Marathon Training Update: Week of March 9th - TAPER WEEK & MARATHON!!

The marathon is this Saturday!!

I can't believe it's finally here - well, almost here anyway. Here's how my final week went. 

Sunday, March 9th

Today was my last training long run before the Marathon. I can't believe it's in 6 days!! That's just crazy. I went out for 8 miles. I ran it in 1:50:06 which was a 13:45 pace. It felt very slow and easy which was very encouraging.  

Monday, March 10th

Today was rest day, but since I have to drive to Raleigh tomorrow, I decided to walk on the hotel treadmill for 3 miles. I basically kept a 17:08 pace but did throw in a few faster parts just to make it interesting.

Tuesday, March 11th

Today, I had to go to Raleigh for work and help train new Directors. By the time I got home after 9 p.m. from Raleigh, I was totally wore out. 

Wednesday, March 12th

Today was the start of my carbo loading. A lot of people think you start cramming pounds of pasta the day before the marathon. But to really get your glycogen stores loaded up, I've always recommended to my clients to start 3 days out and just slightly increase the carbs each day. My clients have always had a good experience with this strategy. 

I did go for a short 2.16 mile run. I felt really slow and sluggish. I wanted to walk multiple times in the first mile. I was sure I'd be faster walking. But after the run, my slow and sluggish run was a 12:52 average pace. 27:53 was my time. With as slow as that felt, I'm curious to see what the Marathon brings on Saturday. 

I have to average a 14:53 pace to finish in the 6.5 hour course time limit. My 18.21 mile run a couple of weeks ago was done in 4:19:00 or a 14:13 average pace. 40 seconds per mile feels too close for me. I find it hard to imagine running another 2 hours basically without slowing down. Hopefully, I'll be fueled a little by the other runners, spectators, etc. 

Thursday, March 13th

Today was an easy 1 mile run with a couple of surges. I ran it in 12:04 and it felt relatively easy. 

Friday, March 14th

Today was a rest day. It was also Expo Day! I picked up my race packet so now it REALLY feels official! I sure hope I can sleep tonight. 

Saturday, March 15

Today was the day! The Marathon finally arrived! And, to address my comment from yesterday, I did not sleep well. For some reason, I woke up at 2:09 a.m. and felt wide awake. I know I fell back asleep at some point, but it felt like I was up off and on until my alarm went off at 6:15 a.m. I took a shower to wake up and got ready. My wife dropped me off near the starting line around 7 a.m. It was a short walk There. Just a few blocks. But I spent most of the half hour I had before the start standing in the porta potty line. Check out my instagram @ashevillerunningcoach for a panoramic picture of the porta-potty line. Luckily I made it to one before the start. 

The gun went off at 7:30 a.m. and I crossed the starting line about 3 minutes later. There were so many people! To be fair, the Half and the Full started at the same time. 

Long story short, it was a great experience. I was hoping to run the whole way, but at 23.66 my legs just gave out going up a hill. I tried to run again, but best I could do was run-walk for the last 2.5 miles. The cutoff time was 6.5 hours and I finished in 6:14:59 (Sub-6:15! LOL)

It's funny in the photo - Clock says 1:48:30. That is the actual time of day, not my running time. Only reason I can think that they had the actual time of day was because the cutoff was at 2 p.m., but who knows? 

I'm going to write a follow up post in a day or two and talk about what I learned now that I'm a marathoner! I have coached so many people to their first marathon, but now I have actual experience going through it myself. This will definitely make me a better coach for those runners.