I’ve only ever raced small(ish) events. Ironman Wisconsin and Tulsa are both under 3,000 athletes. Even the Madison Marathon is under 4,000 runners. After 2 unsuccessful attempts to get into the Chicago Marathon, I looked north to Grandma’s. Over 9,000 runners on a point to point course, there was never a point where you are running on your own.
While training for Ultraman I decided to take the huge base of training and try to add speed work, betting on my body being able to cope with the increased strain of speed on top of the built up ability to just keep going. This seemed like the perfect to time to attempt a Boston Marathon qualifying time. Until I looked into it a little closer. My best marathon at this point was Wausau Marathon in 2019 with a 3:35:48, but for Boston I’d need under 3:10:00, so 26 fewer minutes, in other terms a minute per mile faster!
While this seems like an insurmountable goal, there were some glimmers of possibility.
- A huge endurance base built from the Ultraman training
- I’d never focused just on speed work, the previous marathons were a just finish mentality
- Turning 40, I’d just entered a new age group, so it should be the best time to hit the goal pace until the next age group change
- The assumption that I’ve improved in my chosen sport over the past 3 years
- I was still healthy coming off the Ultraman training block and race
- Naivety
Training
So, without much forethought, I set off on building a training plan from a basic plan I found on the Boston Marathon website for ‘advanced’ runners. Little did I know how to even interpret the workouts they had listed. While trying to figure things out, I did some reading, finding out target pacing heart rate strategies and just what all the acronyms meant. Utilized TrainingPeaks to build all of the workouts, set my threshold pace and heartrates and trust in their system to guide the workouts as my thresholds improved. I went to the speedy people who actually coach track and cross country, those who’ve even run BQ’s (Boston Qualifying Times) themselves to walkthrough what I came up with. Things were looking up. If I could stick to the plan, even with just a short four month lead up to race day, a sub 3:10 looked like a real possibility.
Throughout those four months I realized a few important things.
- Going faster is much harder than going further
- Recovery takes longer the older you get
- Setting the right mental state before a workout is incredibly important
1) Since I’d started running about 8 years ago, as recovery from a bad knee injury and ACL replacement, longer has always been the ‘next’ thing. Speed somewhat comes with going longer, but only to a certain point. My comfortable pace hadn’t changed in years. Attempting to get out of that comfort zone and really push the pace forward is extremely taxing and painful. There’s a reason it’s called a comfort zone!
2) Track days took their toll, for like three days after the run. Running faster means striking the ground harder and pushing off. Olympic sprinters can strike and push off the ground at over 1,000lbs of force, obviously, I’m not moving nearly that fast, but you get the idea, going faster puts more strain on the body. And my feet, ankles, knees, and hips were all feeling that additional toll. The bright side, my lungs were keeping up, I was starting to push the heart rate higher much more frequently, and I was becoming accustomed to that feeling. The additional physical load though, lead to more recovery being needed, and a bi-weekly focus on just recovery based workouts. Slowly learning that it’s super important to keep that top of mind as the years continue to tick by.
3) While the physical toll was building, I would start to have a mental block, attempting to keep me from starting out on a workout that I knew was going to hurt. Getting the motivation to get started continued to get harder and harder. So much so, that I wasn’t even sleeping well the night before a hard workout. There was this sort of apprehension in the back of my mind, just knowing what was to come. But the really strange thing is, once the workout started, and I was hitting the targets, I would find myself pushing beyond them, attempting to and beating the target pacing set before me, absolutely burying myself in the workout, to the point I could hardly walk after a few of the track sessions. The mind’s a strange beast, showing fear before starting and determination to best the goal at hand once faced with the reality of the moment.
Training was going great, I was feeling somewhat confident about my chances as race day continued to inch closer and closer. Training days were producing great results, including setting 2 new personal best times at the 1/2 marathon distance, while running more than 13.1 miles. My threshold pacing continued to get lower and at this point I was starting to think I had about a 10% chance of actually completing this goal. By far the lowest estimation towards a goal I’d ever set, usually it’s over 90% chance of success. But I was also mentally preparing to absolutely bury myself in the attempt. If my legs gave out at 20 miles, so be it, I was in for the all or nothing approach.
With about 3 weeks to go until race day, I had a 1/2 marathon planned to run solo, in an attempt to break 1 hour 30 minutes, thinking if I was able to hit that mark, it would be a huge confidence booster going into the last few weeks of hard training. Thursday, it started to feel like I was having some allergies popping up, and by Friday morning I had a full on sore throat and was feeling just off, and drained. While I was supposed to do the run in the am before work, I decided to wait until later in the day because I wasn’t feeling it, even though it would be a scorcher. Leaving work a little early, I hit the river trail at my target pace, and held it for only about 4 miles, when things started to slide. I went from feeling capable to barely holding on, while the pace continued to slide. My chest was burning like I hadn’t ever experienced on a run before, feeling like I was breathing through a straw. However, sticking it out, I did get to the finish, completely exhausted, and only missed the target by about 3 minutes. Not the time I was looking for, nor the drop off in performance I was expecting, but I gave it everything I had.
