Indian/Celina Marathon Race Report - June 11th, 2011
Jeff asked if Michelle or I would be interested in writing a race report. Here's my best shot. I believe I spent more time writing this than running the actual marathon. Read on if you're interested, bored, or just plain have nothing else to do.
Short Version: This was our first trail race of any distance and we had signed up to fill the little gap between the spring and fall marathons. "A" goal was to finish in 5:40. "B" goal was under 6 hours. "C" goal was to just finish standing up straight. We finished in 5:17:27. Michelle won the overall female marathon. I got last in my age group.
Long Version:
Preparation:
Celina was falling 6 weeks after the Champaign marathon. The primary concern was to recover from this while slowly building our miles back up before a brief 1-2 week taper. Our trail running consisted of a single Memorial Day trip to run the two lakes loop straight through. Michelle, Kendra, Cathy, Suzanne, and myself were in attendance for this practice run. As if running the loop by myself wasn't enough, I needed 4 women alongside to make things extra difficult. I was both physically and mentally exhausted by the time it was over. It turned out to be extremely beneficial and helped eliminate any surprises on race day. We took our time running the 13 mile loop that day, completing it in 3:29. We found out days before the race that 7 hours was the marathon time limit and the cutoff at the halfway point was 3:30.
Plan:
Shortly after the practice run, an initial time goal of under 6 hours was set. Days later, this was changed to 5:40 and that stood up until race day. After some back and forth, it was agreed upon that I would lead and do the pacing. So the day before the race (Michelle changes her mind a lot), I finally made myself a pace band with cutoffs for a number of mile markers. Mile 4, 7, 10, and so on. I did my best to account for the course and terrain. It was for my own sanity to see how close we were at certain checkpoints and to prevent myself from going out too fast. This was the plan.
The Race:
The race was scheduled to start at 6:30. It started at 6:44. There were shuttles arriving late and mother nature decided to start raining on us right at the start. Soon the race director, Chris, calls us all over to the side of the road. There's something special about a race when everybody can be huddled under a tree as the race director gives his pre-race announcements. "Watch out for wet rocks" was his big piece of advice. He said some other things but I don't remember them as well because I was on the verge of shivering with the cold rain. He ends his speech with "I think we should line up!!!" as lightning struck and thunder roared off in the distance. This was going to be awesome!
We quickly line up near the back of the pack. The back of the pack was only 15 feet from the starting line. Michelle turns to me and asks if I'm starting my watch when he says GO or when we cross the line. "We're going to be out here 6 hours...does it matter?" Well it turns out we both started it when we crossed the line; we needed our chip time after all.
We're soon on our way...flying down the few hundred yards to the entrance of the trail. "Why is everybody running so fast!?" I blurt out. Some guy responds with "It's downhill!" Fair enough. I would've been content to start out walking and work my way up to speed. I must've been the only one thinking this though. Once on the trail, we started walking anyways as the "slinky" started. Run...walk...run...walk. This lasted no more than five minutes before the crowd thinned out enough for us to find our own rhythm. There was still a bit of passing back and forth going on up until 1-2 miles into the race when things settled down and everybody was where they should be for the most part.
The first few miles ticked by without too much trouble. The trail was quite muddy from the rain but it wasn't terrible. Unfortunately, Cathy didn't fair too well on the muddy terrain. She rolled her ankle pretty badly around mile 3 and she had to slow down. I was worried she'd be unable to finish or would only opt to just complete the 8 mile or 13 mile route. I should've known better. As we all know, Cathy is a TANK and still finished out the whole 26.2 miles. With a big ol' smile on her face I'm sure!
We soon made it to the first clearing on the south side of Lake Celina. "Yayyyy" I hear from Michelle. They had mowed the grass on the levee in the two weeks since we ran the loop. The grass had been 3-4 feet tall the whole way but now it was much more manageable. It would be easy to spot turtles. There was a turtle incident during our practice run. I won't go into too many details but it involved a huge turtle, lots of yelling and screaming, and a damn near sprint across the levee as I was nearly trampled. Fortunately we didn't see any big turtles on race day. Although now that I write this, I suppose a few well placed turtles on course would've knocked a few minutes off our final time. If only I had thought about this beforehand.
