Category: marathon

3:10:50…

That sounds like rock and/or roll. ~ Reverend Lovejoy

The Rock -n- Roll Denver marathon was a blast. Going in, I knew I hadn’t fully prepared for a fast marathon so was a bit unsure about how I would perform. Bounced back and forth about what time to target and, in the end, settled on running with the 3:15 group and then playing the finish by ear. Turns out, that was a decent, albeit conservative, plan.

Jammed down to Denver early on Sunday to swing by Caleb and Sierra’s place. Sierra had graciously offered to take Caleb and me to the start so we wouldn’t have to deal with the parking mess which is Downtown Denver. Caleb was teed up for a fast 1/2 marathon and yoinked a 1:32 or so. It was chilly at the start but not too terrible and I warmed up a bit on the grass in front of the capitol building before finally settling into corral #1 minutes before the start. After a poorly rendered version of the National Anthem (seriously, learn the words if you are going to get up in front of thousands of people and sing), we were escorted to the start line and were off.

The 3:15 group was paced by Mike, a 2:20 marathoner from Ohio so cruising us around at a 3:15 pace was not going to cause him any troubles. We started out slowly… just letting the group warm up during the first mile then slowly picked up the pace. By about mile 4, I needed to pee really badly and rolled off the front of the group to give myself enough padding to catch back up once done with my pit stop. I timed it perfectly and was able to rejoin the group around mile 5 as we entered City Park.

At this point, we were back on the 3:15 target pace and I was feeling fine. Pretty much zero effort to this point as we did a couple laps in the park through mile 8 or so. We exited the park, did a convoluted out/back on 17th then headed over to Cheesman for a quick lap around this iconic Denver park.

Upon exiting Cheesman, I was still feeling solid and decided to pick up the pace a bit and see what I could do. I rolled off the front of the 3:15 group around mile 12 and picked up the pace a bit as I crossed the half-way mark in 1:36:20 (or so). I pushed the pace through mile 15 where I started catching runners targeting 3:10. By the time we entered Washington Park and mile 17, I’d caught and settled in with a small group of people running at about a 3:09 finish pace.

This group thinned out considerably to two of us as we exited Wash Park (mile 20). At this point, I was still feeling like I could hold our 7:00 pace and we were staying right on target for a sub 3:10 finish. We headed north up Logan then turned onto 1st at which point I started to struggle to keep the pace. Based on our numbers, we should have had a decent buffer at this point and I lost contact with my fellow runner as we turned onto 5th and my leg speed began to fall off considerably. Miles 23 to the finish were less than awesome as I tried to hold on for a 3:10 finish. By mile 24, I knew that wasn’t going to be an option any longer so I just cruised in. Rach ran along with me for about the last mile, which was thoroughly kickass and I crossed the finish line with a new PR of 3:11:50.

Though I would have loved to uncork a sub 3:10, I was extremely excited about this finish time. It qualified me for Boston (which, unfortunately filled up in 8 hours), beat my previous PR by 12+ minutes, and put me in sniffing distance of running a sub 3-hour race in the future. Given that I didn’t really even train much for this event and quickly made the transition from dirt to road, I am very pleased with my performance and what this bodes for future races. I finished 89th overall (out of 2894 participants) and 8th in my age group. Not. Too. Shabby.

~stubert.

Prep…

Prior planning prevents piss-poor performance. ~ Anon

Well, with a week to go before the Denver Marathon, I have one more medium-long run planned (today, 12M) then I’ll just get my taper on for the remainder of the week. I am guessing I could really use a couple more weeks to prep for this puppy but I suspect the RD won’t be willing to push the start date back for me so I’ll just make due with what I have.

Bought a pair of Brooks Green Silence flats to try out. I ran in them last week and am taking them out again today. Initial tests were quite positive so I am excited to see how I like them during the longer efforts. Scott Jurek used these during his record-breaking 24-hour event this past summer, in case you were wondering.

Work has been steady (read: hectic) this week but I managed to get in all my runs. Rach and I even got to go to the Met in HD performance of Das Rheingold yesterday, which was gorgeous on a whole host of levels.

I am off to Boulder to get my run in. Have a great Sunday.

~stubert.

Nuts…

I remember when, I remember I remember when I lost my mind ~ Gnarls Barkley

This week was crazy nuts. Tons of work to get done. So I signed up to run the Golden Gate Canyon 1/2 Marathon this Sunday and then pulled the trigger on the Denver Marathon on October 17th. Yes, there is something wrong with me.

I also ran with Caleb twice (tempo run last Saturday and then 800 repeats on Tuesday) and hooked up with the Denver Trail Runners group on Thursday which was pretty awesome. Those guys are fast. Hoping this will tee me up well for the Denver race and get me moving in the right direction to try for a sub-3-hour marathon in the near future.

