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Before : icing my feet in my room at the Coeur d'Alene Resort

After : rehydrated and talking to Kris and the kids.

Getting Ready to Run

After running a marathon PR in Portland the previous fall, I was feeling very positive about my running.  I PR'd in the Nookachamps Half Marathon in January, and was close again at Mercer Island.  Still I took a while deciding which full marathon would follow Portland.  I took long enough to decide that my choices were somewhat limited.  In the end, needing something at the end of May or in early June, I decided to run my seventh marathon in Coeur d'Alene Idaho.

Being indecisive also meant that my training wasn't optimal.  I didn't really know when I was aiming for, and didn't have my heart in doing lots of speedwork either.  I did it on and off - you can see this in my March and April training calendars - but it didn't happen often enough to really count for something.  One thing different about this race is that I continued weight training for my upper body all the way through to race week.  Usually I'd taper off, finding it too difficult to maintain running and weight training.  I can't help but think this was a positive - lifting always boosts my confidence a bit, and I'd done some good work on my core as well.

I did do some good distance training work, although not as much as I had in the past.  I crested at 26 miles three weeks prior to the race, completing it in under four hours.  I wasn't convinced this was a good indicator of how I would be able to race.  That's a fast training run for me, but I'd not really looked at my watch during - instead focusing on running at a steady comfortable pace.  I did finish with some accelerations as well - which helped my net time - but also felt good doing them.

Rather than doing any calculated speedwork, I ran a couple of races : Beat the Bridge and the Cougar Mountain 5 Mile Trail Race (which turned out to be closer to 6 miles).  I also did several nice long-ish trail runs.  In short, I'd decided not to focus on a PR, but rather run Coeur d'Alene for fun.  Heading into the final week, I felt good about my conditioning.  Then the heat wave arrived.

The temperature in Seattle crested near 90 for several days before the race.  It would only be warmer inland too.  I was pretty worried about the heat - I'd not prepared for it at all - instead counting on the mild spring temperatures that we usually have in the northwest.  If it gets too much above 60, the heat becomes a real issue for me.  I was looking at temperatures into the mid 80s on race day, with a likely 75 close to midday.  That's perfect for a day relaxing by the lake, but not for running alongside the lake on dark asphalt.

I packed up and drove across Washington the day before the race.  I ate breakfast with Kris and the girls, relaxed a bit, and then headed out.  It seemed to take forever - especially once I got over the mountains.  The terrain changes radically several times - mountains, foothills, rolling farmland,  and then desert.  I didn't stop to enjoy it - although I wanted to get out and take pictures of the old houses, the rugged hills, and the striking gorge where the mighty Columbia bisects the state of Washington.  I rolled into sunny and warm Coeur d'Alene in time to relax, clean up, and get my marathon packet.

The evening was very low key.  I ate my usual veggies on pasta with olive oil, drank lots of water, and then got a massage at the hotel spa.  This was a departure in routine, and it also made me a bit nervous,  I kept thinking that the therapist was digging a bit too deep, and that my leg muscles would hurt the next day.  I didn't really enjoy it much, which is a shame because it wasn't cheap.  I turned in and was asleep by 10.

 Race Day

After a somewhat fidgety night's sleep I woke up race morning at 5:15 for breakfast.  I ate a bagel and drank 2 cups of tea, dressed and relaxed for a while - watching the weather channel for the day's forecast.  It looked like it might be about 75 by 11 - around the time I planned to finish.  My stomach didn't feel quite right - which may have been nerves or last night's dinner.  My back and legs felt fine though - so the massage didn't appear to have been a big mistake.

The start was at North Idaho College, about a mile from the hotel.  It would have been reasonable to walk it (it was a nice walk actually), but I decided to drive and conserve that little bit of energy.  Parking was a small adventure - I'd forgotten that the race folks totaled over 1000 between the three events.  I dropped a small bag with a shirt and dry cap in a corner of a room in the student union (no clothing drop ?!), and made a pretense at stretching.  I did a couple of short jogs back and forth to loosen up some more.  After a pit stop, it was time to line up for the start.  It felt pretty warm - and it wasn't seven yet (it was actually about 62 already).

Sometimes as I start a race, I become self-conscious of what I'm doing.  Probably I'd let my concerns about the heat into my head a bit too much.  It took me a while to settle down into the run this time.  The horn went off and we did a loop around the west end of the campus, and then came back by the hotel.  The first mile marker was confusing - they'd set out separate markers for the three events, and mile 1 for the 5k was about 1/8 mile earlier than the marathon marker.  I erroneously clicked my watch and refused to believe that I'd run a 6:57 mile (I wasn't that nervous).  I was pissed off at the race folks until I ran past the marathon marker and clicked to just over 8 minutes for the first mile.  Then I was pissed off at myself for running too fast so early.

