Andy Gapin

I woke up this morning, on my thirtieth birthday, a milestone birthday, with a set plan for the day. Open my wife’s gifts, treat myself to a Starbucks vanilla latte on the way to work, blow off doing any work in the morning so I could closely watch online coverage of the Boston Marathon instead, get my obligatory birthday burrito for lunch, come home and go for my first run in seven weeks (injury, boo!), eat my favorite dish that my wife cooks, and then relax while forcing one or more of my cats to cuddle with me. I did most of my celebrating for my birthday over the weekend so I didn’t have any *big* plans for the day, just a few little things that I wanted to do.

Up through lunch, everything was going pretty great. I watched the elites run their race and then got my burrito. But just when I was about to finally start to get a little work done for the day to make up for not doing anything all morning, I heard the news. One of the communities that I call my own was senselessly attacked, people were killed and many were injured. My heart immediately sank and, with each bit of information that came out, it continued to sink deeper and deeper. So many things raced through my head. At first, these thoughts were mostly along the lines of not being able to comprehend what is wrong with people.

I thought about the runners and put myself in their shoes. As a marathon runner myself, I know the emotion involved in running a marathon. Every marathon is an accomplishment and there isn’t one that doesn’t earn itself a place as one of the best days of any runner’s life. And, above all other races, the Boston Marathon is the coveted Super Bowl of marathons, a bucket list race for most runners who will work for years to earn their place on that course. It’s THE marathon and many of us will sacrifice our social lives, jobs, and diets just to get there. I think about the runners who had this taken away from them. One of the best days of their lives, forever tainted. Some had the day ruined retroactively after finishing, some didn’t even get to finish. Many runners were in the last 2k of a 42k race, the finish line close enough to taste, and were unable to finish. I can’t even imagine the feeling.

On its own, that’s heavy, but if that were all that happened, life would go on…for every single person. But that wasn’t it. People were killed and many, many others were horribly injured. An eight year old child was among the two that were killed. Eight years old. It’s likely a safe assumption that he/she was there cheering on a parent, or a sibling, or an aunt, or an uncle. I’m not going to try to put this into words because I don’t think I can.

Photo after photo circulated of blood soaked sidewalks and people with mangled bodies. Limbs were immediately lost and others had to be amputated on the scene or at the hospital. As a runner, the idea of having either of my legs injured is terrifying, as a person, I can’t quite put it into words.

At some point, my wife reminded me that we could have been there. Last October, I made a serious attempt to qualify at the Chicago Marathon. I failed, but not by a lot. Had I succeeded, I would have been on that course today and my wife would have been at the finish line cheering. Given the time of the explosions, I would have likely been well done, by possibly an hour even, but after some races, I like to head over to the spectator areas and cheer on the other runners. If I can still stand, that is. We would have been very close to the explosion.

After all this, it’s easy feel that humanity is inherently awful and we don’t deserve to exist. It takes a conscious effort for me to not feel that way sometimes, but the person (or people) who did this doesn’t represent any real measurable percentage of humanity. There are many, many more people who represent the polar opposite of this person and I think we all need to remember that. And the running community is an amazing example of that. We are the kind of people who will sacrifice our own finish times just to help another runner who falls just feet from the finish line. We encourage and support each other. When we run races, no one on the course is an opponent, they’re all teammates. We care about each other and are compassionate. Humanity as a whole is like us, not the person who did this. I have to remind myself of this often, but I believe it. I really do.

Running will never be quite the same after today. Neither will marathons. Or my birthday. Yes, I will always remember my 30th birthday as the day the running community and our flagship event were horribly attacked. But we will go on. At this point, I’m more scared of people blindly blaming other groups and spreading hate. I fear those that will try to gain a political advantage or try to make us live in fear.

As if running 39.3 miles once wasn’t enough, I enlisted myself to take on the Walt Disney World Goofy Challenge again this year. For those not familiar with the race, it’s a half marathon one day and a marathon the next. And both run through Walt Disney World! Last year, I combined both races into one recap, but I think that got a little long so, this year, I wrote two separate posts to recap each separately. You can follow through to each one below.

2013 Walt Disney World Goofy Challenge – Half Marathon – 1:58:00

2013 Walt Disney World Goofy Challenge – Marathon – 4:27:06

Just like last year, the Goofy Challenge and the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend as a whole was a great experience. Lots of fun! This year marked the 20th running of the marathon so there was a completely new medal to commemorate that and it was heavy! It’s a beautiful medal, so beautiful, in fact, that I had a tough time deciding which medal to wear to the parks afterwards. I wanted to wear my Goofy medal to show off my accomplishment, but the new Mickey medal was too awesome to leave back in the room. I ended up wearing the Goofy medal around my neck with the Mickey medal on the bag of my camera bag.

runDisney updated the course to mark the 20th running as well. This year, the course included the Richard Petty Driving Experience race track and ESPN Wide World of Sports. Both additions were very welcomed and helped the make the time between the parks much more enjoyable. They also went with handing out a little box of food to finishers of both races instead of individual food items. When you’re trying to make your way through the finishers’ area while drinking some water, getting some nutrition into your body, and tweeting/texting/Facebooking/whatevering about your accomplishment, hands come at a premium, so having everything in a box helps a lot!

With two Goofy Challenges under my belt, I’m torn about doing it again next year. I love doing both races and getting three medals, but it’s a big commitment and has a sizable effect on how you can enjoy a large portion of your trip to Disney. The reality is that I’ll probably do it again soon, but we’ll see!

