Coastal Delaware Marathon Thoughts

So, one day after the marathon and here are my thoughts.


Night before:

Like the Marine Corps Marathon, we stayed overnight in a hotel, the Atlantic Sands.  This worked out well as I was right on the boardwalk and I had reserved a suite (to make it easier in the morning with the family on the trip too).  Dinner was Italian, with me having pasta and chicken.  The one gotcha was me catching my foot on my PJs just as I was about to go to sleep.  I wrenched my right hip, to the point I was having issues moving and standing.  How ironic for all my work to go up in flames hours before the race.  I kept moving and stretching, hoping things would get better in the morning.  I was in bed just a bit after 11:00pm with a target wake up time of 4:30am.

Morning of:

So, still pain in the hip when I got up.  I started eating and prepping for the race.  After downing my bagel, I slowly went through the dynamic stretches.  The hip loosed up.  I then went out to the start line to check on things.  At this point, I didn't feel pain as I moved.  Looks like the race was on!!  We went down to the start line around 6:35am.  Had to race back to hotel to take one more bathroom break before the start since the line was horrible at the starting line.  By the time I got back, the it was 5 minutes before start.  Worked my way up to the 3:35/3:25 pace groups in the front.  This race had less than 700 people in the marathon.  Weather was great, overcast with light winds.

the Race:

• Start - So, I started with the 3:25:00 pace group.  Pace was just a bit faster (10 sec per mile) but was going to stay with them to see if I could keep up.  At the time, it seemed like a good idea since I was able to pace faster than expected at the MCM last fall (by close to 10 sec faster per mile than the original target pace).   This worked for the first few miles (up to around mile 5).  
• Mile 5 - Started dropping back from the 3:25:00 pace group.  Things still felt good, but could tell I wasn't going to maintain a 7:50 pace.  The women I was running with since around mile 4 started to pull ahead.  She was shooting for a 3:30:00 marathon with a 3:33:00 PR recently.
• Mile 14 - I was definitely ahead of pace up to about mile 14.  Weather continued to good with light winds and overcast.  At this point, it was becoming evident that this race was not going to be like the MCM, where I basically cruised till mile 23.  It was beginning to require more effort to maintain pace.  The biggest hill came at mile 15-16 and the sun came out.  
• Mile 18 -  The race was becoming a struggle.  I started keeping an eye on the time to see how close I was going to come to the BQ cutoff time.  It seemed like I was definitely under by several minutes if I could maintain pace.  It was clear at this point this was not going to be fun.  
• Mile 20 - Just trying to keep my feet moving.  I kept losing time, but really couldn't pick up the pace.  Finally adjusted to race mileage and got a few minutes back (the watch/foot pod was under counting the distance).  My wife said I was looking bad at this point.  
• Mile 24 - Left leg came really close to cramping.  I quickly ate the rest of my gel.  Things got better.  Just trying to maintain pace.  
• Mile 25 - Dropped my water bottle.  Lost 10+ seconds.  Leaning down to pickup the bottle was slow-motion and extremely painful.  Heard the 3:35:00 pace group behind me just before Mile 26.  I tried to pick up the pace as he screamed "Keep up with me if you want to to beat 3:35."  I was pretty sure he was ahead of pace.  At this point, I had basically used up my buffer to BQ.
• Mile 26 - I could see the finish line.  It felt like I was going faster, but I'm sure it was in my head.  Clock just ticked over to 3:34:05 when I crossed.  

after Race:

• Final time was 3:33:58.  I had BQed with just over a minute buffer for my age group in 2020.  
• My back, thighs, and calf are all sore.  I have difficulty walking up stairs, getting out of a chair, or anything require those muscles.  This is probably the worst I have felt after a race (and I am typing this one day after).  
• I have trying to think through if I would have done anything differently.  Not sure anything I could change during the race that would have made a 2+ minute difference.
• It will be sad if I miss Boston by a minute.

what went well:

• Night before and morning prep worked fine.  Hotel location was very helpful in pre-race stress relief.
• Race size was great.  Not too big, not too small.
• Weather was great.  Overcast and light winds for most of the race.  Sun peaked out at mile 18 for a few miles.  It felt hot.  I'm glad it became overcast again.
• Course was general good.  Much more "packed trail" then expected (though it was 2.5 miles, more like 6+).
• More hilly then I though, but less then MCM (over 400 ft vs. 800).  The last hill at mile 15 was the worst.  
• Fueling worked out as planned.  I used up all 10 packets of gel, though I could have taken more earlier.  I didn't use up the Clif Blocs.  Would take more around mile 18-20 next time.  
• Vaporfly worked out well again.  This is my goto marathon shoe.

what didn't go well:

• Might have started a bit too fast.  Unclear at this point if it would have made a difference.  
• I should add a salt tab at mile 18-20.  At the MCM (which was colder), I almost had a cramp at the end of mile 25.  At this race, it was around mile 24.  Even though the fuel I was using in both races has electrolytes, it looks like I need more.
• Wasn't able to maintain pace at the end.  I went to 9 minute miles after mile 21.  My guess is that I needed faster (i.e., marathon pace runs at end of long) or more distance on long runs during training.  I was also reducing overall pace on long runs (went from 1:30 to 2:00+ over marathon pace) to reduce heart rate in the last 5 weeks of training.  It was clear that overall training load was going down.  Will have to try in increase training load, while still working in slower long/easy runs.  For MCM last fall, I peaked training load just before the taper.  I was also running my long runs much closer to my marathon pace (which was 10 seconds slower than my clocked race pace). 
• Stryd footpod was not calibrated correctly.  This unit was exchanged in Feb as my first unit was having connection issues.  Calibration runs indicated it was a bit off (like 2% under) but I assumed it might be my inaccurate measurements on my part.  Sure enough, by the 2nd mile, I was clocking significantly under the race markers every mile (over .02 miles).  When I finally synched close to mile 20, there was a measurement difference of almost .5 miles.  I was happy to get the minutes back, but it probably didn't help my pacing in the beginning.  What was confusing was I also add a few hundred meters to the target distance to give me a buffer.  I actually though I had 1-2 minutes in reserve, but I must have burned through that too.
• Equipment drama (cutting a hole in my race belt) and accidents (tripping) need to be minimized.  This race had more bizarre things then any other race.   

Conclusion:

All said and done, I'm glad I BQed, but concerned that I have very little buffer.  I know that I gave it my best from mile 20+ (as it kept going through my head that it would not be good to stop).  I'm going to wait a few weeks before I decide if I want to take another shot at a faster time in Erie, PA to ensure I can run Boston in 2020.  Otherwise, I'll roll the dice, and shoot for 2021 if it doesn't work out.