Becoming a Marathon Maniac: Maryville Marathon Race Report

The bottom line: this is my third marathon in 54 days, which qualifies me for becoming a Marathon Maniac. The first one was Boston on April 20 and then Andy Payne (in Oklahoma) on May 23. Being this my 10th marathon, Maryville (MO on June 13) is by far the most difficult course I have ever run.

Here is the elevation profile. The second half is just another loop. I was blessed to have relatively nice weather, not as hot as this race had been in past years. According to Wunderground.com, temp at the 6:30 am start was 61 F, humidity 93% and wind 10 mph from the north. The wind stayed about the same during the race except that around 8 am there were some 17 mph gusts. Then it was 100% humidity reading and decreased to 88% at 10:30 am.  Fortunately it was cloudy and temp was 63 F at 10:30.

I was not sure about my strategy for the race. My race would be based on what whatever happened to my ITB, which was sore after Boston and then sore again after A Payne. Due to this ITB issues I only ran 4 times during the three weeks between A Payne and Maryville, for a total of 17.5 miles with 5.5 miles being the longest. The rest of the days I swam about 2000 meters just to try to keep my cardio and the last week I did not run or swim at all.  

I had run Boston in 3:34 and A Payne in 3:56 with temp in the lower 80s at the end of AP. I knew my goal at Maryville should be just to finish it regardless of time, given my ITB issues and the short time separating the three races. However, the relatively cool weather made me think to start around 8:20-8:30 pace and see what happens late in the race. This is the first time I run a marathon with my recently bought Garmin 305 and the first time I was going to use a HR monitor for longer than 5 miles. So I had no idea what my HR was going to look like, but I figured it should be in the lower 150s (I am male 48). I know that mile splits and HR can be boring but being this my first time having those, I report them below. Being a new user I am not sure if the HR reported in my Garmin is avg or the minimum on that split. I believe it's lap average.

                         HR   Terrain
1          8:16     156    Rolling
2          7:56     159    Rolling
3          8:18     162    Rolling
4          8:24     158    Rolling
5          8:22     154    Rolling
6          8:17     153    Downhill
7          8:22     158    Rolling
8          8:26     163    Uphill
9          8:25     164    Uphill
10        8:12     163    Rolling
11        8:40     162    Rolling
12        8:49     161    Uphill
13        9:04     159    Rolling
14        8:53     160    Rolling
15        9:00     158    Rolling
16        9:41     159    Rolling
17        9:27     161    Rolling
18        9:03     163    Rolling
19        9:05     161    Downhill
20        9:31     162    Rolling
21      10:00      163   Uphill
22      10:02      162   Uphill
23      10:03      160   Rolling
24      10:06      160   Rolling
25      10:01      164   Uphill    
26      10:49      160   Rolling
.3    8:58 pace  164    Downhill

A couple of miles into the race I realized that HR in the lower 150s was not going to happen but close to 160 felt comfortable so I decided to let my HR dictate my pace and targeted a lap HR of 158-160. I ran most of the time with the Garmin screen that I had customized to 4 data fields: Lap HR, instant HR, lap pace and distance. I also wore a cheap watch on my right wrist.

During the first three miles I ran close to a girl that was doing the half and a guy who was running the full. At around mile 4 I let them go and kept running by myself. The water stations were well distributed but still ran with two bottles on my fuel belt in order to have water available when I wanted to have a gel. I stocked up with 5 double latte PowerBar gels in my race ready shorts as well as 2 bags of blocks, acetaminophen and glucose tablets. I had taken 1000 mg of acetaminophen 45 min before the start just in case…for my ITB. I did the same in AP and I was fine. I had the gels at 40 min intervals and the plan was to start having the blocks after the gels but I never used them. I usually have some glucose tables around mile 23 but I did not do that this time either.

For the first hour I did not have any Gatorade from the water stations, just plenty of water. Then I started having some Gatorade and stuck to it until the last water station. At around mile 7, I kind of felt my ITB. I had read about an ultramarathoner who reported that pushing a harder toe-off effort helped him on the onset of the ITB so I tried that, pushed my pace and the ITB feeling went away. I was completely happy. I never felt my ITB again.

At water station around mile 8, there was a group of girls dancing in Madonna costumes. I stopped for a few seconds and dance with them. At mile 10, I started to catch up to the half marathon girl who had left me in mile 4 and the last 3 miles of the half is a section with headwind so I thought it was not a bad idea to draft from this girl and have extra motivation…I push the pace and stuck behind her…well for a couple of miles after which I let her go…I did not like the spike on my HR…

I got to the midpoint and was still feeling in decent shape. A mile before my right quad started to complain and took an extra 1000 mg of acetaminophen. Not much to describe from here but when I got to the water station with the Madonna girls around mile 21, I didn't feel like dancing anymore. I did move my arms and they give me some cheers and I continue running solo.

Five miles to go. This is where I start dedicating each mile for each of my four kids and this gives me extra motivation to finish. I am starting to feel tired buy I never felt exhausted. The final 3 miles are extra difficult because I was going into the north wind and a good portion was a long uphill.  Around mile 24, I feel my right hammy cramping. I want to finish healthy so I stop for a few seconds to stretch it.

I saw a guy approaching me. I start running again and now it is my left hammy that feels like cramping. I stopped again to stretch. The guy passes me, I hear him breathing heavily and I figure he was toasted. I repeat to myself "you don’t care about placement, this is your own race, don’t do something stupid”. So I shorten my stride as much as I can in order to protect both hamstrings. On the long uphill the guy who had passed starts walking. I also got another guy on that hill. I was feeling good; I just didn’t want to pull a hammy so I kept my shortened stride. “It’s a matter of patience” I tell myself. I finally crested the long uphill and now there was a slight downhill. I know I am about .5 mile away to become a marathon maniac and again, I am happy. About a quarter mile from the finish I heard heavy breathing approaching, but. I didn’t care, I told myself, I'll let them go. It is a girl. The first female finisher, I believe. Then another girl passes me and I coast to the finish.

I don’t have the official results at this time but my Garmin read 3:58:05 and they told me I was 17th overall out of about 70 runners. This is not even my worst marathon since I ran 3:59:xx at Andy Payne in '08 in horrible weather. [Official results, Jorge's time was 3:58:06]

Thanks for reading.

Jorge Carvajal