Coming up over the next few months, I’m planning to run two half marathons and another full marathon in the Spring. I’m considering one of the half marathons and the full marathon being for the NY/NJ Challenge. After that, the wife and I are planning on taking on the Dumbo Double Dare in Disneyland. This time it’s just the new Dumbo 10k and the Disneyland Half Marathon so it’s a much easier challenge than Goofy. Still, it comes with a bonus medal for doing the challenge and it will earn us the Disney Coast to Coast medal! That’s SEVEN runDisney medals in one year! Finally, I’d like to put a Fall marathon into my schedule, but I haven’t really put much thought into which one yet.

The full marathon, all four Walt Disney World parks, the most magical of marathons and the middle and last thirds of the Walt Disney World Goofy Challenge. And with 2013 marking the 20th running of the Walt Disney World Marathon, things were extra special! There was even a new course to enjoy!

After the half marathon the day before, I made sure to keep things easy on my body. I ate plenty of carbs, drank plenty of water, and made it a short day in Epcot. Though, we decided to make an unplanned trip back to the race expo. With my wife’s issues with her foot we thought that maybe giving some KT Tape a shot might help. Since they were taping people up for free, we figured that even if she didn’t wear it for the race, she could wear it for the rest of the day. I even decided to get my arches taped as well since they can be problematic for me from time to time. I also wanted to get a new shirt to wear for the race. Normally, I’m a very big stickler for the nothing new on race day rule, but with the temperature breaking 80 with 100% humidity again, I wanted a cooler (and lighter colored) shirt than I had brought with me to wear. I was hoping to grab a 2013 Goofy Challenge technical shirt, but they were all out of my size so I opted for “just” a marathon one. I made sure to give it a once over to check for any possible problem spots for chaffing, but everything looked good!

With marathon day starting at 2:15 am, just like half marathon day, it was important to get into bed early and get plenty of rest. I didn’t mess around with this and made sure to be in bed before 8pm again. When the alarm went off, I ready to hop out of bed and get started with the pre-race routine. I looked over at my wife and asked her how her foot was doing, to which I received the surprising response of her saying it felt totally fine. Go figure. We quickly got ready and out the door to the bus for the ride over.

Since we caught a bus surprisingly quickly, we had plenty of time at the starting area to hit the bathroom and find our spot in the starting corral. With my wife still not sure about how her foot would hold up, she didn’t want to set any particular goals other than taking it easy. We decided to line up closer to the front of the corral, but not start with any pace groups.

And just like the day before, after a few blasts of fireworks we were off! And just like last year, I had to pee right away! I told my wife to make her way to the side of the road so I’d be able to find her again and I would catch up to her. I quickly took care of things by the trees lining the road and then made my way back up to her.

The first few miles of the race were very uneventful. At first, it was mostly just dealing with the crowdedness before the runners spaced out a bit and figuring out how to best handle the banking of an early off-ramp that the course follows. We opted to run up at the top where the ground was flatter, but that meant a bit more running overall. As we neared the second mile marker, we saw the 4:30 pace group, but didn’t make an effort to catch up to them. We just kept on with our own pace.

Just like with the half marathon, I knew it was important to take liquids at every stop so we made sure to take at least Powerade every time.

As we made our way into Magic Kingdom for my second run down Main Street, USA in as many days, we were both feeling pretty good. We were past the narrow spot where my wife got pushed last year and the crowd felt like it had thinned out a little more than in past years. As usual, Main Street was full of energy! Great early race boost!

As we made our way through Magic Kingdom, we planned to move to the right side of the course to make sure we could get some good photos coming out of the castle. Our plan worked perfectly, there were a ton of photographers on our side ready to snap us!

By the time the were on our way out of Magic Kingdom, my wife’s GI issues were starting to cause her some problems so we stopped at the next bank of porta-potties real quick. Luckily, there were about fourteen of them so there was no wait and we were off again in about three minutes.

Now it was time for the long trek to Animal Kingdom, but this year the trek was broken up. This section is usually around ten miles down back roads which can feel a bit grueling during a marathon…even with all of the entertainment on the side of the road. However, new to the course this year was a lap around the Richard Petty Driving Experience race track. Going into the race, I was a little worried about this since race tracks tend to be highly banked in the turns, but the course stayed along the inside where things were still flat. While the track wasn’t overly exciting, it was a nice way to break things up between the two Kingdoms. Unfortunately, my wife was still having GI issues and needed to make another pit stop (see what I did there?). This time, there was a short wait, but we were off again in around three minutes.

Around this point of the race I was actually starting to feel a bit fatigued. I wasn’t too happy about this one bit! We were only at mile nine! I started to question running under two hours the day before, but there wasn’t much I could do about that at this point. I was hydrated and everything, but my legs were feeling a little more tired than I wanted them to. Even though I’m a much stronger runner than I was a year ago when I did Goofy, I ran the half seventeen minutes faster and, with us on target for a 4:30 finish for the full, I was going to finish the marathon 28 minutes faster than a year before. There was really no reason to be surprised, I guess.

After another three uneventful miles, we were approaching Animal Kingdom. This year, the race gets the park about four miles earlier so it was a slight tease, but running through the parks is the best part of the Disney World Marathon so it was a welcome site! Of course, the parks always fly right by and we were back out onto the roads between the parks in what felt like no time. As we made our way away from Animal Kingdom, the wife and I reminisced about the horrible blister she had pop on this section of the course last year. But none of that this year, she was feeling pretty good and my legs were doing okay. I was feeling about the same as I was four or five miles back so I took that as a positive.

