NOLA and I'd say don't miss the beignets and always go left.

off to the mountains

Nora and I are heading to Vail in a couple of hours to spend the weekend enjoying some fresh powder and the Winter Mountain Games.  We are both racing in the snowshoe event tonight and tomorrow Nora is going to give me my first xc skiiing lesson. 








Also, I got my race # and confirmation for NOLA.  Pretty sure I won't make my predicted time, but the race is just 2 weeks away and the taper is on.

CO Marathon/Quad Rock Preview Double

Saturday I ran the first 21 miles of the Colorado Marathon course starting with Pete, Cat, Celeste, Brian and Gabby at 6:30 in morning way up the canyon.  Celeste's goal in training to run sub 3:30 at the marathon three weeks from today was to run the first 5 miles easy (around 9 min/mile) the next 10 miles at goal race pace (8:00 min/mile) and the final 6 miles easy.  My job was to help pace her to this goal.  As it is so easy to do on this course, we started out too fast clocking the first couple miles well under 9 minutes, but we did settle in to a solid 7:45-8:00 minute pace for miles 6-16.  We backed off the pace slightly for miles 17-19 and then pushed on mile 20 for a very strong 7:36, then jogged the final mile back to the school where we had left the cars.  Total time for 21 miles: 2:50.  Average pace: 8:07 with a total of 12 miles under 8 minutes and 7 miles under 7:50.  It was a beautiful, cool, sunny morning in the canyon and a great day to be running.  Celeste is definitely fit, trained and ready for a marathon PR of sub 3:30 or better.

This morning was the official Quad Rock 25/50 preview run hosted by the race director himself Pete Stevenson.  The other race director was off messing around in California. It was windy and cold at 8:00 am in the Soldier Canyon lot at Lory State Park, but the skies were mostly clear despite the predictions for rain and snow throughout the morning.  More than 25 runners were present from all around the Front Range to test their strength on this course that is already being talked about as one of the tougher 50 milers around.

We started together heading south out of Lory on the East Valley trail running in a seemingly endless line of trail runners sporting the full spectrum of running apparel, hydration packs and trail shoes. Just over 3 miles in, the first climb begins as we headed west up Sawmill to Stout to the infamous Towers Road. On Towers, I met up with Brian and Tonks who had started from the Soderberg trail head. We ran together and talked for a while and then I was on my own for much of the first big decent down Spring Creek towards Horsetooth Falls. Near the falls, I met up with Victoria and a small group of other runners. We ran together to the upper Horsetooth lot at about mile 10 where a full aid station will be on race day. 

Celeste and Cat power up Sawmill

Scott and Sam were taking a quick break here to eat and fill water.  I headed out with them a couple minutes later to begin the second big climb of the day up Southridge towards the Rock.  The climb went smoothly and we hit the Wathen/Westridge junction feeling a bit tired and glad to be more than half way done.  After Westridge and a short stretch down Towers, we started the big drop down Mill Creek which is steep and somewhat technical and has always been a challenge for me to run well. Today, I felt great and ran this trail better than I ever had.

Scott and Sam looking epic as always at mile 18.

We took a break towards the bottom of Mill Creek before dropping down to the Arthur's Rock Trailhead where 25 milers (like me) will see their last aid station on race day.  From the Arthur's trailhead, we started our last and probably toughest climb of the day up the Howard Trail towards the base of Arthur's Rock.  This climb was hard.  Rocky switch back after rocky switch back take you relentlessly over 1000 feet up from the valley floor.  We were glad to reach the top and took a relaxing sit down break at the top before setting out for the final 4+ miles down the Timber Trail to the finish.  The weather had been strange all day starting with an unexplainable snow shower under a cloudless sunny sky while I was running down Spring Creek (I thought it was big flakes of pollen until I noticed they were melting on my skin) to blasts of icy wind while we sat near Arthur's Rock to sun baked warmth while climbing towers.  As we came out of the trees on Timber in the last two miles of the run, we got hit in the face with a full force snow/hail storm.  I had to hold my hand over my face as I ran to prevent my face being torn off by the blast.  A few minutes later the snow cleared and we hit the trail head and the cars and we were done.  Our total time on the trail was 5:06 for nearly 26 miles and over a mile of vertical according to my watch.  I am pretty confident that a 4:30 will be possible on race day.

photo by Sam

GPS Data

Colorado Marathon

Going in to yesterday's race, I knew I was not in sub 3 hour marathon shape. The last time I trained seriously for a road marathon was six years ago and my training then included weekly track workouts, regular tempo runs, and course specific long runs with the final miles at marathon pace and faster. In the last few months, I have done no track workouts (except for a painful set of four 300s with the Blevins track team) only a couple of short tempo runs and not much of anything specific to the race course which consists of 17 miles down Poudre Canyon followed by 9 miles of rolling and flat highway and bike path. What I have done is lots of slow miles on trails, some hills and few races. I ran 1000 miles between January 1 and April 3 and then I tapered pretty well over the last three weeks. I was tempted going in to yesterday's run to just enjoy the long run down the canyon and not worry about pace or finish time, but I made up my mind on Saturday night to be serious and give the marathon a fully committed effort.

