B&A Trail Marathon Race Report

Aww yeah, it's about that time. I hope you guys enjoy reading my race reports as much as I enjoy writing them. I know it's long, but I like to ramble. I also noticed there were a couple other r/running folks who said they ran this. Pretty cool, considering it was kind of a small race. If any of you have anything to add, feel free!

My history, briefly: 3 years ago today (no fooling - 4/1/2011), I picked up running. It took me a while to gain steam, but I ran my first marathon in October 2012. This past Sunday was the B&A Trail Marathon in Severna Park, Maryland, my sixth marathon. That's 6 in 18 months, dang!

Training: This was sort of a recover/train/taper all mashed into 5 weeks, because my last marathon was on 2/23, in Central Park in New York. I did a 5 week gap between 'thons back in the fall, and found it quite badassifying, so I decided to go for it again. Spoiler alert: both times, I fared far better in the second marathon of each pair.

Week 1 (post Central Park Marathon): 22 miles
Week 2: 28 miles
Week 3: 37 miles
Week 4: 13 miles
Week 5: 35 miles (includes marathon)

My goddamn knee: My left knee has always given me a bit of trouble, but it's usually not enough to stop me or even slow me down. It's just a nag. A twinge. A reminder that I'm 37. But after CP, it was coming on strong, and not really going away as usual. Long story short, my shoes were getting old. Usually, shin splints or unreasonably sore quads are my warning signal to get new shoes, but this time it was my knee. Pay attention to these signals, kids, and track your mileage on your shoes. It's very important. Anyway, while I figured that out, I ended up missing a few runs during weeks 2, 3, and 4 above. This made me nervous.

My running buddies: Brian is a friend of mine who had decided that this spring, he would be running his first marathon. I wanted to run another one too, so I told him to pick whatever one he wanted, and I'd run it with him. So he picked the B&A. By the way, that stands for Baltimore and Annapolis. The course is on a 100% paved rail trail that covers what used to be the rail line between... wait for it... Baltimore and Annapolis, Maryland. A couple weeks after registering, I was talking with another running buddy, Seth, about doing another marathon 5 weeks before the B&A, and he suggested the Central Park Marathon, which he was also doing. Commas, people. They're free. Use 'em. Seth is super fast (marathon PR is sub 3). Brian is pretty fast too (half marathon PR is 1:46). My half PR is 1:51 and my full PR is (spoiler alert: was) 4:48.

Carb loading: This is important: don't skimp on your carb loading. I mentioned Seth above because we got together for dinner in Manhattan the night before CP, and I didn't eat enough. Sure, I had a burger, some sweet potato fries, and bread pudding for dessert. That's great for an ordinary dinner, but I was running a marathon the next day, I knew I hadn't gotten enough, but I let it happen anyway. That was a stupid mistake. I didn't let it happen this time. Now, many "rules" of running are actually pretty personal. I've read many times that you shouldn't necessarily eat more food during a carb load, just replace some of the fat and protein with carbs. In my case, that just flat out doesn't work. Maybe it'll be that way when I'm faster, but in my experience, loading up on food and stuffing myself to the gills is what works. So, keeping in mind that I usually eat around 2200-2400 calories a day (and have been very slowly losing weight since Christmas):

Thursday: normal breakfast and lunch, but for dinner - Five Guys burger and an entire 20 oz. bag of frozen sweet potato fries. Seriously, I love sweet potato fries.
Friday: normal breakfast, Chipotle burrito for lunch, favorite homemade rice dish for dinner. This dish involves spicy sausage with spicy sauce. I call it a "tracer round", so I know where my digestion is. To be clear: when that particular dish comes out, it's obvious.
Saturday: normal breakfast, Denny's cinnamon pancakes for lunch (comes with eggs, hash browns, sausage and bacon), Pad Thai for dinner. I get the Pad Thai fairly mild, because I do need to comfortably poop it out the next morning before the race.
Sunday morning: Dunkin Donuts - sausage, egg, and cheese on a croissant, large iced coffee with cream and sugar, two donuts.