At this point, we were getting ready for the last change to the course, a big lap around ESPN Wide World of Sports and the special 20th mile surprise spectacular. Interestingly,  we weren’t even at the 17th mile marker when we passed the sign at the entrence to Wide World of Sports. I wondered how they were going to fit so much course back there, but I quickly found out. There was a lot of looping back and around. Eventually, we made our way onto the baseball field for a lap around the outside of the field with a big crowd cheering in the stands. Lots of energy in here, but my wife was again having problems with her GI so we stopped right after we exited the field for her to take care of things again. While she was in the porta-potty, I did some quick math to realize we were still on pace for a sub-4:30 finish if we kept the pace we had been running. My legs were feeling up to it and she was doing okay so we kept on with the pace.

As we made our way out of Wide World of Sports, we passed through the 20th mile surprise which was, frankly, a bit underwhelming after all the hype that was made about it before the race, but with just 10k left to go, we were locked into the run and focusing on the last leg of the race.

Shortly after the 21st mile marker, my wife made a comment about a girl we passed by saying that she looked a lot like our Twitter friend Krissy Murphy. I wasn’t paying attention, but her suspicion was quickly confirmed as Krissy ran to catch up to us and say hi! We ran together for a minute and then she dropped back to continue with her easy picture-taking pace. I couldn’t help but think how fitting it was to finally meet her on the Walt Disney World Marathon course since Disney and running are the things we tweet back and forth about all the time. In fact, just a year before as we were getting ready for (and tweeting about) Goofy was when the Twitter friendship began!

With just four miles to go, we were in the home stretch and we knew it. My wife tends to be quite the finisher and started to pick things up a bit. Despite the fact that I was feeling more fatigued than I was last year, I was still up for a faster pace to the finish so we went for it. I let her pace us the rest of the way as we entered into Hollywood Studios. She powered through the course passing everyone in front of her and I just did my best not to lose her through some of the narrower parts where I had trouble finding the space to actually get around people.

We exited Hollywood Studios and made our way down along the river towards the boardwalk. As we ran down the boardwalk, we started to approach 4:30 pacer and I encouraged the wife to blow by him and leave him in the dust behind us. With a sub-4:30 finish guaranteed at this point, we focused on getting to the finish. We left the boardwalk and entered the World Showcase in United Kingdom pavilion to a wall of energy. The countries ticked by quickly and, before we knew it, we were blowing by Spaceship Earth and on our way out of Epcot with the finish just a few hundred feet ahead of us.

We crossed over the finish line with our hands held for a solid 4:27:06 finish, less than a minute away from my wife’s marathon PR! If not for all of the bathroom stops, she would have crushed her PR. I estimate that she lost just under ten minutes because of them. But even aside from that, she wasn’t running at 100% effort. Taking both of those into account, I think she could be close to four hours without much more additional training.

All of the Powerade, water, energy gels, and candy along the course put together with a good night’s sleep really made a difference. I was feeling pretty good. I was feeling pretty hydrated and my legs felt much better than I expected them to after they started to fatigue so early on.

While I was a bit sore, I couldn’t help but notice how much better I felt than I had after every other marathon I’ve ever run…and even a couple half marathons as well. I was impressed with myself and it really shows how far I’ve come in a year. Even though our time was way slower than my PR (by more than an hour), I still completed the Goofy Challenge almost 50 minutes faster than I had the year before!

With only two theme parks and just thirteen point one miles, the half marathon is the easy part of the Walt Disney World Goofy Challenge, but being that it’s the first race of the two, it can really make or break your weekend. The key to getting through the Goofy Challenge in one piece is to take this race easy.

After getting down to Orlando and picking up our race packets, we kept Friday simple. With no park passes for the day, all we had planned was just to head on over to the expo at ESPN Wide World of Sports and then some relaxing at the hotel. I think we were even asleep by 7pm, which is good because race day starts with a 2:15am alarm to get us out of bed. When we woke up, my wife was complaining that she was having some pain the arch of her foot. After toying back and forth with what to do, she decided to go for it and we would just take it extra easy. But as we started walking out to the bus stop, the pain was a bit too much and she made a quick decision to sit the half out so she could rest up for the full marathon. It didn’t seem worth it to risk having to sit marathon race out. Losing my running partner for the race hit me a bit hard. I couldn’t stop thinking about her the entire time. I knew she was back in the room beating herself up over it. After months of training, it’s a huge blow to have to make a decision the day of the race to not run.

After a short bus ride, I was in the Epcot parking lot and ready to make my way over to the starting line. For some reason, I was in the B corral even though my previous race times put me well into the A corral for both races. However, since I was planning to run with my wife, I didn’t bother having my corral changed, so it was a B corral start for me! My real concerns at this point were with my wife’s choice to not run and my shoe choice for the day. I decided to run in my New Balance 1600s, marking the first race longer than 5 miles that I wasn’t running in my Vibram Five Fingers in over two years. I’d only even done a handful of training runs over thirteen miles in them over the course of the last six months, but I knew that they’re easier on my ankles…even if my performance is much better in the VIbrams.

After the twenty minute walk to the starting area, I got into my corral and did what warming up I could manage in the space I had available. While I was doing that, I saw the Galloway pacers for a two hour finish making their way through the corral up to the front. Since I was going to have to pace myself without going too fast, I figured running with a pacer might be a good idea so I followed them up to the front and stuck with them. My  wife was looking to do a 2:05 finish and that’s what we trained for so a two hour finish seemed like a good target for me to aim for. Unfortunately, because it was a Galloway pacer, this group would be following Jeff Galloway’s run/walk program. I had no interest in that so I planned on just trying to keep steady when they started walking. Not having my wife with me definitely through my whole race plan off!