We reached the end of the levee where the first water stop was supposed to be. It wasn't there! But wait...here comes Chris with the water stop as we get closer. I don't recall the reasoning for the delay on this water stop, it was mentioned briefly during the pre-race announcements. Michelle and Kendra had their fuel belts on and I was carrying a water bottle so we continued on and just drank what we had with us.
My garmin sounded as we passed mile 4. Just slightly ahead of schedule but nothing to worry about. Not much time passed before Michelle comes up by my side and eventually takes the lead. I notice that she sped up. There's another clearing as we come out on the south side of Indian Lake. This levee was similar to the first one except that it had a very short and steep hill that was a grind. I think we scaled that hill. The water stop at the end of this levee was there at least. I had been counting on Gatorade for my calories so it was a relief to see it there. I drank 5-6 dixie sized cups of Gatorade and then refilled my water bottle before we continued on. This is what I did at every stop. Michelle and Kendra would also refill their bottles as needed.
"We're four minutes ahead of schedule." This was at mile 7. We had definitely sped up! Our pace continued to remain steady. I assumed she was feeling great and knew we were going too slow early on. I just hoped we weren't going to pay for this the second time around. We arrived at the next water stop and were greeted by a guy I'll call Mr. Liar. Michelle asked if he'd still be there when we came around for the second loop. "Oh yea, I'll be here!" He wasn't. Oh and I think the rain had let up somewhere during this time period or maybe a little before.
We continue on and crossed a creek. The water was much lower than during our practice run so our feet were able to remain dry by carefully walking across the pebbles. An extremely steep and muddy incline greeted us on the other side. There was no way I was going to attempt that so I opted for an easier path about 50 feet downstream. It took longer but at least I wouldn't be covered in mud. Up next was the muddiest and slickest part of the trail. Kendra commented on how it felt like we were running on ice! I was spooked a bit when two guys jumped out of the bushes about 10 feet in front of us. The one even yelled "BOO!" for good measure. I don't know what they were doing back there, I hope just going to the bathroom.
It wasn't long before I experienced something that I never have before in a race. I had to pee. Really bad too. I must've been hydrating too much early on in the race. The cooler than expected weather also contributed. I decided I'd wait until the start of a decent climb and let the others go ahead. My chance finally arrived around mile 8.25. What a relief.
Not long after I catch back up, I notice we're running up a fairly steep hill...one that I would've expected us to walk. I then see what's going on here. Several hundred feet up the trail is a woman in a white top and white hat. "Is she in your age group?" I ask. "It doesn't matter" was the response. Damn straight. "We don't have to catch her now, we can walk this hill." So that's what we did. We trailed white top woman for about a mile until we reached the base of "big ass hill". I lost count of how many times I heard it referred to as this...so the name stuck.
Big ass hill was a section of the trail that climbed ~250 feet fairly quickly. It was the worst hill on the loop so we walked a good deal of it. This is where we caught and passed white top woman finally. Zoomed on by and didn't see her again the rest of the day. On the way up big ass hill, I had another first. A piece of a Blueberry Crisp Clif Bar. It tasted good at the time; however, I didn't like that I could still taste it several miles later. Once we passed over big ass hill, we had a good stretch of downhill which was much deserved. The garmin had sounded at mile 10 somewhere near the top of big ass hill and I realized we were 11 minutes ahead of schedule.
After winding downward for quite some time, we jumped out onto the road for a few hundred yards. I knew we only had about a mile left from this point! We're back on the trail and are walking up the final hill on the loop around mile 12.5. This was when I finally asked Michelle what the heck was going on. "I'm feeling really good!!!" is a good summary so I'll leave it at that. We decided we'd try to maintain the pace. Down the hill and out onto the road that would lead us back to the starting point.
