Race information

• What? Outer Banks Marathon
• When? November 13, 2016
• How far? 26.2 miles
• Website? http://www.outerbanksmarathon.com/

Goals

Goal	Description	Completed?
A	3:25:00	???
B	3:33:35 (1 hour PR)	???
C	3:45:00	???

Background

So my wife volunteered me to run the Outer Banks Marathon back in April because I hadn't been to OBX before and we'd get a hotel discount if I signed up for the marathon. I'd only recently started running for 2016. My total annual mileage in 2015 was 65 miles. I'd started running casually in March/April, but maybe on the order of 10mpw, and I struggled to run 3 miles at an 8:00 pace.

To be as clear as possible, I went into this marathon training cycle with zero actual mileage base. It wasn't until May that I started running more frequently and it wasn't until June that I started anything resembling training. But sure, I'd be willing to try for the marathon - and because medals are cool, I signed up for their "Challenge Mode" thing where I run an 8K race the day before the marathon and so I get a few extra medals.

I was never a serious runner. As I noted in my community interview, I never ran in high school or college and only started running in 2009. And then that fell apart. I haven't run a marathon since the Marine Corps Marathon in 2009 - which was a disaster as well as my first marathon. I blew up at mile 14 and limped my way into a finish in 4:33:35. I basically swore off running after that. I'd do the occasional race with minimal training and have always been in fairly decent shape, but this was going to be something completely new for me. At this point, I decided that I'd aim for a 3:45 goal and be happy if I could go sub-4. Those were my 2009 goals and figured if I'd be able to pull off the performance that I wanted from seven years ago, that I'd be pleased with that. Shortly thereafter, my competitive streak kicked in, I discovered AR, and started getting hooked on running.

Training

After doing a decent amount of research, I settled on the Hanson's Advanced Training plan. Why? Because, uh, I'd run one marathon. Obviously I wasn't a beginner. And Pfitz and Daniel's honestly confused the hell out of me with all of their GA/Q/etc. acronyms. I didn't know what I was doing and I found this page. It made sense to me and I figured I'd roll with it. That was literally the only research I did when deciding to launch into this. Also, I read u/brwalkernc's race report from Black Mountain about this time and saw he was doing this "run streaking" thing. I figured I'd like to try that challenge and see how many days in a row I could run because I didn't want to give myself a chance to skip running. So sure, I'd start training for a marathon using an "advanced" training plan and start run streaking at the same time.

Oh, and also I didn't know what "workouts" were. The "speed" days on the training plan, I tried to run 3 miles at a 5k pace. No warmup, no cooldown, just go run a fast 5k. Because it said that you should be doing "speed" at your 5k speed. Strength workouts I'd somehow decided should be a six mile run at a slightly-better-than-marathon-pace. It was only in the last three weeks leading up to the marathon that I actually did workout runs (3x2mi, 5x1mi).

But aside from that confusion, I hit pretty much everything else on the training plan. I shifted my long runs to Saturdays (BECAUSE ITS BETTER THAT WAY!), had to swap around a few runs here and there, but was a little hesitant about the fact that the plan maxed out at 16 miles. Obviously, if you're an advanced marathoner the distance is no big deal to you. But as a guy who hasn't gone that distance in 7 years? It was a little nerve-wracking. So I tried three times to go for 20. The first time my route brought me by home around mile 17, so I just quit there. The second time, I was on vacation, hung over, and generally had a bad run. It was so demoralizing - I started seriously doubting my ability to even finish the marathon, let alone throw down a good time. Finally, two weeks before the marathon, I nailed the 20 miler - it went spectacularly well and gave me a huge amount of confidence. Glad I went off plan to knock out the run.

Full Strava Training Log

Pre-race

I ran the 8k race the day before as a shakeout race. I had to rewrite this section from what I'd planned based on the 8k. As I noted here, I quickly realized the 8k was going to be a very slow race so I put a little effort into it... and won it. Got to break the tape and everything. That was an enormous confidence boost (and entirely unexpected) the day before a marathon.

