 |
| Here we go! |
 |
| Run around the Berlin Victory Column during the first mile |
 |
| Cruising right along |
 |
| Homage to the greatest |
Split high 1:33 at the half, and really was trying to
control myself as my legs just wanted to take off. Felt very composed and relaxed at that point,
and had visions of me crossing the finish line with a crazy PR. The congestion never really went away, as
streets were packed with runners and was impossible to do any tangents. The water stations were a complete circus, as
no one was using any etiquette whatsoever and I lost some valuable time trying
to get hydrated throughout the course.
Right around the 30K mark, started to feel some fatigue but shrugged it
off and kept going. My pace started to
slow down (like a car running out of gas) and started to freak out a bit, but
told myself to stay as relaxed as I could.
Soon after, I picked it back up naturally and reestablished my focus on
the race, 1K at a time. At the 35K mark,
my body started to straight up shut down and flirt with the dreaded wall, and
became pretty concerned as I was starting to physically have issues: my feet were aching quite a bit, and my quads
were shot at this point, and my marathon shuffle was at its all-time high since
my stride length was basically 2 feet at this point. The course had actually been pretty shaded up
to this point, but the temps were getting warm in the open areas and we were
exposed to the bright sun towards the end.
Made the decision to back off pace a little bit, and got slightly comfortable
over the next few miles, if you could call it comfortable. I guess a lot of the people around me were
having problems too, as I didn’t really get passed by many people and focused
all my attention on the crowd support and finishing this damn race. I officially fell off 3:10 pace around the 23rd
mile, and thought that 3:12 finishing time was looking likely which was
acceptable and within my range of 3:10-3:15.
With 2K to go, starting doing the math in my head and realized I could
hit 3:10 with a good finish, and really tried to get my head straight despite
the pain. Weaved through the streets,
then eventually made the turn where the Brandenburg Gate was visible. That damn behemoth structure looked a
freaking mile away, and I gritted my teeth and picked the pace up for the final
straightaway. I knew the finish was a
little past the Gate itself, and pressed onwards before I started whatever kick
I had left. There would be no victory
stroll here, and kicked the last 100 meters to hit 3:10 and a grin that
wouldn’t leave my face for the rest of the trip J
Met up with my friend Larry at the finish, then ran over to
the family meeting area to see Josh and wait for Timmy to finish and meet
up. He ended up running his second best
marathon ever (3:54), and we more or less celebrated the day away. What a fun time!
 |
| The Kick for 3:10 |
 |
| Freeze frame from my race video |
 |
| Gorgeous day for a marathon! |
 |
| Hail to the Victors! |
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| Post race celebration |
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| Larry and I |
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| Rehydrating on the Spree |
Here is an excerpt from my email to Coach Kyle, almost
directly after the race – excuse the redundancies, but captures more detail and
my emotions at that given second. This
is what happens when I update this 3 weeks after the race, when I’ve forgotten
some of the details:
Pretty excited with the results, and had many doubts but thought
that 3:10-3:15 was realistic after the good last 4 weeks I had (workouts, KT82,
McKendree half, and 10k). The pace felt so easy for the first 15-16
miles, and was seriously holding back until I started to get tired for the last
5 miles or so. I think I could have pushed it a little more, but was
trying to be smart and not completely blow up and walk the last 4 miles.
Last 3-4k was a mental struggle, and it was more about survival and
finishing strong. I thought 3:10 was lost but did the math and had to
kick hard to break 3:11 - my bib actually popped off during that time (all arms
at that point) so I prob won't have any finish line pics lol
I wish they had a better system for the water stations. It was a
complete cluster f*ck. And the worst part is most of the runners around
me are relatively fast and I'm sure have had prior race experience, so you would
think they would at least signal or show some etiquette. I def lost some
time there crashing into people at almost every water stop and slowing down a
ton. And I ran the tangents horribly - garmin had 26.84 for me, I think
(7:06 avg pace). Eek! Tried to cut all the corners but the roads were so
damn congested that I did a sh*t ton of weaving. If I cut that down 0.2,
that's almost 1-2 minutes right there...
I'm starting to see the results from the last year or so.
It's exciting to me, and definitely is keeping me motivated. I hope
to keep up this momentum through the winter so we can rock next year.
This block will probably go down as one of my favorite training blocks of
all time. I was definitely fit to run a good marathon, and couldn't be
more pleased with the results. It's been too long since I last ran a
marathon, and your workouts were great and I never felt mentally burnt out
which has been a problem for me the last couple years. I need to get down
in the low 170s for next year, and I think you'll see some really good results
then :). And yes, you need to come to London and Tokyo - those trips would be
epic. Thinking London 2016 - next year may be a little hectic with
potential wedding :)
Quick Takeaways:
Course: Very, very fast.
