Humility, meet marathon results!
I completed the 2010 Chevron Houston Marathon a couple of days ago, and the experience led me to this blog-post title. It was my fourth marathon (my third in Houston).
I began the race with a specific goal:
- Complete it at or under 4:50:00.
But I ended the race with a different result:
- I completed it in 5:14:18.
So my average pace on Sunday was almost a minute/mile slower than what I wanted.
Don’t get me wrong. I had two “fall-back” goals:
- Complete it under 5:00:00. (Ah, to break five hours!)
- Complete it under 5:10:30, my PR from the 2009 Chevron Houston Marathon.
Other than the 3:38 final chip-time difference between 2009 and 2010, the intermediate chip-times are eerily similar:
- 10K:
- 1:08:55 in 2009
- 1:08:54 in 2010
- Half:
- 2:23:26 in 2009
- 2:24:07 in 2010
- 30K:
- 3:28:59 in 2009
- 3:29:56 in 2010
But check this out: I used different techniques in 2009 versus 2010!
I trained for the 2009 race by mostly walking with some running interspersed. But I raced in that event by getting caught up with the crowd and running the first ten or so miles at a relatively fast pace for me before switching to an unpredictable mixture of running and walking.
In contrast, I trained for the 2010 race initially with the 5:1 method and soon thereafter with the 1:1 method. And I raced in the 2010 event by ignoring the crowd and using the 1:1 method until around mile 22 or so, at which point it became more like the 1:2 method — with a minute of stilted running followed by two minutes of walking.
I had three high hopes for the 2010 Houston Marathon — with the 4:50:00 target, with the sub-five-hour target, and with the new-PR target — but not hitting any of those targets let my humility meet my marathon results on Sunday.
I came away from the 2010 event with some reinforced beliefs:
- Micro-level pacing prevents injuries.
- I developed severe knee pain around mile 22 in the 2009 race, in which I did NOT use micro-level pacing. In contrast, other than an overall soreness throughout my legs and feet, I had no pain in the 2010 race, throughout which I used micro-level pacing. While it is true that each of these races is “a sample of size one” (It is impossible to duplicate every environmental variable across races.), the fact that the knee pain never came back with micro-level pacing employed throughout my pre-2010-race training season and in the 2010 race strengthens my belief that this technique prevents injuries.
- Running one’s own race pays off.
- I wrote a blog post about this two months ago, after learning this lesson the hard way at the 2009 Rock ‘n’ Roll San Antonio Marathon. I ran my own race two days ago, and it paid off with a chip-time very close to my marathon PR.
- Racing down the middle of the road is the best way to go.
- I wrote an article at EzineArticles.com last week about the top ten reasons to race down the middle of the road (unless you are an elite runner with nobody around you). I then practiced on Sunday what I preached in that article. And it paid off in many ways, including a stronger sense of control — and therefore less stress — throughout the marathon.
But I also came away from the 2010 Chevron Houston Marathon with some additional, “candidate” beliefs:
- One should take seriously any indirect offers for help.
- I got accustomed to training without a side-by-side buddy when I switched from the 5:1 method to the 1:1 method in the 5:1 training group that was training for this marathon. So, when one of my training group’s 5:1’ers passed me with another racer at mile 22 on Sunday and asked whether I was okay (My struggling was apparently obvious to her!), I told her that I was fine, and she and her buddy “sped” ahead. Now I realize that her question was actually an indirect offer for help … and that I could have joined her and her buddy for the final four-plus miles to finish with a much better chip-time than what I got on my own. Not that I would necessarily be able to stick with them for that entire distance, mind you. But at least I could have given it a good try. So you may call me “slow” in terms of coming to this realization. But now I know, and I will not turn away indirect offers for help in future road races!
- Improving one’s flexibility will improve one’s endurance.
- I truly believe that my increasing stiffness in the final several miles of Sunday’s race was my undoing in terms of meeting any of my targets. I also believe that that stiffness came from insufficient flexibility going into that race. And I believe that the insufficient flexibility is my own fault: I simply did not stretch as much as or as frequently as I should have throughout the training season! Lesson learned. Now comes the challenging part: incorporating flexibility exercises into my daily routine. Stay tuned: After I have thoroughly investigated flexibility training and found what works, I will put my research in a special report.
- Focusing on a negative split will cut one’s chip-time.
- Beyond monitoring my GPS unit for running and walking paces in each minute of the 1:1 method, I listened for called-out paces from volunteers at various mile markers along the marathon course on Sunday. And those paces slowly but surely dropped in the first half of the marathon — from something like 11:50/mile to something like 11:05/mile. But eventually — in the second half of the marathon — I was back to hearing called-out paces around 11:50/mile and higher. Talk about depressing! So I would have had a negative split if I were running a half marathon, but I got a positive split for the full marathon, and THAT is the split that mattered. I had never mastered the negative split during the training season leading up to this race. But now I more strongly appreciate its psychological value, so I must learn more about how to train to achieve it in races. Stay tuned for this one, too: After I have thoroughly investigated negative splits, I will write about them in a special report.
There you have it: six road-racing beliefs that may serve you well.
What road-racing beliefs have served you well? Please comment here. Thanks!
