alexr_rwx | race report: Indianapolis Monumental Marathon 2013!

That went really well. Upshot: 3:30:03 for the full marathon, for a new PR by 6:09!!

Lindsey and I went up to Indianapolis yesterday evening, having decided to come home and hang out with the kitties after our red-eye flight from California. We stayed in a hotel in downtown Indianapolis and walked over to the Westin to find the BARA folks and take our traditional pre-race team picture, just like previous years. Our friend Jaimie met us at the hotel too -- this was his first half-marathon!

It was a beautiful day for racing! Nice and cool but not cold! Overcast at first, and then the sun came out.

My pacing was really good; I started with the 3:35 pace group, just like last year. My original intent was just to stick with them the whole way, ready to be happy with keeping a steady pace and a small PR. I tried hard towards the beginning to stay relaxed and not push myself. And doing that, even, I found myself floating further and further in front of the group, and I kept thinking "wow, these miles are just flying by!" Really happy with how this went: negative splits overall, and mile 26 was the fastest one.

Had some interesting conversations along the way; one girl, Laura, told me about how she was a graphic designer and used to live in Bloomington (and knows Rachel N, like probably most runners in the area); she was dedicating each mile to a different friend, and would announce who that mile was for, when we got to mile markers.

My brain goes to strange places in the last third of a marathon; a guy commented on my VFFs, saying that my calves are probably pretty strong and that it's probably more like how our ancestors ran. And I started thinking about persistence hunting and said (to a total stranger) something like "it's like I'm chasing down a buffalo; it will collapse from exhaustion and then I will fucking stab it to death. And drink its blood." ... he didn't seem too weirded out by that, somehow.

Almost broke 3:30! In my defense, my watch says that I went 26.3 miles overall. So there's that.

Great race, yeeaaahhh! Compare with my previous one this year, especially the splits.

Things that went well here: the pacing, clearly -- staying relaxed at the beginning was good. Nutrition: before the race, I ate two Clif bars (and a multivitamin -- my supplementation is ON POINT), and had a Gu like a half hour before starting. Then I ate a Gu roughly every 45 minutes during the race, which I think was about the right amount of calories. Drank mostly Gatorade along the way, but sometimes water if I was feeling thirstier. My training leading up to the race was pretty good running-wise (although I've put in more weekly mileage, sometimes), but I've also been doing more strength training than before. I started doing a fair amount of bodyweight strength training since the spring, and that probably helped. I wore some toe socks with my VFFs (which are just a touch looser than I would like), and I didn't get any blisters, which is rad.

OK, cool :)

Official results!
  - bib number: 935
  - overall place: 598
  - division: M 30-34
  - division place: 97 out of 307
  - gender place: 491 out of 1994
  - 10k: 0:50:09 (pace: 8:06 , rank: 885 )
  - 30k: 2:29:27 (pace: 8:02 , rank: 731 )
  - first half: 1:45:30 (pace: 8:04 , rank: 832 )
  - last half:1:44:33 (pace: 7:59 , rank: 458 )
  - net time: 3:30:03 (pace: 8:01 based on net time)

Complete mile splits from my watch:
  - miles 01-05: 8:27, 7:51, 7:41, 8:08, 8:13,
  - miles 06-10: 7:58, 7:59, 8:08, 7:57, 8:03,
  - miles 11-15: 8:02, 8:01, 8:02, 8:01, 7:48
  - miles 16-20: 8:01, 7:54, 7:52, 7:40, 8:00
  - miles 21-25: 7:50, 7:59, 7:50, 8:12, 8:13
  - mile 26 and the last bit: 7:39, 7:41 (pace, not split)