2012 Shamrock Marathon Race Recap

Four years ago I swore I would never do it again, but my addictive personality and love for pain & punishment got the best of me.  That and I thought that “run another marathon” would be a great addition to my 30 before 30 list. (Which is not looking like it’s going to be completed at this point, but that’s a whole ‘nother blog post). 

Training

My training for the 40^th running of the Shamrock Marathon officially began with the Surf & Santa 10 miler on December 5^th.  Tommy, Sarah and I had a great time and it got me pumped up for the training ahead of me. 

My training schedule was a combination of a couple of different ones that I had found on the web.  It basically consisted of 3-4 runs per week: a speed session on Tuesdays, hill repeats on Thursdays, long run on Saturday, and an “easy” run somewhere thrown into that mix.  I also hit the pool one or two times per week to keep everything loosened up, and tried to make it yoga as often as possible.  Overall, I thought the training plan worked great and I never felt overwhelmed.  I think the longest week I had was only 35-ish total miles.  Which is pretty low compared to some of the marathon training plans I’ve seen.  

Pre-Race

Saturday was hectic because I had a wedding scheduled.  The day started super early with an easy 2.5 mile jog around OV watching everybody get setup for the big parade.  I was sad that I was going to miss it.  For the last two years my house has served as “home base” for a party bus full of people I went to high school with.  We always have a great time. 

So after my jog I packed up everything and headed to the folk’s house to finish up all my cupcake stuff.  Setup the wedding with assistance from Mom, which made it go 10 times faster.  (Thanks Mom!)  Got home, had my two, obligatory, pre-race beers with a light dinner and was in bed before 10pm. 

Race Day

4:40 am.  Cock-a-doodle-doo!  Let’s do this!  First thing I did was go outside.  The temperature was PERFECT!  Shorts weather!  Fixed a cup of coffee and the standard pre-race meal of PB/Banana on an English muffin.  Contemplated on whether I should wait a little longer before I ate, but I was ravenous so I went ahead and ate.  This would come back to bite me in the ass later. 

Rainey was volunteering as a course marshal, so I met him at his place and we carpooled down to the Law Enforcement Training Academy on Birdneck Rd.  The starting line was at 33^rd & Atlantic.  Since I had over an hour to kill, I decided to walk from the Academy to the start.  It was a good warm up and it helped to kill some nervous energy.  Got to the start, hit the bathroom, dropped off my dry bag, checked my watch – still another half hour to go.  And then my stomach started growling.  Shit.  I just dropped off my dry bag that had a Clif bar inside.  Starting a 26.2 mile run with a growling stomach is no fun.  I knew I should’ve eaten a little more than I did, but I was just too nervous and barely had an appetite…up until then.  Oh well.  I decided I’d just eat a GU around mile 6 rather than wait until the halfway point like I had originally planned.  Speaking of GUs, I had picked out some yummy flavors at the expo and I was excited about having them as “treats” along the way.  Espresso (my fave), Peanut Butter (a new flavor…DID NOT LIKE), Strawberry Banana, and Vanilla Bean. 

BLECH! 

Hit the porta potty one last time, slipped in to corral #3, got the iPod all set up to go with my “Epic Marathon Playlist”, and it was time to go! 

The course started out heading south on Atlantic.  Did a little loopty-loo and then onto General Booth and into Camp Pendleton.  Very similar to the Rock n’ Roll course.  I was feeling great and recording my splits at each mile marker – so far so good!  

The one thing I could never figure out was how to put the songs in my playlist in the order that I wanted them, so everything just ended up being shuffled.  This really pissed me off when “The Final Countdown” started playing at mile 4.  Playlist FAIL.  

Mile 8.  Camp Pendleton.  Spotted Rainey along the course and handed off my fleece pullover to him.  High five.  Back to business.  I was feeling pumped. 

Before I knew it we were nearing the boardwalk, which meant the halfway point.  Mile 13.  2:03.  This is when I said to myself, “Ok, warm up’s over!  13.1 left to go!” 

Miles 16, 17 & 18 down Shore Drive were pretty uneventful.  There’s no spectators, no DJs, no water stops, no nothing.  Just a bunch of zombie looking runners and some stupid signs with jokes on them.  (How did the leprechaun get to outer space?  He took a shamrocket.) 

Once inside Fort Story, things livened up a little bit.  There were a bunch of soldiers along the way cheering us on and two water stops.  I was hitting up every water stop at this point as it had gotten warm out and I was in a full on sweat. 

