Savannah Rock and Roll Marathon Race Report, 2018
My health and mindset:
There was a lot of anxiety as I went into the weekend. This was the effect of some hip pain that developed after my last big workout. I ended up taking the entire week off prior to the race for two reasons:
- It hurt to walk up the stairs, so I thought some rest was warranted.
- I knew I would keep trying to test my health, with little fitness to gain with those runs.
The time off definitely increased my anxiousness, as I hadn’t taken this much time off in months. It also seemed like a cruel joke because through all of my training, I had zero issues. I kept telling myself that it was the normal taper experience and that the pain was more a mental issue than a physical reality.
With that as context, I made the trip to Savannah and was trying to emotionally and mentally commit to ‘going for it’ on race day.
Having support:
I have completed many marathons in the past 19 years, with many of those races being done as a solo traveler. The races are sometimes enjoyable, yet often they are more an exercise of progress towards my goal of doing all 50 states and Washington DC. The week leading up to the race, as I was dealing with the anxiety of my hip and desire to perform my best, I was presented with a question.
“Did I have anyone to cheer for me on raceday?””
This provided the other storyline for this race. I had someone offer to travel to Savannah for the day to cheer for me and provide some post race support. It was a pleasant and unexpected surprise, which helped as I prepared my mind.
Let’s race:
I rode a bike the 2 miles from the AirBnB to the start line, which was an excellent way to manage the morning. After parking the bike and dropping off my drop bag, I went to warm up. The warm ups went surprising well, especially the 2 mile jog. “That felt great the my mental chatter.”
This was the first race that I have ever used headphones and music, so at the start I got all set up and started my Savannah Marathon playlist.
My goals going into the race were to run 2:55 to 2:58. I often pace myself off my 5k splits, which I set at 21:00. I also committed during the training that there would not be any ‘plan b’ options. That meant running a PR (which I knew was 3:04 but did not know how many seconds, which is important to this story) or qualifying for Boston were not going to be viewed as successful outcomes.
Ready, Set, Go:
The race started with a steady push towards the start line, however I was in the first corral so I did not get caught up in too much traffic. As I ran through the first few blocks, I was amazed at how great I felt. “We’re going to do this” was something I thought out loud. I ran by the first mile marker and instinctively looked at my watch and saw “7:06”. “Slow, but that felt really easy. It should feel easy at this stage, but you could put a little more effort out.”
It was at this stage that we turned a corner and there was a guy that had ran right by me the first mile. I put out a little more effort, trying to increase my stride and get into a little more normal running form.
That’s when my hip said… “wait!”
A pretty sharp and intense pain shot through my hip, which was what had been bothering me the previous week. I immediately backed off the effort and shortened my stride. “Just take it easy”.
I ran for a couple minutes, thinking about how to ease my mind. I thought about all the miles I had trained the past 6 months with the goal of being consistent, being happy and preparing for this race.
I do not know exactly what caused it, as I was not feeling particualary emotional, but the tears started pouring. For a minute or two they just continued to roll. Then as fast as they started, they stopped. I got back to running the race.
The decision I made was to continue with the current effort and keep the stride as it was.
I rolled through the 5k mark in just under 22 minutes, which was already a minute off the pace. While not a positive realization, I knew it could be worse. The hip wasn’t getting better or worse, it was just ‘present’.
This same mental approach to the race continued on for the next 15k. I ran through 10k, knowing I was managing my pace but lost more time on my goal. At 15k I must not have been mentally capable of doing the math because I thought I had gained some time, but I hadn’t.
When I coach people, I often say things like:
“You can not win the race in the first 20k, but you can lose it.”
and
“You make or break your race in the 3rd 10k. If you are going to go for it, this is where it happens.”
I went through the 20k and realized that I was holding steady. I had not made up any time on my goal, but my hip was also holding together. I debated what I wanted to do. I decided to hold true to my goal of trying to run 2:55 to 2:58.
I ran through the half in 1:31:xx, which I knew meant that I needed a really strong second half (like 1:25-1:26 strong). I made the move right then. I kept my stride about the same, as I still could not stretch out, and thought about getting my turnover up.
