Note: This report has turned out to be pretty long, so thanks in advance for reading. Next time, I promise pictures and better editing.

I didn’t originally intend to run this race, because (a) it fell right at the start of training for my second marathon (the Illinois Marathon in Champaign-Urbana on April 30) and (b) it was the fourth of five races in the St. Louis Track Club’s annual Frostbite Series, which I had not entered. When I heard, however, that Jason and Raymond of the always-entertaining Geeks in Running Shoes podcast were running it, I thought it might be fun to meet them in person. Then, I learned that Jenny J, a friend of mine from dailymile, had entered the series and would be running too (even though it was only one week after the Rock ‘n’ Roll Arizona Marathon, which she was also running), so I went ahead and registered.

My plan was to to run the race as my long run for Week 2 of my 16-week training schedule, which was supposed to be 15 miles at a pace of 9:07 min/mile. I would simply run that pace and then add on an extra 1.9 miles at the end. At least, that was my plan until I read this article by Matt Fitzgerald, in which he states that running a race early in a training cycle can be “potentially very beneficial” since “we can push ourselves harder in races than we can in any workout, and performance in peak races—those races where you truly want to be ready to perform at the highest level you’re capable of—is largely a function of how hard you’ve pushed yourself in the process leading up to those most important events. (Fitzgerald was talking specifically about Kara Goucher’s second-place finish at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Arizona Half Marathon with a "bad” time of 1:14:02 that I, for one, will never come anywhere near achieving.) After I read the article, I said to myself, “What the hell?” I made up my mind to race, not just run, the 13.1 at my theoretical half-marathon pace of 8:02 min/mile and hope that I didn’t blow up before the end.

Quick aside on marathon training plans

In case you’re curious, I am using the Run Less, Run Faster marathon training plan, a.k.a., the FIRST plan. (If you’re not, feel free to skip ahead.)

The essence of FIRST is the 3plus training week. The 3 are 3 quality runs:

1. intervals to improve speed and economy
2. a tempo run to raise lactate threshold
3. a long run to build endurance

The plus2 is a minimum of 2 cross-training sessions, such as cycling or swimming. The mileage is relatively low, but the prescribed paces, which are based on your best 5K time, are tough. I ran my first 5K race, the Billiken 5K, back in September in 22:26, so that is what I’m using to determine all my training paces, as well as my goal marathon pace of 8:22 min/mile and my goal marathon time of 3:44.

I looked first at the usual suspects—Daniels' Running Formula and Advanced Marathoning— but decided that the mileage required by those plans was unrealistic for me in this training cycle. I finally settled on using a plan from Brad Hudson’s Run Faster from the 5K to the Marathon, got one week into it, and then realized that it too was too much / too complicated for me right now. When—not if but when!—I start getting into BQ territory, I will probably try out Run Faster again.

Pre-race

The night before, my wife Jessica and I ate my usual pre-race meal of Thai takeout from the King and I: papaya salad with sticky rice and green curry with shrimp, both “Thai hot 2.” (In addition to the standard mild/medium/hot, the King and I, like many Thai restaurants, offers an off-the-menu “Thai hot” scale of spiciness, from 1 to 5. We’ve never made it higher than Thai hot 2, which is mouth-scorching enough to require a chaser of whole milk.) Most people recommend eating bland food before a race, but I’m accustomed to spicy food, plus I eat a lot of rice with it, so this works for me. While we ate, we watched The Biggest Loser on Hulu and ended up going to bed too late, around 11.

The race started at 9 AM, so Jessica generously volunteered to let me sleep in. Unfortunately, I was woken by the racket made by our boys when they got up at 6, and, with all that race morning adrenaline, I was unable to fall back asleep. I got dressed, ate my usual breakfast of Traders Point wildberry yogurt (made from the milk of 100% grass-fed cows!) and Milk & Honey granola (the best granola in the world), had a cup of coffee, and started drinking water. The race was in Forest Park, which is about 20 minutes from my house, so I was still at home at 8, when Jason tweeted to let me know that the Geeks had arrived at the Forest Park Visitor Center, where we’d agreed to meet. I tweeted back that I was on my way and headed out the door. Outside, it was cold but not bitterly so, around 25°F, and the blue sky was almost cloudless.

(For the gearheads out there, here was my stylish ensemble: Saucony Kinvaras in ViZi-PRO; the Saucony Protection gloves that I won in a Running and Rambling giveaway, also in ViZi-PRO; long-sleeve, compression shorts, and tights, all from Thriv; RecoFit compression sleeves under the tights; Saucony Wascal cap; Drymax Cold Weather Running socks; Tifosi Pavé shades; this awesome Zoot running jacket; and my trusty Ultimate Direction FastDraw handheld. Yes, lots of Saucony gear. What can I say? They make good gear.)