Some of you may balk at this diet, but it's what works for me. I'm not posting it to say this is what everyone should be eating, but to say that there is a great variety in what works for different runners. Anyway, notice all the rice? White rice in the burrito, white rice in my sausage thing, rice noodles in the Pad Thai. White rice is good carb, if you ask me. If Dunkin Donuts made a rice donut, I'd be all set. They actually might, for the gluten-free crowd.

The Dunkin Donuts serves a second purpose, besides supplying me with mucho calories: it consistently makes me poop. I literally run on Dunkin.

Fuel: Yes, after all that, I still need to bring gels with me. I use AccelGel, and brought 6 with me: 3 key lime and 3 raspberry creme (the latter includes 30 mg of caffeine per packet). The plan is always to take one gel every 4 miles. I have never followed this plan, because either by mile 20 or 24, I can't stomach another gel. But it's there if I need it.

Water: After the "brown pee incident" during the Rock and Roll USA marathon last March, during which I did not bring my own water, I decided to always bring my own water on marathons. I have never regretted this decision. Water on demand is beautiful. Plus, I always need to take a couple big gulps to wash down a gel, so this means that I can have the gels right when I need to, on a consistent schedule, rather than waiting for the next water station or having to eat one early. I carry one of these, or something close to it.

Tracking: I've been using Endomondo on my phone for the last 2+ years to track my runs, including races, which means I bring my phone with me on every run. This is not a problem at all. I can carry it in the pouch of my water bottle, or I have a little drawstring pouch I carry it in. This changed last week, when I finally broke down and bought myself a Garmin Forerunner 210.

For the love of all that is holy, go out and buy yourself a running watch. Jesus Christ, you have been missing out. This guy knows what's up.

Advantages:

1. Without the phone in my water bottle pocket, I can stuff a few gels in there, meaning less banging around in my shorts pockets.
2. More accurate than cell phone GPS. I usually don't care, but in a marathon, the difference adds up. One marathon I ran last year ended up being over 27 miles, according to my phone.
3. Instant pace feedback. Oh god, the luxury. Glance at watch, "Oops, need to slow down a bit." Glance at watch, "Come on now, pick it up a bit." This was very important for this marathon, because there were no pace groups to rely on (there weren't in Central Park either, but I bonked too hard due to my shitty carb load for it to matter).

Race Day: Raining and mid-40s. PERFECT RUNNING WEATHER. Keeps me cool, washes the pain away, washes the stank away. Oh god, I stink when I run a marathon. Have you ever gotten into a cab in New York and apologized for the way you smelled? Yeah, that happened last month. But not Sunday. No siree. Why? No cabs in Severna Park. But also because the rain washed away about 80% of the stank.

Anyway, it was coming down pretty hard before the start. Until about 5 minutes before the horn went off to start the race, nobody, and I mean nobody, was standing in the start area. Everyone was sort of packed in at the entrance to the high school where packet pickup and the post race area was set up. I was actually one of the first to walk away from the shelter of the school to the starting area. As I walked by the timer's booth, I heard a woman singing the National Anthem. I guess she had been asked to sing for the event, but since no one was standing in the starting area, she was sort of singing quietly to herself. It was a nice moment.

Everyone came out in due time, we all huddled together, and about 50 jackasses repeated some form of, "We're going to get wet eventually, might as well get it over with." A nice couple who I named Beard asked me to take their picture, and I did. He had an epic beard and was wearing running sandals that were sort of flip flop looking. A few people asked him about them. He said, "At least my socks won't get wet." Beard had a point. By the way, you should know that I nickname other runners.

We started, and I focused in on my pace. My previous personal best was about 11:02 per mile, however that involved a slight bonk at around mile 22. Are bonks ever slight? In this case, I had slowed down after I took an ill-advised pee break during the Richmond marathon, because I lost my pace group during the pee break, and didn't have a good way to monitor my pace (buy yourself a running watch). I've been able to pretty reliably run at a 10:30 pace on long runs, so my goal pace for this marathon was 10:30, which comes out to 4:35:06.

Continued below...