The review:
This was my 8th marathon (7th state). I live in Columbus – right by mile marker 21 on the race route. Without a doubt, this is a ‘homecourse’. I crushed it.
With that context, I would have to say this is the most sensational marathon I’ve ever participated in – with and without the bias.
With the bias: I knew every street, slight incline, turn… where to expect great crowd support, where not.
It was awesome to see so many familiar faces in the crowd – I probably recognized 30-40 supporters that didn’t even come out to see me but where there for someone else.
Without the bias: Columbus is known as a qualifying course. They say it’s flat. True… it’s mostly flat.. but there are some rolling inclines as you move away from the Olentangy river. They were noted.
The reason I think Columbus is such a great course is because there are no mental sucker punches.
Let me explain.
The San Diego Rock ‘n Roll marathon finishes with a seven mile loop around Mission Bay – on the ocean. The entire race you look forward to this flat and scenic finish. SUCKER PUNCH. You get to mile 19 and you see people on the other side of the bay – seven miles away. When you can see that much of the horizon it feels like you’re not even moving. Then, BAM! SUCKER PUNCH #2. The ocean is not all it’s cracked up to be… you have a 15mph changing headwind off the bay that throws sand and salt water in your face.
So that’s a mental sucker punch. Columbus doesn’t have any mental sucker punches.
Misc Pro's:
- Noted that they cut back on the swag this year. Instead, seemed to have porto-potties EVERYWHERE. This is a pro and a con... but a fair and endorsable trade-off
- Crowd support. Beats the hell out of every other race I've done.
- Water / Aid: Impeccable
- Time of year: Perfect fall weather after conditioning in the heat all summer
- NO MENTAL SUCKER PUNCHES!
Misc Con's
- The bands. Should've been a Pro but every band I passed happened to be taking that moment to talk about who they were. PEOPLE! We're going to see you for 20 seconds. Just play the Rocky-theme over and over.
- Short north. Not a big deal but worth noting this and campus represented the weakest crowd turnout. Not what I would've predicted.
- Corral start: I couldn't even get into my corral (#2). There were about 200 of us that just wouldn't fit. Some runners didn't understand the concept of chip-timing and panicked, trying to push their way to the front.
- The congestion. Can't add any more runners. Should maybe even cut back number of 1/2 runners a bit. It was so crowded the first 12 miles that I ran 13.44 miles according to my Garmin - bobbing and weaving through traffic. Also saw several runners trip and tumble.
- The food at the end. Maybe you had to be faster than me but some green bananas and chocolate milk just didn't seem that awesome.
- The 'woo rabbit'. Some guy jumped in to run with his wife from mile 24 to the end. He was full of energy and just kept shouting AT everyone, "We got this! Get er done! Wooooooo!" It did inspire me... to sprint a half-mile ahead so I wouldn't have to finish listening to him.
All that being said, this is the first race I’ve ever rated as 5 stars in every category (course, crowd support, organization) on
marathonguide.com.
The recap:
I set a PR – by a ton – my previous best was 4:17:00 and I finished this race in 3:52:00. This was due largely to the factors above.
I started the race thinking I would take it easy. My knee has been tweaked for several months (tendonitis) so I figured that if I pushed it, I would knock myself out of the run around mile 18 as the ice-pick-to-the-knee feeling emerged.
To counteract this I focused not on time or pace but ONLY on keeping PERFECT RUNNING FORM. Slight lean forward. Pivot from the core, not the hips. No over-striding! They call this ‘efficient running’.
Efficient running = fast running. I found out.
I had trouble getting into my corral at the start of the race – way overcrowded. So I just waited until the race started and casually jumped into the mix. This meant I was bobbing and weaving for most of the first half of the race. Cbus adds 8000+ half-marathoners. While this sort of pissed me off, I have to admit, it probably kept me in check. I couldn’t go too fast.
Somewhere around mile 8 I realized I was clipping along consistently at 9:00 – 9:30 per mile.
I had planned on 10:00+.
More importantly, I felt like I was holding back… I didn’t feel like I was pushing it to get to this pace.
EPIPHANY!
I should ALWAYS run with good form.
Was this going to be a house of cards? Would everything come crashing down with the mother of all walls?
I put my chances of hitting a world-record-wall at better than 80% so I decided to tweak the speed up, just a notch, thinking I would bank some time. I kept chanting my goal in my head however… ‘Don’t push it too much. Still hold form. Still hold form.’
Sidenote: I’m a Chi-Running disciple. I truly believe that if you run ‘correctly’ it removes stress from the joints. It’s when you run incorrectly that injury happens or, in my case, re-injury. I can speak for every tweak I’ve ever had. All went back to getting tired and lazy late into a long run and just pushing for miles with bad form. Or, from simply over striding on short runs for faster time.
My family was to be at Mile 21.
Even though my times auto-tweeted I promised my wife I would call her from my cell phone at mile 19 with a heads up.
The game plan called for me to be passing our house around 11:15.
At Mile 16, I was still holding form and cranking out 8:30 miles. I realized I would be hitting mile 21 about 20 minutes ahead of schedule.
I had a holy $#@! Moment when I could hit my holy grail of race times: a sub four-hour race!
Quick call to my wife: “I’m killing it. Will be in much earlier than expected. Feel like I’m blood doping or something. Gotta go!”
I have never been a runner. For 15+ years any run over three miles has given me shin splints. I had tried foot doctors, sports med specialists, orthodox, special stretches, special shoes… I was just not meant to be a runner.
About two years ago several things happened.
- My running muse, Kari Brown, evaluated my running gait and made several corrections to my form. Kari is a PT… a runner and she specializes in running mechanics. She also motivated me through my first ‘long run’: 20K.
- I read ‘Born to Run’. I totally subscribed to the idea that I could be running with improper mechanics – causing injury.
- I then read ‘Chi Running’ – which was something of a guidebook for new mechanics.
Putting all this together I started running... very slow… 11 min miles. My only running objective at first was to avoid injury. As I worked toward marathons I perceived myself as someone that would finish (slow) but without injury. My first race took 5:00:00. To think that I – the shin splinter five hour guy would ever have a sub-four race wasn’t even a conceivable idea, let alone a goal I would’ve ever shot for in this lifetime.
Evidently about 2000 miles of patient running can change your form and add some speed.
I decided I was going to go for the sub-four-hour.
I decided I would not slow down one bit. To say hello to anyone. To get water. I would zone out and crank – perfect form, crank up the speed, hold form, no distractions.
My wife was a blur (but super energizing just knowing she was there).
By the time I hit the Grandview downhill (mile 24ish) I knew I had 4:00:00 in the bag. Now it was just about ‘THE PERFECT RACE’. I didn’t want to mail it home and have any regrets so I kept pace.
Felt the first real burn at mile 25 (hill up to Neil Ave) but we were so close it didn’t matter.
Kicked it. Crushed it. First person I saw across the finish line was Kari Brown. She finished 20 minutes ahead of me and qualified for Boston. (two thumbs up for that little effort)
I’m posting this recap two days later… feeling great. No acute pains. Walking normal. Feeling awesome.
On to the next marathon – just signed up for Manchester, NH in 2.5 weeks J