Mile 20 came and went without “hitting the wall”.  My pace had definitely slowed a bit, but I was still feeling OK. 

Once out of Fort Story and back onto Pacific things started getting pretty rough.  My mind was playing tricks on me and my legs were just over it.  I remember passing a house around 70-something Street where a bunch of folks were handing out little cups of beer.  This one guy tried to hand me one.  I think I turned green from the smell of it and when he saw the look on my face he laughed out loud and told me I was doing a great job.  Ha! 

I could not wait to get onto the boardwalk.  It seemed so close, yet so far away.  As I approached the 25 mile marker the current song I was not really listening to faded out and I heard ‘Shootin’ at the walls of heartache, bang bang!  I am the warrior!”.  HELL YEAH!!  That’s my jam!  I added this song to my playlist because when I ran the marathon in ’08, Laura M. had told me, “Just remember, when you’re out there running, you’re a warrior!” and ever since then, it’s been my running mantra.  I thought it was pretty ironic that with one mile left to go, that’s the song that just happened to play.  I wanted to start singing it out loud, but refrained for the sake of the other runners around me. 

Wow, this recap ended up being really long and drawn out.  I’m pretty sure y’all couldn’t care less what flavor GUs I ate and at which mile markers.  Let’s get to the highlights.    

• Gummy bears at mile 14. 
• Seeing the elite runners around mile 15.  I always get excited to see them.  They are machines. 

Jynocel Basweti, 1st place men's finisher.

• The lady running next to me around mile 21 coming to a complete stop in front of the DJ’s tent and doing what can best be described as “The Elaine” dance for a good 30 seconds. 

• Rounding the corner onto the boardwalk and seeing the finish line. 
• Tom, Sarah, Mom, and Sam Adams at the finish line.  Awesomeness. 
• Months of hard work paying off.  J 

Don't ask.

Post Race

I can pretty much sum up what happened after the race with three words:  beer, food, shower.  And then repeat the first two…over and over. 

I met up with Rainey and we decided to hit up Plaza Azteca (I always crave Mexican after a big race) where the following discussion took place:

Him:  What are you getting?

Me:  I think I’m gonna have the fish tacos.

Him:  Hmm…I don’t know if I would trust the fish at a Mexican joint like this. 

Me:  Rainey, I dropped two of my GUs on the floor of the public bathroom this morning and later stuffed them in my mouth.  I’m pretty sure if anything was going to make me sick, it would be that. 

Him:  Fair enough. 

Gross.  I know. True story though. 

Summary

So my goal was to run it faster than 4:47 (my previous marathon time) and at a consistent pace.  I also had a super secret goal of running a 10 min pace (4:22), but I didn’t tell anyone this, because I didn’t want to jinx myself.  I’m happy to report that I achieved both goals! 

And for anyone who’s interested, below are my splits.  I’m shocked that I was able to record all of them! 

1:       9:37

2:       9:21

3:       9:12

4:       9:01

5:       9:07

6:       9:33

7:       9:23

8:       9:23

9:       8:58

10:     9:26

11:     9:36

12:     9:41

13:     9:35

Half Marathon time = 2:03  (Holla!)

14:     10:45  ß Not sure what happened here. 

15:     8:43  ß Or here. 

16:     9:50

17:     10:07  ß Starting to get tired. 

18:     10:14

19:     10:11

20:     10:19

21:     10:13

22:     10:32

23:     10:28  ß Want to walk SO BAD. 

24:     10:17

25:     10:43

26:     10:45

.2:      2:12  ß Longest .2 EVER. 

FYI, a marathon is a helluva lot more difficult than doing a half ironman.  I would love nothing more than to complete a full ironman one day (I really want the MDot tattoo), but I can’t imagine getting off the bike after having ridden 112 miles and then attempting to RUN A MARATHON.  Just can’t wrap my head around how that is physically possible.      

Maybe one day...

Oh! And one last thing.  I really think you should be able to opt out of having your picture taken during the race.  Who's bright idea was it to start taking pictures during these things anyway?  "Hey guys!  I've got it!  Let's take pictures of people when they are looking their absolute WORST!  You know, like, at mile 26 of a marathon when they're dead tired, sore, chafed, covered in (boob) sweat, and have an eat-shit-and-die look on their face!"  Yeah...

THE END!