After a blast of fireworks, the first wave was off and just a few minutes later it was time for my corral to go! As usual, the race started off pretty tight with a lot of people packed in despite the wide road road for the first mile and a half. After we got moving, I spotted the balloons for the 2:00 Clif Bar Pace Team just up ahead and I knew this was a better group for me to run with. Even with a marathon coming up the next day, I knew that I could easily expend the energy to quickly catch up and then park myself with them, but just before I caught up to them I saw a member of the Oiselle Team and struck up a quick conversation with her. Since my wife just made the team, I figured I’d ask the girl if she knew her. It turned out that her and my wife had talked a bit via Twitter and had planned to try to meet up. Since she was running while injured, she was keeping her pace super slow and I fell back quite a bit from the pace group I was trying to catch up to, but I wasn’t too concerned. After a couple minutes, I left her and made my way back up to the pace group. I decided to just go for it and pick my pace up to my normal race pace for about a quarter mile or so to get up to them quickly. Since my pace was around two minutes/mile faster than theirs, it didn’t take me too long to catch up!

Once I got with the pace group, I parked myself there and didn’t budge from the pacer’s side. Knowing that the temperature was going to be approaching 80 by the time I finished and the humidity was around 100%, I wanted to do everything I could to be smart and make the half marathon as much of a net-zero for my body as possible. I took Powerade at every stop except the one a mile before the finish and even ate an energy gel around mile seven or eight. For a half marathon, this was complete overkill for me, but I didn’t want to take any chances.

As the race rounded into Magic Kingdom for our run down Main Street, USA, I could feel the energy of the crowd. This is always the best part of these races. Knowing that it would be really easy to be swept up in the energy and lose the pacer behind me, I took extra care to keep my pace under control and stick right next to the pacer. As awesome of the energy of running in Magic Kingdom is, I was still thinking about my wife and missing her by my side and I was a bit worried she wouldn’t be able to make it out for the marathon. I think this helped keep the adrenaline down a bit so staying on target wasn’t too hard.

After a quick run through Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, Cinderella’s Castle, and finally Fontierland, Magic Kingdom was done and it was time to make the trek back to Epcot. This portion of the race can be a bit boring as it’s just back roads without too much to look at. Still, for a more seasoned runner, it’s not too bad. We’re used to that kind of thing.

At the mile eight water stop, I lost the pacer behind me somewhere. Worried that I might slowly end up picking up the pace without him, I took extra effort to really bring my pace down to let him catch up, but when I looked over my shoulder, I couldn’t see him. I practically felt like I was walking, but I didn’t want to risk anything. I still have no idea how I could have lost him that badly in the span of just an eight of a mile or so, but it happened. Eventually, right at the ninth mile marker, he caught back up to me and I playfully asked him what took so long. Once I was back with the group, I was able to get back to the rhythm I’d been running with all race and things felt more natural again.

By the time we got to the eleventh mile, it seemed like there was only one other runner left with the pacer and me. As we approached the last hill of the course, we could see the sun rising over it with Spaceship Earth just off the right and, with a layer of fog still over everything, it was a very beautiful sight to see! After a remark about the beauty by the pacer, I mentioned to the other guy running with us that the hill we were approaching was the worst of the race, but that it’s nice and flat after that. I think I may have freaked him out a bit, but he powered up the hill and left the pacer behind. I ended up doing the same and with just around a mile and a half left to go, I let myself have a nice strong finish. I picked up the pace slightly and left the pacer behind.

As I made my way into Epcot towards where Future World and the World Showcase meet, I was disappointed to the see that the big Christmas tree had already been taken down. This is when it hit me that I hadn’t seen any of the Christmas decorations in Magic Kingdom either. Usually, these are still up for Marathon Weekend.

From here, the course doubles back on itself a bit before making its way out to the parking lot. I kept my pace nice and steady and finished with a nice 1:58:00 time. This was a bit faster than I had planned prior to race day, but I felt great. Taking all of the water throughout the race really made a difference. I was insanely sweaty, but I wasn’t too dehydrated feeling. And most importantly, my legs felt good. I hung around just past the finish line so I could wait for the pacer to shake his hand and thank him for keeping me on track. Then I quickly got my medal and made my way through the finisher area. This year runDisney opted to hand out little boxes filled with food instead of a bunch of individual things. This makes life a lot easier and eliminates the struggle of holding everything while also trying to eat and drink it all post-race.

Since I was eager to get back to my wife, I didn’t waste any additional time. I hopped on a bus back to the hotel right away, I didn’t even stop for a post-race photo! To be honest, I was still really bummed that she couldn’t run and didn’t really want much to do with anything other than getting back to her.

Overall, this half marathon was probably the most controlled that I’ve ever run which is important when you have a full marathon the next day!

After four and a half years of running, five half marathons, and three marathons, it’s a little odd that I’d never run a 10k, but somehow, I hadn’t. So I guess it was finally time to do one.

My wife and I decided on the Giralda Farms 10k in Madison, NJ. At only $18, it’s a steal. I figured, with the race being so cheap, it would be a rather small and poorly organized affair. I was wrong. The race was a decent size and was very well run. Even though they do a 5k and 10k that start together, the course was very clearly marked and easy to follow. There was no confusion over which direction to go for each distance. While there we no clocks at each mile, there were volunteers with stopwatches calling out the time as we passed.

10k is a weird distance for a race, I think. Usually, the only time I think about 10k as a distance at all is when thinking about the end of a marathon. Though, six miles is a distance I know very well from training. For a very long time, that was my go-to distance when I was just going out for a run. Once I started getting into more serious training plans that varied my distance a lot more, that changed a bit, but I’ve done tons of six-milers over the last four and a half years. I know the distance well, I just have never thought about it from a racing standpoint.

