After the marathon...

After the November 9th marathon-on-a-whim, I felt pretty good. I ran six miles the next day and 7 miles a few days later. I was soon running 10+ miles. My legs felt a bit dead and I had a bit of metatarsalgia that made the ball of my foot feel a bit swollen but didn't cause any pain. I visited the PT and rested it. It seems to be getting better.

On November 28th I had the Invesco QQQ Half Marathon. I had been resting post-marathon as much as running and while I saw glimmers of my speed returning I wasn't sure it was back. As I was putting my shoes on the morning of the race, I tweaked my glute and had a pretty sharp pain. It was difficult to step onto a curb. Did I tear something? Should I even run? I jogged an easy half mile before the race and while it definitely hurt, running felt like something I could do without significant pain. I had set a time goal of 1:45 before running the marathon. Because I was post-marathon and my glute was bothering me, I started the race willing to dial it back and just finish rather than running for time.

By mile 1, that plan was out the window. My glute felt pretty good and I was comfortably running at a 7:30 pace. The same was true at 2 miles. I was using an arm band heart rate monitor for about the fourth time. When I checked my heart rate at 2 miles, I was stunned to see that my heart rate was at 193 beats per minute. I thought my max heart rate was 185 beats per minute yet I wasn't feeling too bad.

I realized 193 beats a minute wasn't sustainable so I worked on reducing my effort to keep my heart rate down, while trying to maintain a fast pace.

I started in Wave B and the 1:45 pace group started about 2 minutes ahead of me in Group A. By Mile 7, I had caught the 1:45 pace group which meant I was running a 1:43 pace. I stopped several times to take a gel or drink at an aid station. Each time the pace group went on without me and I was able to catch them. But by mile 9 I was running out of energy and the pace group slipped away. I finished in 1:45:26. That was 17/179 in my age group, 487/2,978 of men, and 590/5289 overall.

While I missed the 1:45 goal, it was an amazing day. I set my post-high school personal best in the mile (7:20), two mile (15:00), 5K (23:28), 5 mile, 10K (47:25), 15K (1:31:11), 10 mile (1:18:39) and half marathon. These weren't small PRs. For example, I took nearly 3 and a half minutes off the 10 mile time I ran five weeks earlier with a marathon in the interim. That's a 2.5% improvement in a month.

I have been a bit stuck trying to run any distance faster than 8 minutes a mile. An 8:15 pace for distances of 2 or more miles has been a consistent struggle. Yet that wasn't a problem on this day. My pace for the 13.1 was 8:03 a mile and for all the other distances I was well below 8:00 a mile. In my mind, racing faster than 8:00 a mile is a sign of a decent recreational runner so I feel like I've reached an important milestone.