Later that night, while packing up for Memorial Day camping, a cough started, and progressively got much, much worse. So I took one of those home Covid tests, which came back negative, and still I was figuring it was just allergies. However, waking up feeling worse than the night before, I took another test, POSITVE. Memorial weekend turned into curled up on the couch weekend, and I knew my plans for a Boston Qualifying time were all but lost, time for a new plan.
The three weeks between getting sick and racing were focused completely on recovery and not training. Starting with walks, where I struggled to make it a 1/2 mile, while feeling dizzy as if I were going to pass out at any point. Progressively working in longer walks, short bike rides and finally a little run walk action, culminating in just 2 10+ mile, slow runs before race day.
Race Weekend!
Kel and I got up to Superior Wisconsin late morning on the Friday before the race, met up with our host for the weekend, Kel’s long time friend and former co-worker Gina and her family. Gina was originally going to be running the 1/2 marathon, but had some training setbacks and had to skip this year. We proceeded down to packet pickup pretty early, and I thought we’d be in and out and on our way to lunch in no time. However, after being stuck in traffic for an hour about 1/4 mile from the expo center, I realized just how large this race actually is! Once we did finally manage to park, and hike over to the expo center, the packet pickup part was quite quick. Much like the Madison marathon, vendors were everywhere, it was quite neat to see so many brands represented, and I did a bit of shopping on a clearance rack, found a new pair of my favorite brooks sherpa shorts at 20% off, score! Exciting as it was, I was happy to get out of there, post covid, large crowds still make me a little uneasy.
After a quiet pasta dinner back at the house, I tried to get to sleep early, but apparently there was a race track nearby, which kept me up, then the nerves set in. Once that alarm went off at 4:30, I think I had about 3-4 hours of actual sleep in there. It would have to be good enough. I caught a ride to the bus pickup location at UW-Superior from Gina and Kel, then it was off to the start line. On the bus I got to talking with my seatmate, this was going to be his first marathon, and he was understandably nervous. I think the bus ride actually plays into that, you know that the entire trip on that bus will need to be ran back, it’s a bit of an overwhelming feeling, lending reality to the distance, more that just seeing it on a map.
Once at the start site, I dutifully got in line for the port-a-poopers like all the other runners, a practical ritual. On the way there we had to walk around a large dump truck parked sideways, with a full load, on the road we were to be running on. This oddly gave me a sense of security, while reminding me of just how strange and frightening our world can be right now. Then made sure to finish up my water and cliff bar I’d brought with as a second breakfast to finish about 30 minutes before the start. While I still had some time to kill, I ended up finding a nice spot in the sun on the grass and stretched out, chilled out, and focused on positive thoughts.
Heading to the starting line corral, I hooked up with a few of the other Ironbull board members for a picture and well wishes, there were 4 of us all running the race, each with our own goals, so we wouldn’t be sticking together for it. Once in the corral I noticed I was really in the wrong spot, with the pacer group signs showing in the 4:20 range, time to try and squeeze forward! On the way up, through the crowd, you really realize just how many people there are here, it felt like we’d all be tripping over each other for the first mile or so.
Alright, found the 3:20 group, so I stuck with them, figured even thought I was shooting for a 3:25, keeping 3:20 in sight would be a good idea to start this run. The national anthem started in, things were getting real now, and just as the song ended 2 fighter jets coming buzzing by from out of nowhere, such an amazing and unexpected surprise. While recovering from seeing them, the airhorn went off and the pack surged forwards, just to abruptly stop. Being near the front with the 3:20 group, we were still a long ways from the actual front, and that initial jolt of GO, settled quickly as we shambled forwards, awaiting the wave of humanity to break out across the line.
It had been almost 6 months since I had last raced, and that was Ultraman, with 40 others. In this massive group of runners I felt absolutely swept along, carried by the initial push of adrenaline at the start, and I’ve raced long enough now, that I should have absolutely ignored that feeling, but excitement got the better of me, and off I sped. Throughout the first 10k (6.2 miles) I was continually passing, after starting further up in the field than I should have. But, my body felt fantastic, the legs were feeling light and my breathing was coming easily. While my watch kept telling me to slow down to my adjusted marathon pace of 3:25, my dumb, in the moment self, was thinking, lets see how long we can hold the BQ target pace for.
I got my answer pretty quickly, a little over that 6 miles in, and the breathing was starting to come harder and harder. That initial adrenaline shot was wearing off, and the reality of my situation was becoming clear, this was not sustainable in my current state. Now, if I had 3 or 4 miles to go, I would have gone for broke and pushed to keep that pace there, but with 20 miles to go…. it was time to slow down. I pulled back on the pace, leveling off with those around me, no longer passing often, but also not often being passed. Focusing on my surroundings I was taking note each time I was able to see the huge lift bridge in Duluth, right near the finish line, and realizing that each time I saw it, it didn’t seem to be any closer than the previous time. But the run was beautiful, surprisingly that far out from the city, there was already patches of fantastic crowd support, those brief little sections would really give you a noticeable push, like running through State Street during the Madison Ironman.