This was a recurring theme for the first miles.  I'd hit a marker, realize that I was running too fast.  Then I'd slow down and slowly speed up again.  By the time I hit the next marker, I'd run a sub-8:30 pace again - which was definitely not on-plan for me.  My legs felt good, but the pace was a bit faster than conversational.  Well - that's a red flag.  And rather than heed it and slow way down I kept going at the same pace.  You can see this in the split data I've included below.  The splits look great for the first 7 miles.  Then they look pretty good until mile 21.  Over the final three miles, I lose 20-30 seconds of cumulative average pace.  That's a radical turn of events - and indicates a foolishly run race.  But one more thing about those splits - I don't know how much to trust them.  Several of the mile markers were clearly wrong.  I mean very very wrong.  According to my watch, I ran an 11:44 split for mile 17, followed by a 4:58 for mile 18.  That's impossible.  It was an annoyance, mildly distracting, and absolutely doesn't let me off the hook for running too fast early in the race.

I should mention here that northern Idaho is very beautiful.  Unfortunately the stretch of the Coeur d'Alene Marathon from miles 3 through about mile 10 is rather monotonous.  We wend our way through mostly residential areas - not the quaint kind (ala' Portland or Seattle) - but the more nondescript.  I felt a bit cranky then because I was still unsettled as to pace.  The field was starting to spread out a bit, and I was getting passed a lot.  I can only imagine that the folks I'd run with for a while probably finished at sub-3:40 pace as I didn't pass too many people in the second half of the race.  Between miles 7 and 9, I was running near a man and woman discussing some graphic intestinal conditions.  I'd suggested discussing happier things and was ignored.  It was just as well that they ran up ahead of me.  Yick.

Just before mile 10, we rejoined the half-marathon course, with the faster runners returning towards us.  It was a little tricky around the first water stop as we sorted ourselves out, but things were fine after that.  Another thing to call out is the abundance of volunteers.  The aid stations were well-staffed and well-stocked.  They were a bit oddly staggered (as were the mile markers!), but when they were available, I got everything I needed from them.

Around mile 11, we found ourselves out by the lake again.  The first stretch was in shade, and I ran alongside the trail on some dirt to save myself some pounding.  Fatigue was starting to set in by now.  I could feel some fatigue in my legs, although it takes a while to see this show up in my splits.  For the trip out to the half and full turnarounds, I begin to involuntarily slow down.  By the time I got to the hill at mile 14.5, I was tired and knew it.  I pushed up the hill going a bit faster than I should have, and paid for it.  By now, the sun was out, and we were getting warm.  The road was all exposed by now, no shade.  I ran down the hill, and past more dubious mile markers, and made the turnaround before mile 18.  Struggling.

Returning, I ran with another guy going back up the hill.  This side was gentler, but I was also pretty tired.  Rather than back off completely, I pushed - expending more than I should have in the sun.  By the time I crested the hill and knew that there was no more climbing to speak of, I had very little left.  I ran on fumes through miles 19 and 20.  I felt the first hints of cramping in my calves.  I ran very cautiously then - if the cramps started - I was pretty much done.  It was conceivable that I'd need to stop entirely, as even walking might be out of the question. 

By the time I got to mile 22, I'd slowed down appreciably.  Now - I made a point of not looking at my cumulative time - so I didn't know that I'd been running to a PR pace.  But until the low 20s, I was about 2-3 minutes faster than I'd been in Portland.  And all of that advantage went away when I slowed down too.  I began to walk.  I walked as fast as I could, but still lost at least three minutes per mile doing so.  A couple of times I tried to run, but was met with cramping.  I walked briskly into town, and past the hotel.

By then, I knew I was close to the 25 mile mark.  I glanced up at the clock tower in front of the hotel and was shocked to see that I'd been out about 3:45.  Why shocked?  Well - by then I'd virtually given up on coming in under 4 hours.  Here - the clock was telling me it was still well within reach.  I just needed to walk the final 1 1/3 miles very fast and I could do it.  I did some very awkward 'speedwalking' and then started to run as I came to the mile marker.  I ran very gingerly, trying not to push off too hard (which would place demand on my calves).  We turned along the water, and went into the shade again.  I could hear the people at the finish line by then.

One small final insult to injury occurred around mile 26.  I got something in my eyes (lots of pollen in the air) and stopped to rub it out, just as the course photographer snapped my picture.  So - now I'm immortalized - walking, rubbing my eyes, looking pathetically unhappy - though I was in fact feeling better than I had in two hours by then.  Oh well.

I turned the last corner and ran in, crossing the line in 3:56:21.  It's as good a time as I had a right to hope for.  It wasn't pretty, although the numbers look okay.  When I crossed the line, it was about 78 or 79 degrees.  I wound down with a great post race massage in the finish area, and went back to the hotel, called Kris and the kids, and cleaned up.

Fair to say I've learned (or re-learned) some lessons.  I did a lot of good things in the days prior to the race, but allowed myself to get a bit psyched out by the hot weather.  Next - I didn't run as conservatively as I knew I should.  Third - I should probably have doubled back for another picture.  It wouldn't have made that much of a difference to my time.

My split data is below - although the distances are somewhat questionable.  You mileage may vary.  Mine did.  The variance and upward trend in the splits tells the story though - next time I start slow and get faster.