That being said, I’ve been having a tough time bouncing back from the Chicago Marathon, nothing is really feeling right and my legs haven’t been appreciative of my desire to put them to work. So with that in mind, I figured I’d keep it relatively easy and give maybe 80-85%. I was shooting for a 7:10 min/mile pace. Just under my best marathon pace, but a bit slower than my half marathon pace and way slower than my 5k pace.

The Giralda Farms 10k course consists of two big loops. One is on one side of the office complex and the other is around the other side. Yeah, it’s weird, the office complex is called Giralda Farms. The course is also quite hilly. It’s constant rolling hills to deal with

The race starts facing down a hill for the first mile. Just before the start, I reminded my wife to be careful in the beginning, starting downhill can be dangerous. You can easily end up running way too fast and getting into a rhythm for a pace your body can’t keep. Unfortunately, stupid me didn’t heed my own advice. I didn’t feel like I was going too fast, in fact, I felt like I was at a nice 7 min/mile pace, but as I got to the first mile-marker, I found out I had run a 6:37 first mile. I knew that was a bit too fast for me to maintain for 6.2 miles on that course and in my current physical state. So I pulled it back a bit from there and was able to keep relatively steady the rest of the race.

Just at the end of the first mile, you hit the first uphill…after running downhill for a full mile. This was a steep hill too. It felt like we were climbing back up most of the elevation in just an eighth of a mile or so. It was tough.

At the end of the first loop, we came back down the hill we started on, but this time at the bottom, there was a 180° turn around to take us right back up the hill. This was another tough climb, but once back at the top, we were just about at the fourth mile-marker and starting the loop around the other half of the corporate park. Most of this loop was downhill, but it was a constant downhill forcing you to always be focusing on controlling your speed.

As we rounded towards the final mile of the race, we got back onto the main road we’d already run on three times and made our way to the finish line. Luckily, the turn off for the finish was before the steep part of this uphill so it wasn’t too bad.

I ended up sprinting across the finish line a bit under my desired time at 43:14, a 6:58 min/mile average. I was happy with that given what I was looking to do, but I felt like I had to put in a bit more effort than I should have given my recent marathon time.

The Giralda Farms 10k is a challenging course, but it was a fun race and was well organized. For $18, you really can’t complain.

Okay, so this race happened a week ago, but I forgot to post about it, so here goes!

The Beerfest 5k in Rahway is a fun little event that my wife and I took part in for the first time this year. There are race bibs and a race clock, but no official results or timing chips. It’s really just for fun. And at the end, there’s all the beer you want! I actually had a pint of Yuengling before the race even started! It was delicious.

Since this was just three weeks after the Chicago Marathon and I’ve been struggling to bounce back from the destruction I inflicted upon my body, I had no plans to run this race hard. The wife, however, was looking to run a new PR…even if it was technically not “official.” I figured I could put myself to use by running with her and keeping her on target.

Since it was a very small race and really just for fun, we figured we’d start out right in the front without getting in anyone’s way. However, there was a flip side to that, my wife has never really started a race in the front of the pack so she was easily swept up in the start of the race energy. We ended up running something like a 6:45 first mile which felt great for me, but was a bit too fast for her. After that mile, we took it back down to something more manageable and she was able to snatch a shiny new PR of 22:55. Congrats to her!

The Chicago Marathon. The biggest race of my life to date. I don’t just mean that it was the largest field of runners I’ve run in, which it was, but it also meant more to me than any race I’ve ever run. Sure, I could say that my first marathon was a bigger deal, but this was my first Boston Qualifying attempt (spoiler: I got close, but didn’t make it) and I really put the pressure on myself.

Training

I trained harder for this race than I have for anything else in my life. It’s not even close. I followed a plan from runyourbq.com as closely as I could given my schedule over the last few months. With four weddings and a two-week European vacation (which I will one day post about!) during training, I had some issues with scheduling that set me back a little. Luckily, I knew these things ahead of time so I worked my plan around them right from the beginning. I worked harder before my vacation and did a few short runs while away to help.

Overall, my training was pretty solid, it wasn’t perfect. I didn’t get in every run I wanted and I didn’t do enough injury prevention work, but luckily, I stayed mostly healthy. I consistently hit weekly mileage that I’d never seen before and in August I utterly smashed my personal monthly mileage record by 50 miles…only to break that again in September. My long runs were mostly good with the exception of my one 19-miler being cut short due to everything possible going wrong and my second scheduled 20-miler being split into 17-mile and 4-mile runs on the same day. I kept decent paces and even negative split most of them. My mid-week longer runs were on point as well. I was hitting 10-milers at ten seconds/mile under my half marathon PR pace and still picking it up by the time I finished.

I have never trained with this kind of focus and intensity. Preparing for this marathon was my number one priority. Even after going out for drinks with coworkers after work, I’d still come home and bang out a run.

The Goal

The Chicago Marathon was my first chance to try to qualify for the Boston Marathon. I needed to be under 3:05:00 and that’s what I trained for. That works out to be a 7:03 minute/mile pace, nothing to sneeze at. Not only is this pace 45 seconds/mile faster than my best marathon pace to date (2011 Philadelphia Marathon), but it’s the same pace I ran my best half marathon in (2011 RU Unite Half Marathon). That’s asking a lot from my body. There was no question about it, I knew my work was cut out for me. I wanted this badly and I was prepared to do anything I could to make it a reality.

Going into the race, I knew my chances were about 50/50. It wasn’t going to be easy, but I worked my ass off in training and I had a good plan for race day. Still, I was more nervous than I’ve ever been for any race in my life. The anxiety was almost debilitating. I still can’t believe how nervous and worked up I got myself for this.

The Expo

The Chicago Marathon expo was pretty solid. Thanks to a tip from a nice couple on our flight out, we made sure to get there nice and early to beat the crowd. Not only was there a free shuttle offered from a few hotels in the city, but the expo itself was very well laid out, easy to navigate, and well organized. We got all of our stuff and signed up for our pace groups in just a few minutes. I was impressed.