I've been making banana nut overnight oats for breakfast pretty much exclusively the last several months (so easy!), including for all of my other races, so I didn't want to change anything about that. I got up at 5:30, had my breakfast, used the restroom a few times, and then my parents drove me over to the start. I actually didn't do any kind of warm up run for the race. It was cold, I was feeling lazy, and so I got to the start line with cold muscles.

Race strategy

So I built my race strategy around three main data points. The first was my almost-5k (3.02 miles on the Garmin) that I won in 19:00. The second was the half marathon in a hurricane that I finished in 1:33:58. And the third was that 20 mile long run to build confidence and give me the faith I needed to be ambitious. Plenty of folks on here, including u/brwalkernc in particular, kept pressuring me to increase my goal time even further.

The 5k predicted a 3:15 marathon, the half predicted a 3:20 marathon, but I didn't feel confident in either of them. That said, I knew my initial goal of 3:45 was way too slow and even my second goal of 3:30 was seeming a little slow. I thought if I could pull of a 3:25 (7:49/mi average), I'd be very pleased with myself. If I could negative split it, that would be even better. So that was my goal. Don't blow the first mile by going too fast, then settle in at something like a 7:45 and roll with it until about 18-20, then see what I've got left for the finish.

Turns out they had pacers, but only 3:15 and 3:30 pacers. I wasn't really happy with either group, so figured I'd just go back to my original race plan and see what happened.

Miles 1-10

Gun went off, I started with the 3:30 pacer and hung with him for a mile. That was a great way to ensure I didn't go out too strong, and while I flirted with the idea of staying with the 3:30 pace group until the half point, I pretty much immediately decided that wasn't going to work. So I went back to my original strategy and started easing up the pace slightly. Of course, me being me, the ability to run 7:45 miles was quickly lost and they ended up being more like 7:20 - 7:30 miles. After the first mile, nobody passed me (kind of - or at least nobody I hadn't passed first). I'd slowly slowly reel in and pick off runners as I went. There was a girl in a lime shirt that I ended up following for about eight miles. I passed her, she temporarily passed me, I passed her, etc. There was one guy (looked late 20s/early 30s) who blew past me around mile 8. I saw him walking / shuffling along at mile 18 suffering from massive cramps.

It was also around here that I dropped one of my two 10oz bottles of Tailwind that I'd brought along and shoved into my flipbelt. I heard it drop, I looked back over my shoulder, but decided that I wasn't going to go back for it. Did this hurt me later? Maybe, maybe not.

I first saw my family here at Wright Brothers memorial around mile 8.5 - it was awesome to see everyone and was a nice boost. They were trying to see me about five times along the course, but since it's a point to point race they were going to have to drive to a spot (three vehicles!), get out, wrangle the kids into strollers, head to where they could see me, cheer for me, race back to the car, and drive off to the next spot. Huge effort on their part, but they made some great signs as well.

Miles 11-13

This was a mix of multi-use graveled roads and then ending with some single-track. It was an awesome change of pace to have a few (very small) hills to work some different muscles as opposed to the last 10 miles of pancake flat road miles. Somewhere around mile 12, I passed a guy who was very loudly swearing at himself. I was in a great mood, so I asked him if he was doing okay - he had headphones in and launched into a high volume litany of complaints about how he was five minutes off his pace (12 miles in??), cramping, and having a shitty day. Yikes, hope your day gets better, time for me to move on so your negative vibes don't mess with me. It was also around this point that I dropped Lime Shirt Girl. We chatted for a few minutes, she said she was shooting for a sub-3:30, I told her she was on track to beat that time by a lot considering we dropped the 3:30 pacer 12 miles ago, and good luck - and off I went.

Saw my family again a little after the halfway point, I was still cruising along well. I think I hit the halfway point right around 1:38 or 1:39 (I wasn't paying close attention to my watch) and with some mental math, I knew that it was possible to go 3:20 on it and/or negative split, as long as I stayed strong. I was having a great day, running with a smile on my face, and so that definitely seemed on the edge of possibility.