The parking lot outside the Visitor Center was packed, as was the Visitor Center itself. I picked up my bib and then managed to locate Jenny and Jason, via text and tweet, respectively. After saying hi, I went downstairs to the locker room and stowed my stuff. I debated taking a GU (my favorite flavor: Espresso Love) but decided against it, since I was feeling hopped up enough as it was. I topped up my water bottle and headed upstairs. By this point, it was around 8:40.

I found poor Jenny stuck in a horrendous line for the ladies' room. She told me to go ahead and that she’d meet me at the start. I said OK and went outside. Jason, who had been just outside the front door, was gone, so I headed for the start. Halfway there, I caught up with Jason and a tall guy wearing a ski mask whom I presumed (correctly) was Raymond, and I wished them both happy birthday and good luck. (Jason’s birthday was the day of the race, and Raymond’s was the day before. It was also Raymond’s first race—not just first 13.1 but first race of any kind—and Jason’s second 13.1.)

We chatted near the back of the pack, until I spotted Jenny and introduced her to the Geeks. Jenny told us that the race was a gun time start, not a chip time start (the chips on the back of our bibs would be used only for finish time) and strongly suggested that we move to the front. I didn’t want to get trapped in the pack so I was happy to comply, but if I’d been thinking, this is where Jenny and I would have said goodbye to Jason and Raymond. They had smartly decided to start at the back but then succumbed to peer pressure and moved to the front, only to regret it later after going out too fast, a fact I learned by listening to their latest episode.

Sorry, guys. I should have stopped Jenny from dragging you along. I know she had good intentions. It was my fault. At least, we got that awesome group photo out of it. :)

Near the front, we met Brad, another dailymile friend of Jenny’s, and his friend Justin. Jenny roped the guy standing in front of us into taking the aforementioned photo, which became quite an involved process, thanks to the low sun that was first in the photographer’s eyes and then in ours. Shortly after, with no warning that I heard, the gun went off, and everyone started running.

The race

I fell in behind Justin, Brad, and Jenny. After a quarter mile or so, she told those guys to go ahead and they took off. I moved up alongside Jenny and asked her how she was doing. (As I mentioned above, Jenny had run the Rock ‘n’ Roll Arizona Marathon the weekend before. What I did not mention is that she ran it in 3:40 and change, fast enough to qualify for Boston! So what was she doing here, a mere week later, running another 13.1? The only answer to this question is that Jenny is hardcore, a fact to which any of her dailymile friends will attest.) She said that her legs were a little tired but that she was doing well.

We checked our Garmins for our pace and saw that we were hovering just above 8:00 min/mi pace, which was near where I wanted to be (and hoped to stay until the end). Overall, I felt really good: my cadence was fast, my steps light, my heart rate easy, and I was able to chat with Jenny comfortably. As someone who runs alone 99% of the time, having some company was a welcome change.

The course was a double loop that was actually four out-and-backs: the first and third heading west from the Visitor Center, past the Grand Basin, and then back; the second and fourth heading east from the Visitor Center, circling down to the Muny parking lot, and then back. The Grand Basin portion of the loop is about 2 miles and flat; the Muny portion is about 4 and significantly more hilly.

On our way back from the first turnaround, Jenny and I saw Jason and Raymond, who appeared to be in high spirits. We also noticed that the course seemed to be off, on the long side, when our Garmins auto-lapped about a hundred feet before the second mile marker. The pack had thinned out quickly, and we ran along in a comfortable rhythm. After passing the Visitor Center heading east, we entered the hilly portion of the course. One woman kept leapfrogging us on the downhills and looking back over her shoulder. Jenny whispered that she wanted to beat her. (By the end of the race, Jenny had, of course, befriended the woman, making plans to go running together, even as she beat her to the finish.)

I drank a couple sips from my handheld about every mile and took a GU around mile 5, before I felt like I needed it. On the uphills, I slowed a little, shortening my already short steps and focusing on keeping my cadence steady, repeating the mantra, “Easy and light, easy and light” (with all due respect to Caballa Blanco). Jenny, in contrast, powered up the hills ahead of me. On the downhills, I let gravity do the work so that my heart rate could settle down a little, leaning forward slightly and concentrating on moving my feet quickly beneath me, a technique I learned from Ken Mierke’s Evolution Running DVD. I tried not to brake at all as I descended. My mantra on the downhills was, “Recover, recover, recover.”

The Muny portion of the course has a total elevation gain of around 57 feet (significantly less than Heartbreak Hill’s 88 feet), spread across four or five ascents, depending on how you count them. None of them are horribly steep or long, but they do take their toll, and I did not look forward to seeing them again. As we approached the Grand Basin, I asked Jenny how she was doing. She said her legs were feeling tired and that I could go ahead if I wanted. I took a moment to assess how I felt, concluded that I was holding up pretty well and that a PR was in my grasp. I told Jenny that I was going to go at the turnaround, which was around mile 8. She said, “You can go now.”