After the expo, we hit Target for a throwaway shirt and gloves, got lunch and then went right back to the hotel to rest our legs.

My Race Strategy

Since this was marathon number three, I was able to put together a strategy that tried to counter previous mistakes. Knowing that in Philly I hit a serious wall in the 19th mile, I wanted to try to avoid that. My plan was to park myself with the pace group for a 3:05 finish (which took asking the race organizers to bump me up a corral so I could start with them [more on this later]) and not let myself get ahead of them under any circumstances. This meant that at no point early on could I let myself get swept up in the energy from the crowds and think that I was better than my pre-race plan. I made this mistake in Philly and it really came back to get me later in the race.

On top of staying with the pace group, I wanted to plan my nutrition better. In the days leading up to the race, I did some hardcore carbo-loading, I really didn’t mess around. During the race, I wanted to make sure that I took water often, at almost every stop, and made sure that I kept up with energy gels before I felt like I needed them. I even practiced the energy gels in training to make sure my plan would work. I planned for an energy gel every five miles (starting at zero right before the race started) and then an extra one at mile 17.5 when they were handed out to runners. I made sure that I carried the same brand and flavor from training. I didn’t want to risk anything.

Race Morning

Race morning started off like most race mornings for me. I woke up early and started hydrating and fueling right away. I did try something new this time and took a quick shower to wake myself up a bit. I think it helped to get some of the tiredness out of me, but I had a very good night’s sleep (went to bed by 8:30p the night before!) as well.

We were a little late getting out of the hotel room, but since the start was only a few blocks from out hotel, it wasn’t too much of a problem. Though, my wife started in wave 2 which meant we needed to say goodbye pretty early. That sucked.

When I checked my bag, I decided that I didn’t need my throwaway shirt or the mylar blanket I had brought with me (compliments of the Philly Marathon) so I stuffed them in the bag and handed it off. With just my gloves and makeshift arm-warmers that my wife fashioned out of tube socks, I was off to the porta potty for one last chance to empty my bladder. The lines were long so I did my warm-up while waiting, but things started feeling like they were getting down to the wire in terms of time. I was afraid I wasn’t going to make it to the corral to find my pace group before the race started.

The first two corrals in Chicago are reserved for runners who have already run a certain pace or better and can prove it. The remainder of them are self-seeded based on your own projected finish. My best time got me into Corral B, but the pacer I needed, 3:05 finish, was only in Corral A. Luckily, I was smart enough to contact the race organizers well in advance and ask if there was any way I could get into Corral A given my desire to run with that pace group. They told me it wouldn’t be a problem as long as there was room…there was.

Once I got over to the corral, it actually wasn’t too hard to find my pace group so I was able to squeeze my way up to them and get situated.

Finally, the nerves let up. A strange calm and focus came over me. I was ready for this and there were going to be no distractions. I ditched my arm-warmers and I was ready to go!

The First Half

The race started right on time with no delays, always a plus! We were off!

This race has a massive start with an insane amount of energy. There are tons of spectators everywhere. It’s utterly amazing, but the energy is dangerous. Couple that with the tight bunching of runners in the first few miles and it’s easy to get swept up in that and kill your whole strategy right away. I wasn’t going to let that happen to me. Again, I was focused on my goal.

While it normally takes me two to four miles to really settle into any run, I didn’t have that problem this time. I felt good right away. I knew it was going to be a good race.

I let the pacers manage my pace while I just worried about sticking with them. Unlike other pacers I’ve run with, this group was right on time with miles averaging between 6:55 and 7:05. One of the pacers was also very vocal with coaching us. While there isn’t much a pacer can say during a marathon that a non-first-timer hasn’t heard already, it’s easy to forget this stuff come race day when you’re in the midst of it all. Having someone reminding you to take water at every stop and to make sure you’re breathing deep and running tall, among other things, helps a lot. It also helps a ton when the pacer knows the course and can provide a heads up for every upcoming turn and water station, as well as warn you about high energy cheer areas that can stealthily boost your pace or the dead zones that can kill your morale later on. This kind of thing can really help you stay focused on your goals.

The first half of the race absolutely flew by. There was a ton of energy and the miles were just ticking off. As we passed each mile marker, I couldn’t believe another mile was in the bag. I was feeling good. No, I was feeling great! I was on pace, my legs were good, my lungs were good. I was taking water at every stop and switched to Gatorade somewhere shortly before the end of the first half. Things were looking good and I was feeling good. I had a little bit of pain in my hip flexors, but it was short-lived and never really hit a point of concern.

As we started to approach the halfway mark, I knew it was time to start mentally preparing for the second half of the race. The first half is the easy part of any marathon and I had heard the second half of this course can be kind of quiet. I wanted to make sure I was ready for this.

We came around the Willis Tower and hit the half marathon mark, I was in the zone. I watched the clock as I went by and took a second to congratulate myself on a new half marathon PR of 1:32:01. Not bad, but I didn’t think about that for long, I didn’t want to lose focus.

Miles 13.1 to 16

This section of the race was supposed to be pretty barren of spectator support from what I had heard, but it never really felt that way. There seemed to be plenty of support there.

For the most part, this section of the race as a continuation of the 13.1 miles. I kept myself locked on and stayed right in the middle of the pace group. I was still feeling great and the pace group was still right on target with 7:02-7:04 min/miles.

