A Personal Best

Today was the 26th running of the California International Marathon (CIM) – which runs from Folsom to the center of Sacramento, ending at the State Capital.  It is billed as one of the “fastest” marathons in the west, but of course a marathon can’t be fast, but the course can have less massive hills than other courses.

I had hoped and trained to break my previous Personal Best which was at Napa Valley Marathon this year in March of 4:07.  Of course, it’s all relative – the best marathoners run in around 2:15 (!!) and the world record is 2:05; on the other hand my early marathons in 2002-2004 were in the 5:20-5:45 rance, so it’s very satisfying to get better with age.

I had a fantasy of breaking my previous record, and in some far off fantasy world – to break 4 hours.  I had laid out a timeplan that in best case would get to 3:59.

But —-> I ended up finishing in 3:54:35 !!!  YAYYY!!!  The results are in and in the top third!

(Behind me is all the sweat bags – not trash bags – that you have to retrieve for all the stuff you take off at the start)

The fun is all in the details though ….

First, the funny stuff.

One has a choice here to stay at the start in Folsom or at the finish in Sacramento.  For some reason, I chose to stay near the start, thinking it would be nice to just be 2 miles from the start and make it easy to get there so early in the morning in time for the 700am start.   Except I forgot one thing, there is no way to get from the FINISH to the START after completing the race – except for an expensive taxi or something else.  Other people staying at the hotel I was at had family, friends or partner to take them to the start and pick them up at the finish – I did not.

This meant, I had to DRIVE at 0430am to the FINISH, leave my car there and get in line to take the BUS to the START – oh, this is about 26 miles in each direction.  So that was fun.

The bus does not get to the START until around 6:47 am, which left previous little time for the key things that need to be done before the race – like getting in line for the porta-potties with about 9,000 of your closest friends.  After getting this out of the way, it meant taking off sweats and untangling iPod cords and getting GPS watch working etc in about 3 minutes.  I make it to the start with no time to spare and my shoelaces not really done right (never fixed them), headphones tangled (also never fixed) – but I did manage to eat to plan (muffin, granola bars, banana and tea).

My plan was to consistently run around 9 minute miles – not start out too fast, and not try to make up time by going too slow at the beginning.  This somehow worked beautifully, and though I never looked at the projected times in the pocket, I just kept making goals for the next mile timewise and multiplying by 9 minutes.

The first half marathon was run right on time – around 1:58 and change.  It seemed to get colder as the race went on and I later saw a sign that said 43f.  My hands were really frozen during the race and it was like having balloons for fingers and near impossible to grasp food or even to adjust the music.

The next big goal was to get to 20 miles in 3 hours, which would mean “just” having to do 6.2 miles in the final hour to break 4 hours.  The right leg calf was hurting and I kept waiting for a massive cramp to come up – and somehow, luckily it did not.

I made it to 20 miles in 3:01 and the race was on to the finish.

Each mile was a minor miracle to keep in time and just kept watching the average pace time go from 9:00 down in the 8:50′s range.  I got a boost right at mile 21-22 while crossing a slight incline over the American River when “Walk of Life” from Dire Straits came on  and that pushed me.

Crowds kept getting thicker and I tried to conserve energy by not waving wildly (or doing handstands ).  But I did keep smiling and was just trying to appreciate every minute.

(Kim had run a 35k on Saturday in “sympathy” and gave some good words of encouragement that 4 hours could be broken, since she had run the course in previous years, though not this time.)

As miles 23, 24, and 25 came and went, the legs kept moving and I started feeling that I could break the time.  Then during the 26th mile, “One Week” from BNL came on and that made me really smile and sing along (at least inside and the words that I could remember or understand ).

I stopped looking at the watch and suddenly the finish line came into view after a couple of left turns and there was the Capital!  I thought maybe it was like 3:56 or 3:57 but the watch said 3:54:35 and that was kind of incredible.

After the normal stuff of getting the chip off the shoes, getting the medal and water, the next task was to remember where I parked the car.  A guy asked me where the Sheraton was and we wandered about together and that helped me get to the right place – ok eventually.

One the way back, managed to stop and have a fairly massive lunch of soup, bread and more pasta.

Best thing about finishing a marathon: Showering and Eating! HA!

One final funny moment:  There was a guy who was with the National Guard or something and he was carrying a massive American Flag.  He was running near me and getting big applause from the crowd.  Meanwhile, nearer to me was a guy who was wearing a Rugby uniform and carrying a Rugby Football (yes) in his right arm.  No one paid any attention to him but I thought it was funny.

All in all, a good day.  I need to take off around 12 more minutes to qualify for Boston, a goal for 2009 and to run Boston in 2010.  Next – see about running Muir Beach next Saturday and temporarily enjoy the moment before back-to-work tomorrow ….