I said, “OK, thanks, see you at the finish” (or something like that) and started to push, passing the lady with whom we’d been playing leapfrog one last time. From this point on, I slowly but steadily passed people ahead of me. I’m not sure how many, though it wasn’t a lot. I do remember at least two guys passing me over the last 5 miles. I tried to stay with the first guy for a little while, before saying to myself, “Let him go.” A few minutes later, the same thing happened with the second guy. I’m glad that I did, given how I felt by the end of the race.

At some point, I passed the Geeks again, who greeted me with a loud cry of “YOOOOOONNNN!” that made me smile. Raymond gave me a high-five that almost spun me around, thanks to our collective and opposing speeds.

I took my second GU at mile 10, which is roughly when the hills began to hurt. My heart rate and breathing were faster and harder, but it was mainly my legs that were feeling heavy and fatigued. It took all of my concentration to keep my strides short and quick, instead of long and plodding. Around mile 13 (as measured my Garmin), I’d hit my limit and my pace began to fall, despite my best efforts. The finish, it seemed, would never come. Since the loop was only a little over six miles (by their accursed measurements), the race organizers added on the extra distance at the end. To finish, we ran past the Visitor Center and onto a bike path that circled around the playground to the west of the Visitor Center, ending at the Visitor Center’s rear entrance. The final 0.1 was, of course, icy and slightly uphill. As I crossed the finish line, I registered 1:46:something on the big clock.

Post-race

A little way past the finish, I saw Brad and Justin, said hi and congrats (they had both run well, 1:40 and 1:44, respectively, I think), and then realized that I’d forgot to stop my Garmin. When I did, it showed 1:46:35 for 13.28 miles.

At some point in the final few miles, I’d decided that I wanted to break 1:45, so I wasn’t overjoyed at first. Then, it sank in that I’d set a new PR by over 9 minutes, and I felt satisfied. My previous PR had been 1:56:03, set at the St. Louis Track Club Half-Marathon in November of 2009, which was my first race and only half-marathon before this one.

The Frostbite Series is a budget production, as you’d expect with a $15 registration fee per race, so the only food and drink available were animal crackers, pretzels, and water. I still had a little water left in my bottle, so I didn’t bother. Jenny finished about 2 minutes later, which is humbling since she was—let me repeat—one week out from running a BQ marathon.

Brad and Justin headed off for a 1-mile cool-down. I, however, did not run the last 1.9 of my planned 15. Instead, I got my stuff from my locker and gave Jenny a ride home. On the way back to my house, I ate three Clif Shot Bloks and the last few sips from my bottle, which I had forgotten to refill. At home, I drank a big glass of Nuun and changed into some clean sweats. I was too hungry to shower before eating, so Jessica rounded up the boys and we headed out to Stellina Pasta Café. We had the hummus and olive plate with fresh-baked pita, a bowl of lentil soup, capellini with shrimp and arugula in a white wine sauce (with just a touch of cream), and whole-wheat walnut fettucini with fresh mozzarella and snow peas. Everything was delicious.

Final thoughts

My official time was 1:46:14 (average pace of 8:07, a little slower than my goal pace, so I choose to believe my Garmin’s average pace of 8:01), which put me at #15 of 42 in the 35-39 age group and #124 of 479 overall.

I am happier now with how this race went than I was immediately after finishing, for a few reasons:

First, it was what I would call my first real PR, since 13.1 is the only distance I’ve raced more than once (excluding my two 5K’s, the second of which was more of a cross-country race, run on snow and ice in Tower Grove Park).

Second, I ran more-or-less negative splits: 8:12, 8:07, 7:56, 8:14, 8:13, 7:59, 7:50, 7:48, 8:10, 7:38, and 7:51. The wheels came off in the final 0.28, which I ran in 2:21, at an 8:23 pace. It does make me wonder if I should have gone out faster, but I realize that it’s just as possible that I would have fallen apart earlier, if I had.

Third, I felt like my form was sound throughout the race. It was a real mental challenge to stay sharp and keep my form from breaking down, but I feel like I did pretty well, even at the end when my legs felt like they were grinding to a halt. My average cadence as measured by my Garmin footpod was 174, a little shy of the 180 that most sources say is optimal. (Speaking of form, I highly recommend the Evolution Running DVD. Its production values are on the cheap side, but it is short and sweet and gave me some simple, sound principles that have enabled to improve my form substantially. McDougall quotes Ken Mierke, Evolution’s creator, at length in Born to Run.)

Fourth, I didn’t train specifically for this race or taper for it. The week before, I had run my intervals and tempo run as planned. This makes me optimistic about the progress I can make over the next 14 weeks leading up to my true peak race, the Illinois Marathon.

Thanks to Jenny for running with me, and big congrats to Jason, who set a new PR, and Raymond, who finished his first half-marathon. For another take on this race, check out the report Jason posted on his blog.

Sent from my iPhone