I wrote or received the following thoughts to/from some friends of mine and later thought these probably form a good timely record of what might have gone wrong. Thought I would just put them down here in the old blog for the record. It's also heart touching to again look over these guys' thoughts. Nobody can empathize with a failed runner like another runner. First of all, here is my response to Troy, written the day after the race. I also passed along this same note to Jeff, whose response is farther below.
Me:
I’m OK, but my knee is sore
(which it normally never is, even after a hard workout). I think it will
be okay in a few days. Knee wasn’t the problem. Not sure what the
problem was.
Weather was part of it. It
was about 65 degrees, humid (dewpoint = 61), and definitely breezy (West to SW
wind 12 mph according to the NWS at DFW). Definitely the wind came
whipping across the lake in my face for a good few miles there and I was
running almost all alone for that stretch. Too warm, too windy for
me. But that still doesn’t account for a complete implosion & I’m
still doing the mental autopsy to try to figure it all out.
Mentally, I know I had a lot of
anxiety about the race. Probably I had too much “riding” on it after
training so hard all fall. Probably made too much of it. That
didn’t help. And going into the race I sorta had a sense of dread, not a
sense of optimism & not really a sense of confidence. I don’t know, I
just never felt *
good* at all during the race, not even during the first
5k. I mean, it didn’t feel like I was working very hard at it, but I
didn’t feel good, either.
Probably I shouldn’t have spent
3 hours on my feet at the Sixth Floor Museum (JFK assassination museum)
downtown, except my 8
th grade son really wanted to go, and how do
you say, no, son we are not going to go learn about history this
afternoon?
In retrospect, probably I ran
the first 6-10 miles too fast,
although in fact I DID try to use
my brain and when I felt like those early miles were just a little harder than
they should be I backed off like a smart runner, dropping back from maybe
6:15-6:20 down to about 6:30s. Kept trying to tell myself to just relax
and try to conserve energy and maybe the race would come back to me as I have
experienced in other races. Except yesterday it didn’t come back. I
hit the half marathon at 1:24-flat and I just knew that barring a miracle it
was going to be a long long morning. I just didn’t know how total the
breakdown was going to be. But after plowing into that headwind (right
after the HM point) for a couple of miles I knew for certain that there was
absolutely no way I could (a) negative split that race according to original
plan (b) even run another 1:24 or (c) even possibly keep the beast under 3
hours. I kept plugging along, getting progressively slower, and by the 21
st
mile or so I started taking 1-minute walk breaks every mile just to get across
the line. And I haven’t been this sore after a race in a long, long
time. I’ve run marathons much faster than this and been much less
sore.
So, it just sucked all around. It was a great weekend with my son,
and I enjoyed the trip with him. But the running part I should like to
forget, at least after I have maybe learned a thing or two about what went so
wrong. The weather might have been worth 5 or at most 10 minutes, I
think. But not 30. I just didn’t’ feel it yesterday. I didn’t
have “it.” I haven’t had a total collapse like that in a marathon in 7 years.
Troy's kind response:
I can SO relate to everything
you told me about the experience. You are the type that 9 times out of 10
can overcome a day like this and still come out with a good one.
But even great warriors will
have a bad day once in a while. The best runners have the worst memories
– a quote from my running buddy back in the day.
Don’t hold your head down.
The only thing worse than running, is NOT running – if you know what I
mean.
Take a few weeks off or with
little to no running. Enjoy the holidays and start back when it feels
right again.
Given the same training, same conditions, but different day, you can
still get a 2:40 next go around – I know it.
Thoughts from my coach, Jeff:
First off, I really feel for you. I was following online and when I
saw that when you were a little off pace by halfway on what was a
conservative start that it was going to be a long day. You put in so
much work this cycle, and made a ton of sacrifice and I feel really bad
for you.
Looking at what you've written here, I don't think
you made any tactical errors. I'm not sure how 6:30 pace (or even 6:20
pace) could have felt so bad after all the work you had done. When I
look back at the work that you did, the primary explanation that I have
is that sometime around that 26 mile long run [
Nov 4] you went from training and recovering and growing to feeling flat and a bit burnt out, both
physically and mentally. That's the only explanation I can give. Sure,
the weather was bad, but you -- with your talent and spirit -- should
have been able to run 6:30s in that weather, which still would have put
you within striking distance of first masters.
At the very beginning of our time together, I was
worried about this -- worried that you were hitting the workouts too
hard, and worried that we wouldn't be able to sustain that work rate.
And worried about recovering from one very good marathon and sustaining
energy over a couple months to an even better marathon. Since I was
just getting to know you, and since those early workouts were going so
well, I tried to put those doubts to the side, but I guess in hindsight
they were pretty reasonable.
I don't think that you made any mental or tactical
errors -- like you say, the legs and the spirit just weren't there,
which means that we left them in the training [Emphasis added]. That's my assessment.
.... I think that if there's something to learn from this it's
that we made the classic mistake of building both mileage and intensity
too quickly. It happens again and again in marathon training. Both
coaches and runners need to remember that in the end it is the runner
and the talent that makes the race -- the training just brings that out.
I think that we both erred in putting too much emphasis on the hard
work and too little trust in how well you can run when well rested and
fully fit.
A few comments from my friend Tom:
It sounds like you felt like you didn't "feel it" even before the weather would catch up to you. I suppose that's true when I look back at your half split.
What I'm about to say is just an observation ...
At first glance, I think... you [did] too much hard stuff. For a couple concrete examples:
1) I had a 1/2M scheduled about 1 month before my key race. [My coach]
specifically said, "Do NOT race the whole thing. He said to run the first 10 miles at MP, then if felt good, I could run the last 3 miles
as fast as I could handle." I just barely broke 1:25 in that race,
and my 1/2M split in my marathon was under 1:24. His reason was that a raced 1/2M, at my/our age, would really take about 2 weeks to recover,
and he didn't want me to lose 2 weeks of training. As it was, I did only easy runs for 1 week after that race. When I looked at your log,
I see you ran a 1:18 half, and then 3 or 4 days later, you were back
at hard running.
2) I saw in your log a workout with
10x1mile repeats w/ either 200 or
400 r/j. [for the record they were only 200m recovery jogs] That seems like way too much...
... Clearly you did/could handle the training.
However,
I have to wonder if you left your best race in the training session.
....
The fitness is still in you Joe... perhaps you just need to get rested
and back on the horse!
Finally, a nice note from my best running buddy and training partner, Todd:
I
knew the moment I heard your voice yesterday that you’d had a bad day.
I’m sorry that happened, but I guess nothing’s guaranteed in life ( and it
seems that good marathons are LESS guaranteed than most other things ). I
have a strong feeling that your hard work is going lead to success in the near
future. One bad race doesn’t erase the gains your body has made from the
incredible training you’ve put in. There’s equity in that, and you’ll
cash it in at some point. All you need is the character to soldier
on. No problem there. I’ll call you later for the recap.