We round the final bend in the road and see the finish line. As we run on by, I hear the stopwatch lady spout off "Two Thirty-Three and..." I missed the seconds. It didn't matter because we still had another loop to go. We take a quick left to continue on and hear "Oh, are you doing the full?" from stopwatch lady. She must've missed the big 2's on our arms indicating we were doing 2 loops! I liked how our numbers were written in sharpie on our arms and hands. Pretty awesome. They said it was to save money and because normal bibs just get in the way. I'd like to think it was because the course was so tough that there's no way a bib would stay on.
2:50 was the goal for the first loop but we arrived 17 minutes early. I was feeling great but still wondered if it was too fast.
2nd Loop:
It was a relief to have completed one loop but now we had to do it all over again. We drank and refilled out bottles at the water stop right before the trail entrance. Kendra informed us that she would need to pee soon and that she may have to slow down but that she'd do her best to stay with us.
A couple hundred feet later and we're back on the trail again. I told Michelle when we entered that I didn't expect us to see any runners the rest of the way. I was right...except for the one runner we saw as soon as we started the loop. It was Leah and she was going the wrong way. Turns out she had a rough day and ran a 16 mile half marathon. She didn't seem like a happy camper and politely informed us that she was on the verge of dropping some F-bombs. I recall speaking to her the Thursday before the race and asking her if she was ready. "I'm petrified" was her answer. So I only find it fitting that she got lost in Hoosier National Forest by herself in the middle of stormy weather. That builds character.
It's not but a few minutes later when I glance back and notice Kendra isn't there! Neither one of us had seen her stop. Unfortunately we didn't see her again until the finish. The trail was a lot messier the second time around and the footing wasn't as great in many spots. We trudged on without too much excitement taking place. I was leading...then she was...then I was again, it was confusing. I finally told her to just lead because I never knew if I was going too fast or too slow. She could just run her own race this way.
Somewhere around this time, I had another first. A piece of a Luna Bar. I don't know what kind it was but it had a layer of chocolate on one side. It was delicious! Way better than that lingering blueberry crisp thing. Michelle wouldn't dare put chocolate on her s'more the night before but had no problem scarfing down this chocolate covered Luna Bar. I had actually been carrying this particular bar in my left pocket because Michelle's fuel belt couldn't hold all of her snacks. When she runs out of room, she resorts to my pockets. I once raced a 5K with a headband in my pocket because somebody made a last minute decision to not wear it.
At mile 15.44, Michelle face planted. Well that may be a slight exaggeration but it's not far off. We were running up this medium sized hill when she slipped on a muddy root and fell. It all happened very quickly. She was running...then suddenly she was lying on her stomach on the hill. I couldn't even get halfway through asking "Are you OK...." before I was met with an "I'm fine, I'm fine!!!" as she rolls over and starts to get back up. Yea right, nobody knows if they're fine one second after falling. She was embarrassed. We're on our way in no time again, we didn't have time to waste. I could tell she was assessing the damage. She had caught herself with her left hand and arm so there was a bit of dirt there. She soon proceeds to remove a water bottle from her fuel belt and start to spray off her arm. Heaven forbid she run a trail marathon with dirty arms. The day before the marathon, I had sent her several humorous trail running quotes and one of them was "If you didn't fall at least once, you weren't trying hard enough". Perfect. Anyways, I spent the next 11 miles praying I wouldn't fall so I could tell this story...knowing that at least I didn't fall.
The first levee and water stop is soon upon us. We stock up and start back on the trail. I've run quite a few miles with Michelle by now to know how her run is going by her body language. Something didn't seem right. We no sooner turn the corner and start up a hill. "This is hard..." was all she said. Uh oh. The excitement and enthusiasm at mile 12.5 seemed to have completely disappeared at mile 17. This wasn't good. We had run a decent portion of the hill we were on the first loop around but opted to walk all the way up this time. I knew we were still well ahead of our 5:40 time goal but was honestly worried if we'd even make that now. Mile 17 is too early to be feeling bad. She pulled out another Clif Bar of some type. I didn't get to taste test this one, she ate the whole damn thing without sharing. I guess she needed the energy.
