This year was my 6th George Washington Birthday
Marathon and the 3rd “Man vs. Men” where I raced three friends from
work who were running the marathon relay.
After threats of snow and a government shutdown, the race was on with
some decent winter weather and temperatures in the upper 30s.
This year I was laser focused on mountain 100 training with
Hellbender and UTMB. That meant lots of
miles & vertical, little speedwork, and no taper to speak of. The week before was 75+ miles with 92 miles
and 14,000 feet the week prior. The plan
was to go out slower than prior years (no faster than 7:10 – 7:15) and try not
to blow up too much. If all went well it
would be a solid training run, and I’d have a shot at breaking 3:10.
Start and Lap 1
Geoff was up for lap 1, and we took off together at a
relaxed pace. After a 6:48 on the steep
Mile 2 downhill, we settled into 7:05 to 7:10 pace. A bit faster than planned but better pacing
(hopefully) than prior years!
We kept the pace steady, and I started picking it up a bit in
mile 8 as I was feeling pretty solid. I
was a bit ahead of Geoff through the transition but was expecting and hoping
that Nathan would catch up and join me for Lap 2. Split for 10 miles was 1:10:35. I was happy with this but was worried about going
out too fast yet again.
Lap 2
Nathan must have sprinted and caught up to me almost
immediately, which was great. I started
to struggle on this section between 10 and 13 and was mentally preparing for the
blow up. Great job Will, 3 in a
row. I struggled through the halfway
point in 1:32:45 and was also losing time to my planned splits.
Nathan had been alongside / behind me, but then he jumped
ahead and sped up when we turned the corner for the next 2 mile downhill
section. I was already struggling to
hold pace but stupidly decided to hang on to him as he sped up. We dropped down to 6:40 to 6:50 pace and turned
the corner for the 2 mile hilly section to close out the loop.
I really felt I’d need to slow down and desperately hoped
Nathan would run out of gas! But he kept
going at 6:50 or less pace on the hills.
I was surprised that I was able to keep up. Later I realized that while the back part of
the loop is usually the toughest, I think we had a headwind on the front end
and tailwind on the back end that changed the dynamics. Kind of nice to get the hard part done first!
Despite dropping the pace, I was actually starting to feel a
bit better. I got in a bunch of calories
and fluids on loop 2 (picked up a bottle in the transition), and it seemed to
be working well. Nathan was charging
hard up the last hill, and I let him go as I didn’t want to sprint uphill with
9+ miles left!
I came into the transition having averaged sub 7 over the
loop despite the tough start. I was
pretty damn excited going into loop 3 and hoping I could catch up with Peter.
Lap 3 to Finish
Peter was a little ways ahead, and I sped off to catch him.
He super graciously stopped for a few seconds to let me catch up – thanks Peter! After my lap 3 demise in the past years, I
was really excited to be running with Peter in lap 3 and running well.
While this stretch was the toughest in the prior laps, I was
on a high and pushing 6:45 pace through the hills. My right quad was spasming a bit as I pushed,
and I worried I was going too hard too early.
I kept the gels / fluids going strong, which seemed to be just enough to
hold off cramping. By mile 20 I was
averaging sub 7s for the race, and I told Peter we had a decent shot at sub
3:05.
As we rounded the turn after mile 20, I was amazed at how
strong I felt. I have only once felt
this good going into the last 10K of a marathon, which was back in the 2012
Marine Corps Marathon where I ran 2:58 with a big negative split. I told Peter this was a rare thing, and I was
going to take full advantage of it!
I’d been asking my body for more since mile 10, and each
time the pace dropped my body responded.
We dropped the pace again to 6:40s, and I was well outside of anything I
had been doing in training over the past 4+ months. Usually at the end of a marathon it seems like
an eternity between each mile marker.
You wait as long as you can, think you must be closer to the next miler
marker, check your watch, and “damn it!” – it’s only been 2 minutes. This time the miles were flying by.
For the 2 hilly miles at the end of lap 3 we were now hitting
low 6:30s and passing quite a few runners.
I was working really hard but still felt strong and in control. That said, I was completely terrified of the
mile 25 hill at this point. To quote Mr
T in Rocky 3, I knew there was going to be “pain … unspeakable pain.”
We flew into the transition point at the end of lap 3. Nathan, Geoff, and Peter’s parents were
yelling, cheering, and excited to see Peter and I still running stride for
stride. Man vs. men was on with 2 miles
to the finish!
We flew towards the monster hill, and I was in total beast
mode, giving it everything I had. As we
approached the hill we saw a few runners up ahead, and I got even more fired
up. We quickly passed one and gained on
the other. The inclined ramped up, and
it hurt so much. I was on the verge of
collapse as we got towards the top, but we survived and miraculously still held
sub 7 pace over this mile.
The second runner we were catching finally saw us and took
off sprinting. We chased him as we
passed the mile 26 marker and laid it all on the line going towards the
finish. It became clear the guy ahead
was going to hold us off with an impressive burst of speed, but another runner
came into view. We were closing fast on
him, but he was well ahead and I figured we would run out of real estate.
I poured everything into a final sprint and managed to edge
out the runner ahead to get 10th place in 3:01:20. I was honestly stunned. It was a special day, and I still couldn’t
believe I ran 3:01 on this course. We
averaged 6:42 pace for the last 10 miles, and I ran 1:28 in the back half for a
4 minute negative split. 7 years earlier
I had a great day on this course and ran 3:04.
It was hard to believe I went 3 minutes faster with less specific
training and being 7 years older!
It was awesome to run with Geoff, Nathan, and Peter, and a
huge thanks to them for pushing me all day and some perfect pacing. I also came away believing there is huge
benefit to the increased training volume I’ve been doing. I have a hard time doing lots of speed work
without risking injury, but it seems like a huge base + intense vertical can
produce some speed as well as the endurance for finish strong in a
marathon. I don’t think it is a
coincidence that the last good marathon I ran was my 3 flat at the 2017 MCM
after UTMB, when I had a huge base but little speed.
The race really helped stoke the fire, and I’m excited for
what I can try and do over the rest of the year!
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