I never looked at a mile split (other than mile one), so I didn’t know exactly how much effort I was putting out. I went through 25k and saw I had went under 21:00 for the previous 5k. That gave me some confidence, so I kept pushing.
Everything was pretty controlled and normal, even as I ran through 30k. In fact, when I saw my split at 30k I realized I’d put together a really good 3rd 10k. The miles did start to feel a little longer, but nothing was a struggle at this point.
The struggle started around mile 22.
It was about here that I felt like I was putting in a lot of effort to not make much progress. It was also during this mile that 2 guys passed me. They were the only 2 that passed me after the half marathon runners split off (around mile 11), but they also passed me pretty convincingly.
I did not panic. I did not look at my watch. But I definitely kept repeating the mantra I had chosen, along with “Do not stop. Do not give up. Manage now.”
The truth is that it felt like I was running a 9 to 10 minute per mile pace. The last 5k felt like it took forever, but one of the motivations I had was knowing that someone was waiting at the finish line. If I could just make it to the line, I could lay down and she would not have to worry that something happened to me.
Running through mile marker 26 I looked at my watch. I was a little surprised to see that I was actually not in nearly as bad of position as I thought. I was expecting it to read 3:10 or something close to that. But I realized that I might be able to get close to my personal best. As foreshadowed earlier, I actually did not know what my actual PR was (I set it in 2003). But I ran as strong as I could and crossed the finish line in 3:04:31.
I went straight to the gate to lean on it and rest, at which point I about fell over. The medical tent saw this and helped me to the tent, allowed me lay down and gave me some hypertonic beverages.
I spent some time in there, then gradually made my way to my feet and went to get my finishers medal. As I thanked the volunteers, I heard my friend Shelly call my name. It took another ten minutes to walk to the end of the finishing shoot, where I mostly refused a celebratory hug because I was pretty gross.
Everyone who has run a marathon understands that the finish line is the end of the race, but it takes a few hours to get your non running mind back.
Post Race Review:
I will share the data of the race below. You will see that the data reflects the story from above. It highlights a race that was run based on emotion and only possible due to my high level of fitness. It was not a well executed and strategic race!
When I look at the race, the first thought I have is that I never gave myself a chance. I was so conservative the first half that I did not give myself the opportunity to reach my goals.
Another analysis could be that I ran a good race and if I had run faster the first half, I would had a much slower last 10k? I personally think that the last 5k was a result of having to run harder than I had planned for the 3rd 10k.
I am extremely happy that I chose to ‘go for it’ during that 3rd 10k. If I had not put out that effort, I would have been much more dissappointed in myself. That is true even if my finishing time would have been the same.
I personally believe that great races are often run with two observations:
- The variation between the miles is low. This is just another way to say that the race is evenly paced.
- The second half is a negative split.
I am collecting data from other runners to try and do some analysis on this, so if you have 1k splits of a marathon PR over the last couple years, I would love to get that data.
Final Analysis:
I shared this in my immediate post on Instagram after the race. It is races like this that truely allow me to appreciate everything running has given me. The most important being my health, friendships and relationships it has provided. This race ended up being a personal best time with an official time of 4:03:31 (8 seconds faster!). It also qualifies me for the Boston marathon. However those are just consolation prizes to being able to share this journey with everyone that has been willing to participate in this journey with me.
My next marathon is already scheduled for Asheville, North Carolina in March 2019. Let go on another journey together!
The 5k and 10k split data:
5k splits: 21:52, 21:26, 21:22, 21:45, 20:52, 20:37, 21:40, 23:22
10k splits: 43:18, 43:07, 41:29, 45:02
Rank sum data.
I rank each 1k split, I then take those ranks and sum them up. It’s another metric I used to evaluate variance of the race. It’s pretty clear here!
5k rank sum: 131, 90, 85, 124, 42, 26, 114, 190
10k rank sum: 221, 209, 68, 304
You can view the spreadsheet here: Savannah Marathon Pacing Data