Miles 17 to 21

Around mile 17, I started to feel the fatigue a bit. My lungs were good, my energy levels were good, and my mentality was still good, but my legs were starting to let me know that they were getting tired. I knew I was starting to approach the hard part of the race. With my legs beginning to tire, I started to fear hitting miles 18 and 19 where I had seen Philly fall apart on me. I just tried to keep strong and focus on the pace group.

Just like early on in the race, one of the pacers was very vocal with reminding us to stay strong and breathe deep. His coaching went a long way during these miles.

Unfortunately, after passing the marker for the 20th mile, I had to face reality, I wasn’t qualifying for Boston in this race. I could fight to stay with the group for a little longer, but I couldn’t keep it up for another 10k. I tried a few tricks like doing short little surges to try to snap my legs of out their funk, but they did nothing.

By the time I completed the 21st mile, my calf muscles were spasming badly. I started to fear that my legs would just altogether lock up on me and I wouldn’t be able to finish. I even took a banana at the next aid station! Anyone that knows me well knows how serious the situation must have been. I hate bananas more than any other food out there! Ugh! But I was willing to try it to get myself to that finish line.

I wasn’t happy about having to drop off at this point, but I knew I had run a good race up until this. I did everything right and according to plan. My training was good. Everything was good, I just wasn’t strong enough yet.

Miles 22-26.2

These miles were tough. Really, really tough. I was in bad shape and my calves were twitching almost the entire time. I kept with my plan to stay steady and take Gatorade at every aid station, but I was deteriorating rapidly. My legs were done and wanted nothing more for this race to be over. By this point, I was being passed left and right by other runners. Even though this section had some amazing spectator support, it didn’t help much. It sucked, but at least I knew I could still get myself across the finish line with a great time.

The darkest point of the race happened right as I crossed the 24th mile marker. I looked up down the road and could see the Willis Tower off in the distance. This is pretty close to the finish line and it was soooooo far away from where I was. Those last 2.2 miles might as well have been another 24 miles as far as I was concerned.

I soldiered on in autopilot knowing that with each step the end was getting closer and closer, but my pace crept into the low-to-mid eights. I lost a minute per mile during this section.

As I got to the one-mile-to-go marker I wanted so badly to push and finish strong, but there was nothing left in my legs to give. I tried to pull in the energy from the massive amounts of people along the road, but my legs just wouldn’t go. The only markers left were the ones displaying the distance left in metes. I just focused on getting to the next one.

I came around the second to last turn with 26 miles behind me and just the point two to go. All I had to do was climb what was probably only the third hill of the course and then coast to the finish line. I got myself up the hill with only a few other runners passing me and rounded that last corner to see the finish line staring at me just about a 100m or so away.

I didn’t have anything left for a push to the finish line so I just kept on with what I was doing and got myself over the timing mat with the tank on empty. I could barely make my way down the finishers’ area on my legs. I stopped to bend over a few times which prompted people to run over and ask if I was okay (I was, I just hurt a damn lot). I was hurting, but I ran a hell of a race.

Then there was beer being handed to me…and I ate another banana. I hated every bite of the banana, but that beer was awesome.

Results

I got myself across the finish line in 3:08:53 which, to be honest, is an utterly amazing time to me! I wanted so badly to qualify for Boston, but I’m just not quite there yet. Very close though! This is a time I can be happy with and proud of. It proved to me that shooting for a BQ time wasn’t a crazy or completely beyond reach. I proved to myself that I belonged in Corral A and that BQing is possible for me.

In the end, my average pace was a 7:12 minute/mile, about 35 seconds/mile faster than my previous best and I beat my previous personal best marathon time by over 15 minutes. That’s incredible! Heck, I even have a new half marathon PR!

I placed 1449 out of 37,455 finishers (according to the unofficial race results page).

Looking back, I feel like I had every right to make a BQ attempt in this race and I left absolutely nothing on the course. I gave everything I had and stuck to my plan 100% until my body broke down. My pace was right on target and my training was the best it could have been with the time I had for it. The only reason I fell short is because I’m simply not there yet. I need to keep at it.

I worked my ass off for this time and I’m proud of it.

My wife did great too! She PRed by 11 minutes with a time of 4:26:10! You can read about it over at her site!

Overall Race Impression

Without a doubt, the Chicago Marathon is one of the best races I’ve ever run. I might even venture to say that it’s my favorite. The course is amazing. It’s flat, fast, and winds through some of my favorite parts of Chicago. This race is amazingly well organized and put together. There were so many water stations that it almost seemed like too much! Add in the fact that the weather was completely perfect for a marathon and I can’t complain about anything. I would definitely run this race again!

Ah, yes, the Downtown Westfield 5k pizza run. This was year number four running this race. Historically, it’s a slow race for me. It’s always a Wednesday after a full day of work and has a bad habit of falling on one of the hottest days of the year. It’s a recipe for disappointment every time. I’m rarely happy with my time.

This year, the weather was surprisingly nice, possibly the coolest year I’ve run it. This was a nice relief since I planning big things for this race. I wanted to break under 20 minutes. I knew that setting my goal so aggressively for this race was probably going to result in disappointment, but that’s just how I do things.

Unfortunately, right off the bat, within the first 200 feet, I knew it wasn’t going to be my race. My legs didn’t feel fast and I could feel it in my lungs that I wasn’t going to be able to maintain a 6:25 pace…even though that was exactly my pace for mile one. I gave it what I had, but I was already losing steam in the second mile. I dropped down to a 6:35 pace for mile two. Mile three was even slower.

I finished at 20:31 which is two seconds slower than my PR. So not only did I miss my goal by quite a bit, but I didn’t even PR! I know, I know, you can’t PR every race, but this PR is almost two years old at this point. I mean, I don’t run a lot of 5ks, but still.

Oh well. At least I beat my best time for this race by two full minutes.