I’ll let you know how tomorrow goes. Hoping to get in under 2-hours which would be a PR for that course.

~stubert.

Ski, run, run, run…

If one could run without getting tired I don’t think one would often want to do anything else. – C.S. Lewis

Tues: 2:00, ski, A-Basin, 00:40, 4.5 miles, treadmill surges
Wed: 1:30ish, 11.4ish miles, Boulder tempo
Thurs: 00:36, 3.45 miles, Casa recovery

Crazy week. My mojo has been thrown off a bit by the holiday but that does not seem to have affected my running. Which is nice. I have continued to be consistent and even tossed in some turns at the Basin on Tuesday for good measure.

Tuesday featured early morning snow sliding with Caleb, a buddy who hadn’t skied since last March when he suffered a broken leg while skiing at the Basin. So it was a celebration of sorts, welcoming him back to the world of tele turns. A-Basin still has really only one run of man-made open but it was fun to get out there and spin a few laps. It wasn’t too crowded on Tuesday morning so we just burned vert until we felt like we had explored the one run enough then called it good. Caleb is a two-time Leadville runner and has logged a bunch of really cool marathon experience as well. He has done a lot of the major events (Chicago, New York, Boston, San Fran) and logged a PR of 3:02 at New York two years ago (if memory serves). I definitely am putting that one on the list and may just toss my name in the lottery for next year’s event for good measure.

Post skiing, I hit the gym for some surges on the treadmill and felt great. Good, solid warm up then 5 strong, 1-minute surges. Apparently the skiing treated me well as I felt awesome and just cranked through the workout in good form

Wednesday, I got up early and headed down to Boulder for a tempo run. I forgot my Garmin and iMapMyRun didn’t work for me so well but I survived the technical difficulties to pull together a pretty amazing run. I warmed up really slowly then chased through the group to log over 11 miles total in about 1:30. Considering the warm up (~50 minutes, 4+miles), that is a really fast tempo for a Stu. I was pretty much done by mile 11 and coasted in the last half mile for a really solid tempo run. Too fast, yeah. But good to get things moving and sustain for that duration.

Today featured a quick recovery run. It was a gorgeous day up here and I was treated to virtual silence throughout the run. With everyone indoors watching football or whacking down enough food to keep an African village well fed for a week, I had the roads and trails to myself. I put it on auto-pilot and just ran at a slow, comfortable pace throughout. Headed up through Mountain Meadows and unconsciously, turned onto one of my favorite trails near my house. It was snowpacked and icy but that didn’t seem to bother me much at all as I worked my way through the forest, the tempo of my footsteps providing the rhythm to carry me up and over hills and obstacles along the way. The trail became progressively less traveled as I made my way through the woods until I was breaking trail through 6 inches of untracked snow left over from our last storm. I popped out on the main thoroughfare and headed back towards my house. A red-tailed hawk was circling lazily overhead, ducking courageously through the tall pines until it drew the attention of a single crow who quickly made its way up to make its challenge. They danced, providing me ample entertainment to carry me over the last hill effortlessly. I made it home shortly thereafter, energized from the time spent out among the flora and fauna of the Colorado high-country.

~stubert.

One in the bank…

…one of many children… ~ Jane’s Addiction

Hit the Basin up this morning for the kick-off for the ’09-’10 ski season. I was a little rusty on the first run for sure and my new liners, courtesy of Larry’s Bootfitting, will take some getting used to (yes, they are STIFF), but otherwise, it was a good first outing.

Luke and I didn’t last very long – not due to any physical, out of shape-ness – but due to the ever building crowd of snow sliders flocking to one of only two mountains open for business. We made about 6 runs before calling it a day and Exo was actually spinning at a much faster tempo than normal. Our final foray into the maze was a 15-minute affair… only an hour or so after catching first chair. Alan is promising more terrain will open soon and with Keystone set to turn next week, the crowds should thin a bit.

I hit the gym on the way home to log some time on the treadmill and do a few surges. Temps climbed today which resulted in a squishy mess on local roads and trails. I definitely would love to get a treadmill at some point. Plop in a movie and bust out 15 miles. Sounds like a great combo to me.

Tomorrow is the date for the annual New York Marathon. This one is definitely on my list of “must-dos” as it is not only enormous but would be really cool to run through all five boroughs. Fred Lebow started the event back in the early 70s (if memory serves). There is a pretty good movie that goes into a lot of interesting detail about the event: Run For Your Life. The New York Times published an article recently about a man who created his own NYC marathon by walking around his block 75 times. I like DIY.

Tomorrow I have a long run on the schedule. Definitely not “planned” yet as I have no clue where it will be but probably will end up somewhere in Boulder. Unless you have other ideas…

~stubert.