As the run came to the half way point, we ran through the starting line for the 1/2 marathon runners, who started about an hour before us, always a notable achievement point in any marathon, but having a big setup at that point, and then starting to see 2 different mile markers the rest of the way in was rather unique. My pace was starting to slip a little more here yet, and I fought as hard as I could until about mile 17 before I slipped down to the actual target pace point of the day at 7:45. From there though, things started to go sideways.
Right at the mile 18 marker, the 3:20 pace group passed me. At this point, I knew I’d have 5 minutes to give back to the course to still make that 3:25 target. I knew they were moving just under 7:40, so doing some quick math I knew I could fall back to about an 8:15 pace and still make it in on time. That realization became reality all to quickly as my pace continued to slide.
The run was really starting to get tough now. There were more and more spectators, but I wasn’t gaining much from it. But what I did see was pretty amazing. Families out in the front yard, with kids giving away fruit snacks and water. People playing musical instruments an even full bands. There was a full blown party atmosphere to run through, and I wished I would have been in a better state of mind to receive it.
The miles slowly ticked by, as I was now being continually passed, something that usually never happens late in a race for me. The consequences of starting too hard, and not being nearly back to full health were readily apparent. During a run through an aid station I got some more water in my hand held bottle and lost an earbud in the process, which I didn’t even realize until I was 20 feet down the road and tried to put it back in, oh well, the crowds would now be all the audio support I’d need. We were starting to close in on downtown Duluth. That damn bridge I’d been chasing all morning was finally looming large ahead of me, but I knew it still had one more trick. The course actually runs just south of the bridge first, then doubles back to the finish line, a sneaky way to add another mile.
Coming up on Sir Benedict’s where we had lunch the day before, the crowds were getting larger, and now included beers around the tavern! And so I pushed on, knowing I’d have one soon enough. We were getting to the only ‘hills’ on this course, a couple of short bursts, like going on an overpass. Doing some more mental math I knew I had time to walk them, so I took advantage. My hamstrings were screaming at this point, just a little louder than my calves, and I took that uphill as a welcomed brief time to stretch the legs out.
Down to 2 miles left, and my watch is at 3:07, that BQ time was to tick by soon, but there were 9 minutes per mile left to hit my modified goal. I started to relax, as long as I didn’t start cramping, it was in the bag. A strange sense of clam and assuredness came over me. It was becoming fun again. Everything hurt, sure, it always does this deep, but knowing I didn’t need to push it to the limit for those last 2 miles made this feel more like a training run and less like a race. We ran through the business area of Duluth, past all of the shops and bars, out around the expo center down on the harbor and back around to towards that bridge. Just putting one foot in front of the other, and really taking it all in. The funniest part about all of this, was after pushing hard for 24 miles, once I knew that goal time was within range, my pace and heart rate stayed exactly the same, but my perceived level of effort severely dropped off. Just another reminder that this sport is 99% mental.
Coming into the finish chute, I did something I’ve never done before in a race, got out my phone and started taking pictures. There wasn’t a rush, so I felt like, why not? I looked to the bleachers where I knew Kel would be waiting with Gina and family, and was able to stop and hug and kiss her on the way to the finish line. As I crossed I took one more picture backwards, hoping the clock would be viewable, but my final official time ended up being 3:23:53, a personal best by over 10 minutes, but still almost 14 minutes away from my original target for the day.
I was happy, but my legs were now pretty upset with me. I stumbled over to get my medal and shirt then, fighting off the cramps that were attempting to take my legs, I sat and stretched for a bit. Got up, stumbled around a bit more looking for the beer tent, when I heard someone call ‘Rob!’ Finding the source I saw Anne there, holding a beer for me! A complete surprise, she mentioned that she was running the 1/2 to me a week earlier and then waiting for some other friends to finish the full, I completely forgot she’d promised me a beer at the finish line!! What an amazingly welcome sight. We talked for awhile and I was happy to hear her race went well, another stepping stone on her journey towards Ironman Wisconsin.
Leaving the finishing area, I was able to find Kel and our friends, and I was really starting to get cold now. The sun we’d had all morning was now behind a wall of clouds and I was just starting to feel how strong the winds were today, not to mention the balmy highs in the low 50’s, perfect for running, but I started to cool off quickly covered in sweat, in the shade and winds. So, we made our way to a nearby bar, Hoops for a pretzel and another beer. I swear that was the best pretzel I’ve ever had!
Looking back, I’m really glad things went the way they did. I’ll have another shot at a BQ time down the road, but I feel like I learned a ton going through the process of building up all the speed work and training. Introducing track days and tempo work are only going to add fuel to the fire and I’m excited to see what my future training plans well be able to encompass because of it. I know there’s a lot of work for me to do to ever be able to a run a fast marathon, but this was a huge first step. I can’t blame the illness for not hitting my targets, I think I did exactly what was needed in changing the target. Life in endurance sport has taught me two huge lessons, work hard and you will achieve what you’re after and you can only affect the limited things within your control, to everything outside of your control, let it go.
Rob Hoehn 