Nailed this race this year! It was my fourth year running it and I crushed my previous best time by over five minutes! It’s generally a slow race for me because it’s on the 4th of July and typically falls outside of any real race training, but today, I was on and felt great. I kept a 6:35 min/mile pace which is better than my best 5k pace!

I came in 4th in my age group and 52nd overall, but even better, my wife and I won the husband and wife group! She ran an amazing race too and was just over 30 minutes total, a two minute PR for her. We had looked at the husband and wife times for the last few years and felt like we had a good shot to place, but didn’t think we’d quite win it. It was super exciting to hear them announce our names though.

I’ve been meaning to write about this all week, but I’m just now finally getting to it. Sigh.

Last weekend, my wife and I ran the RU Unite Half Marathon at Rutgers. Not only was this my fifth half marathon, but I also got to take home a brand new personal record! Pretty exciting!

Despite the fact that last year’s Unite Half Marathon was kind of a dud because of some course flooding that ended up shortening the race to just 9.55 miles, I’m a big fan of the Unite Half Marathon. It’s right in our backyard in Central Jersey—the start is just ten minutes from our house—and it does a nice little tour of three of the four campuses of Rutgers New Brunswick, which just so happens to be where I went to college. On top of that, since my wife and I have run the race all three years that they’ve had it, I’m drawn to keep doing it so we can say we’ve been a part of it since the beginning.

If you had asked me a couple of months ago what time I was looking at running for this race, you would have gotten a crazy response of around 1:27:00. At the time, I was focused on trying to qualify for the Boston Marathon in early June at the San Diego Rock’n'Roll Marathon so this race was going to basically serve as a tempo run for me. It was going to be a mid-training check-in to see where I was at. A 1:27 half marathon represented exactly where I needed to be to have a shot at a Boston qualification. Unfortunately, since then, I ran (no pun intended) into a few minor setbacks. I lost close to a week of training with some plantar fasciitis-like symptoms in my foot. Then right after that, I lost almost two weeks to some weird knee pain. After both of those, I knew that qualifying for Boston in June was going to be out and I decided to not even run the San Diego Rock’n'Roll Marathon at all. Luckily, I hadn’t signed up yet and it wasn’t a big deal. I knew this would also take its toll on my half marathon time for Rutgers as well, but I was okay with that. I figured I’d drop my hopes down and just shoot for the low 1:30s instead.

In the two weeks leading up to the race, I was having some soreness in both my calves the day after every run, even easy four-milers, and, eventually, I think this led to some more pain in the arches of my feet. I took the five days before the race off completely and prepped myself mentally for the fact that the race may not go so well for me.

On the morning of the race, I was feeling pretty good physically. My wife and I parked near the finish-line and walked the roughly one-mile distance to the starting line on Busch Campus. We hit the porta-potties and I did my warm-up routine while waiting in line, leaving us with just enough time before the race to make our way into the corral without having to wait long for the race to start. My wife seeded herself right behind the eight minute/mile pacer and I moved up to right behind the seven minute/mile pacer. A couple months ago, I was looking to run this race just under a 6:40 minute/mile, but I knew that I didn’t stand a chance at making it the whole way at a sub-seven minute pace anymore.

I kept with the seven-minute pacer for the first half the race, but I knew right from the start that I wasn’t going to be able to hang for the whole thing. It wasn’t my day and I didn’t expect it to be. However, knowing that I’m now an experienced and strong enough runner that 13.1 miles isn’t too much of a big deal and, even if I start out a little too fast early on, I can push through later in the race, I figured I’d hang out with the seven-minute group for a while. At about six miles, as the group was coming through a water station, I felt like it was a good time to back it off just a little. I slowed myself down just a little, but not too much that the group disappeared out of my sights. For the next three or so miles, they weren’t too far ahead of me which left me feeling like I wasn’t losing too much time and kept me motivated.

By miles nine and ten, I was really starting to get tired, but again, being a more experienced runner than I was for my first half marathon, just a mere two years ago (it was actually this same race!), I wasn’t that worried. I knew I could still stay pretty strong through the rest of it. These two miles, I spent running with a guy that I happened to strike up a conversation with. He was shooting for a time just a little slower than what I was looking for, but we had a good conversation going so I stuck with him for a little while. Unfortunately, during this time, I watched the seven-minute mile group get further and further away from me.

As we passed the eleventh mile marker, I knew I had to pick it back up a bit if I wanted to PR. I thanked my new friend for the conversation and encouragement and started to push a little more. I couldn’t pick it up too much though as I started to get that “if I run any faster I’m going to puke” feeling that happens sometimes in races.

I haven’t mentioned it yet, but the course was a little different this year, but the one change that really mattered was the finish line. In previous years, the finish line was just after a sharp left turn. This year, it was right on College Avenue and the last almost half mile was a straight shot to finish line. It was much nicer and didn’t interfere with that final push. Definitely a good decision by the race organizers.

Once the clock was in sight, I knew I was good and would be coming home with a new PR. It wasn’t much, but a PR is a PR and I was psyched. I crossed at 1:32:25 (chip time, gun/clock time was 1:32:33) and was pretty damn happy about it. My sixteen month standing PR was finally beaten, by just 40 seconds.

Now, my wife, let’s take a minute and talk about this craziness. She also got a PR, but a much more insane one. Coming into the race, her best half marathon time was 2:02:15 from her very first half marathon ever. She knew she was going to do better and was focusing on just getting under two hours, despite me telling her that, with the way she’d been running lately, under 1:50 should be doable. Well, I’m really happy to be able to say that I was right and she absolutely demolished her previous PR. She came in at an amazing 1:47:43!! She knocked fifteen minutes off! Wow!