Miles 14-22

These were all pretty unremarkable miles - I saw very few other runners. There were times where I was the only runner I could see in both directions. Near the end of this chunk of miles, I started picking up a few 3+ hour half-marathon walkers, who of course had no idea there were people running up from behind or that they should quit hogging the entire path. Still, it was only a minor annoyance. We ran along the main road for a while, would duck into a residential neighborhood and run through that for a few miles, then back out onto the main road, repeat. As we went along, we gradually grew closer to The Bridge - which didn't scare me, but it was a huge visual marker for "almost there."

I did walk two water stops near the end of this segment. I'd been hitting almost every water stop and getting maybe a third of a cup of water as I went, but was starting to feel dehydrated and like I needed the assist. On the first one I walked (maybe around 18?), I got two waters and a Gatorade. On the second (I think at 21?), I got a water and a Gatorade. However, with all of those fluids I figured I'd probably need to skip all of the rest of the water stops so I didn't slosh around my stomach too much.

Miles 23-26.2

I went up the bridge, I went down the bridge. Felt strong, still cruising. And then at mile 24.5 (or so, maybe a little after), right after I passed a guy, my left hamstring started to cramp - bad. Mid-stride, it felt like it got hit by a bolt of lightning. I'd been doing some mental math and thought that 3:20 was still just achievable if I stayed strong, but the moment that I cramped it went to "oh no, just please don't make me one of those people hobbling the last two miles." The guy I just passed offered me a salt tab, which I declined, and then he zoomed off ahead again. I kept trying to run on it, even though it was painful, and after about a quarter mile the cramp mostly went away.

With it, however, went my speed. I couldn't hold a sub-8 mile anymore and my smile was gone as well. It changed from a "This is a great day, I'm doing awesome, ticking off miles" to "Oh please, is it over yet? Where is the finish line? We've got to be getting closer." I kept picking off more and more half marathon runners as I went, continuing to plod along toward the finish line.

I had grand plans of "Fastest Mile Last" and throwing down a Beast Mode final mile, but that wasn't happening. Instead, I hit the mile 26 marker, tried to pick up my feet a little faster, and finished at something close to my average pace. And yes, I threw up antlers as I crossed the finish line.

Results

Goal	Description	Completed?
A	3:25:00	Yes
B	3:33:35 (1 hour PR)	Yes
C	3:45:00	Yes

Post-race

As soon as I hit the finishing chute, I got my medal (I missed the second medal I should have received for the challenge mode finish, whoops), started gulping down water, Gatorade, said a tearful hello to my family, and tried to shuffle along to find somewhere to sit. There were a lot of HM finishers clogging up the chute, but eventually I found someplace to sit and started working on feeling better. My leg cramped again briefly when I sat, but as I continued pounding down fluids and electrolytes it let back up.

While I missed my mid-race 3:20 goal, I hit every other goal that I wanted, I finished and was very happy about my performance. Compared to seven years ago, this was an enormous success, I feel super strong, and the marathon distance doesn't scare me anymore.

Strava Link

What's Next?

I'm going to take this week as easy as possible, as my town's inaugural half marathon is on Saturday. While I'd certainly love to throw down a competitive time and try for a sub-90, I don't think that's in the cards. I was hoping to pace a runner friend of mine to a ~1:40 finish and maybe help her snag first female, but she ran a tune-up half last week and got a 1:35, so I'm not sure if I'll be up for that. I'm then planning to run the Nutcracker 12-Hour Timed Ultra in a month with u/RunRoarDinosaur and potentially a bunch of folks from my local running club.

Once I knock those out, my goal is switch to easy miles through the rest of the year. I haven't decided what 2017 goals are going to be. But there will be goals, they'll be epic, and I'm going to have a LOT of fun in the process.

This report was generated using race reportr, a tool built by /u/BBQLays for making great looking and informative race reports.