I woke up at 3:15 am on Sunday, drank a cup of coffee, ate a bowl of cereal and put on some warm clothes for the trip up to the starting line. I got on bus #4 and arrived at the start at 5:15 am with an hour to go before the gun. It was not as cold as I thought it might be (32 degrees instead of the forecasted 24). I visited the porta-potty (no line) and then found a place to relax and get my stuff together. After a while I decided to find the truck where I could put my drop bag and I ran in to Cat, Celeste, Felix, Dan J., Lindsay, JZ, Pascal, Nick M and Dave S. It is nice to be in a race with so many friends. Everyone was feeling positive about the day as we waited for the start and watched as the canyon began to light up with the early morning sun.

I waited as long as I could before I took off my warm-up pants and jacket and put them in my drop bag. I jogged across the road for one last potty stop in the bushes (no line) and then found my spot on the starting line. A young man played the national anthem on the trumpet and Steve Cathcart commented on the perfect weather and wished us well. I took off with the gun a little too fast, but quickly set in to my planned 7 min per mile pace. I was surprised when my watched clicked off the first lap in 4:16 and then I remembered I had set it to metric units when I was marking the Blevins 4K course on Friday. I switched it back to miles just in time to press the lap button at mile 1 (7:03).

The first 3 or 4 miles didn't feel quite as good as I wanted them too, but I stayed relaxed and told myself that I just needed time to warm-up. I did start to feel better in miles 5-7 and it started to get warmer in the canyon too. I pulled off my long sleeve shirt and tied it around my waist and kept a comfortable pace. I carried 5 Gu's with me and ate one every 30 minutes for the whole race. I have never been quite so exact with my fueling strategy and it worked really well. I never had that big drop in energy level that I have had in many of my previous marathons.

I passed the Grey Rock Trailhead at mile 9 and looked down at the side of the road just in time to see my name and a couple others written in the dirt. It took me a few seconds to realize that it was for me and this must of been written by Pete and the other crazies that had been out running repeat laps on Grey Rock the day before (Pete ran 6).

I hit the half marathon in 1:31:23 with my calves starting to get stiff but otherwise still feeling really good. I knew that I'd be coming to the bottom of the canyon in the next 4 miles and I hoped I could keep up the 7 minute pace when the course flattened out. As we came out of the canyon approaching Ted's Place, the course livened up with more spectators and larger groups at the aid stations. I passed Felix who was still looking strong at mile 17 and we exchanged some encouraging words. I made the right turn on to 287 and was glad to still be moving at a steady pace since I knew this was the least pleasant section of the course. I started to pass half marathon runners and many cheered as I went by. I saw Scott and Jenn jogging out on the course to meet up with Cat and Celeste just before I made the turn up 54 on to Bagel Hill. The short up hill here felt good and helped stretch out my calves. I was very glad to see friend and colleague Molly Watkins at the mile 19 aid station at the top of the hill. I handed Molly my gloves and long sleeve shirt and headed down the hill towards Laporte feeling lighter and ready to take on the last 7 miles.

The muscles in my legs were getting very tight, but other than that I felt great and was still not working that hard to keep up the 7 minute pace. I started to slow down a bit as I moved on to the bike path as I had expected, but I just needed to maintain 7:30 pace to achieve my sub 3:10 goal. There were lots of half marathoners on the path now and I had to weave back and forth on the trail to get though, but I didn't mind since they were all very encouraging and it made the miles go by faster to have so much company. I caught Nick M. at mile 24 and I knew he was having a rough time since he had been aiming for a sub 3. I hoped he would hang with me for the final 2 miles and he did pull out a strong finish just over a minute behind me.

Just past the mile 25 marker is the last aid station and in a tree just off the course was Maddie May. She saw me, yelled, then jumped out of the tree to run with me for a good 150 yards. Ean, Micah, Pete and Kyle were all at the aid station cheering and passing out water.

From here I knew I had just a mile to go and I could see that I could be really close to 3:05 if I could hold the pace a little longer. I pushed with all I had and my legs were just about done, but I knew that the finish line was close. I turned off the bike path on to Linden and did my best to sprint to the line. I finished in 3:05:21 feeling good and very happy to be done.

My splits:

1K 4:16
mile 1 7:03
mile 2 7:01
mile 3 6:43
mile 4 6:55
mile 5 6:55
mile 6 7:03
mile 7 6:57
mile 8 7:09
mile 9 6:43
mile 10 6:47
mile 11 6:51
mile 12 6:46
mile 13 6:57
mile 14 7:00
mile 15 6:53
mile 16 6:59
mile 17 6:55
mile 18 6:56
mile 19 7:08
mile 20 7:01
mile 21 7:04
mile 22 7:23
mile 23 7:08
mile 24 7:11
mile 25 7:07
mile 26 7:24
mile 26.2 3:14

I hung around the finish line for a while and talked to friends and put on warm clothes and then walked/limped back to the mile 25 aid station to find Ean and the kids.

Maddie ran the Healthy Kids 1 mile race at noon along with Alistair, Stella and Sandice. It was fun to watch and cheer for all the kids as they ran their hearts out with all the intensity that I had seen on the marathon course earlier in the day.

This was probably my best marathon even though it was a couple minutes slower than my 2005 race in St. George. I ran a pretty steady pace and felt in control the whole way. This race proves that I am in the best running shape of my life which I can build on going in to the summer ultra season. This race also made me feel confident that with the proper speed and pace work I could definitely run a sub 3:00- next year? . . .this fall?