It wasn't but a short while later than the sluggishness disappeared and we were making solid progress again! She joked afterwards that all she needed was the Clif Bar. I believe it was more of a mental hurdle that just took a mile to sort out. The miles flew by after this. It started to rain again around this time.
We reached the water stop at the end of the second levee around mile 19. Michelle humorously asks the kids working the stop if anybody else is actually running the full. The one tells us that he thinks there are 10-11 runners in front of us. However, he didn't inform us that those 10-11 runners were all male. Feeling pretty good knowing that we're not near the back of the pack, we march on.
The second time around on the skating rink section was a lot worse. I had mud flung up on me several times, mostly on my legs. As long as nothing got in my face, I wasn't going to say anything. Hours prior it seemed as if we were carefully avoiding all the muddy spots of the trail. Now we were running straight through them.
"Michelle...I gotta pee." "Again???" "Yea..." Definitely too much gatorade and water. The very next hill we started to climb was the same one I stopped at the first time around. So I ended up peeing in the exact same spot which I thought was cool. Martha would've been proud.
The last miles of the marathon went by so fast, it was surreal. Just seeing them tick off one by one was a great feeling. Big ass hill put us in our place again. Walked up a lot of that one. Around mile 22, the comment was made (forget if it was me or her) that there were only 4 miles left! I think we both knew the end was close and that we had this...well ahead of the planned pace.
Mile 23...24...come and go. Soon we're running down the gravel road when we hit mile 25. "One more mile!!!" "Yea!!!" We slowed down to walk and drink for a short while here. I could tell she was exhausted. We both knew we were going to be well under our "A" goal so a little break was okay. Plus we had to look somewhat fresh for the finish. Slowly up the last hill...down the other side and we're back out onto the road. The finish was just minutes away!
I started to get a little choked up here. I'm not for certain but I think she was too. This was my third marathon and it was the third time it has happened. The past couple years started to flash through my mind and it made it difficult to keep things together. Two years ago, the thought of me running (let alone a marathon!) would've been laughable. So the end of a marathon seems to get me every time. I'd like for it to go away, it makes breathing near the finish extra difficult! But if it never goes away, I suppose that's okay too.
We exchanged a few last words before we rounded the final bend to the finish. We turned the corner and were greeted by a fantastic site! So many others from the group had stuck around for several hours after the half and were cheering us on! It was awesome!!! I briefly glanced down and noticed we were running a 7:30 pace. This was the fastest we had run all day! It was nice to know that there was still enough left in the tank for a finishing kick. Or maybe it was just the downhill...and we were too lazy to resist gravity. Either way, we finished fast!
5:17:27 and 5:17:28 were our official times. Michelle beat me by 1 second. I think stopwatch lady was biased. 5:17:25 was our "chip time" though. Stopwatch lady soon comes over and starts to congratulate Michelle for being the female winner. We were both shocked! What a great way to finish off an already awesome race! She received a cool hat, some headband thingamabob, and some socks!
It never crossed my mind leading up to the marathon that we'd finish in the time we did. It was a great day! We ran the first loop in 2:33 and the second loop in 2:44. I think that pacing was pretty respectable for our first trail marathon and not knowing exactly how we'd fair. She definitely made the right call to speed up when she did.
Final Thoughts:
I had a blast! And I believe everybody else from the group that ran the full or half did too. The experience was quite different than a normal marathon but it was so much fun! We're both eager to go back next year and run it again. She has to try and defend her title after all. I'm hoping to not get last in my age group next time. But in the meantime, we've already signed up for our next trail marathon later in the year!