Roads were dead flat, and there were a lot of turns but nothing overly
sharp. There are a crap ton of people to
run with, so wasn’t overly difficult to work with a group, albeit there were
still some varying paces. Relatively
scenic, and no dead areas. Very shaded
for the most part. I can see why the
times here are so fast every year. They
need to fix their water station problems though – they had a big table full of
water cups, then followed by the volunteers handing out the water. I would consider reversing that order and
figuring out a better system for spreading out the runners, which were queuing
heavily at all the water stations. The
cups were tiny, and difficult to grab in the mobs around the water stations. No Gatorade either – they had some sort of
tea, which tasted ok but not what I was looking for nor expecting. All in all, one of the most favorite courses
I have ever ran on – very easy to get through, and went by so fast! Grade: A+
Crowds: Full as expected, but not overly loud. There were bands all over the course, and
they were rocking! Crowds were mainly
polite and respectful. They definitely
had the numbers, but not the roars you hear in Chicago and New York. Grade: B+
Weather: Lucked out, as the high of 68 didn’t really affect
us too much. Maybe at the end, but was
almost done anyways and was dumping water on my head to cool off, which
worked. The marathon always seems to
luck out with great weather, and this year wasn’t any different. The sun is an evil, evil, evil thing. Grade: B+ (overall)
My Race: Probably should have been more disciplined with
holding it back (was a little fast at the half, but mainly from the first 5k),
but felt so good for the first 18 miles or so.
My missed August workouts probably came back to haunt me a little, as I
was struggling a bit more than I should have at the later parts. Should have worked more with GU as my stomach
was having issues later on (no bathroom breaks, thank goodness), but was
physically uncomfortable at some parts.
Other than all that, I was pretty happy.
I really didn’t know what to expect, and had a decent training block –
not my best, but solid. I gave myself a
chance to do well, and that’s the most I could have asked for at this
point. I missed every time goal that
Coach Kyle set for me but finished in the top 2300 overall and given the extra
distance I ran and temps, I ran a PR effort for this race, and had to grind to
hit 3:10 which I did (barely). Grade: A-
(given all factors considered).
 |
| I need to learn how to run a tangent |
 |
| Report Card |
My reintroduction to the marathon was deemed successful by
me, my worst critic. Very happy overall,
and know I have more to give next time I do this. 52 miles this week, 209.5 miles in 2014, 1762.5 miles in 2014.
Monday, September 29th – 0! Early train ride to Munich, and didn’t really
have much time to get in a run since we were trying to knock out a few errands
and get over to Oktoberfest. Our hotel
is roughly a 5 minute walk from the fairgrounds, so very convenient. Walked over, did some exploring, and joined
the locals for some beer drinking and celebration! Oktoberfest was all I thought it would be,
and more. It’s more or less a gigantic
carnival with massive beer tents in between.
Each tent is decorated accordingly by its beer sponsor, and holds
roughly 3,000-5,000 drunk people. All
these people are dressed in lederhosen and dirndls, and the bands play a lot of
German and American music, actually. We
all sat crammed in picnic tables, and drink a ton of Oktoberfest beer and make
friends with everyone around us. Quite
the sight to see!
 |
| Arriving in Munich via bullet train |
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| Gorgeous church on our way to Oktoberfest |
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| Sooo close... |
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| Dressing like the locals |
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| First authentic brat! |
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| The beer tents |
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| Spaten tent |
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| Prost! |
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| Somehow, the day quickly turned to night |
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| One last stop in the Paulaner tent |
Tuesday, September 30th - ~2 miles. Morning run around the Oktoberfest
fairgrounds. Josh had somehow (I say
“somehow” very sarcastically) lost his wallet, so took the opportunity to run
back to the scene of the crime and see if we could pick up any clues. Quite amazing transformation of the thousands
of people scattered around a few hours ago, to complete silence and a few
workers cleaning up and setting up for the next day of craziness. We hadn’t realized how big the fairgrounds were,
nor how many beer tents there actually are in Oktoberfest! Did a painful loop around, and managed to
squeeze out a couple miles. My quads
were pretty shot, and tough to get anything more than a painful shuffle going. Any slight inclination on the road was
brutal, as I think I was lifting my foot about 1” off the ground and was
constantly tripping on everything due to the soreness of my legs. After getting back and planning for the worst
(cancelling credit cards, us withdrawing euros for the rest of Josh’s
trip,etc.), we found his wallet stuffed in Tim’s lederhosen (don’t ask) and all
was suddenly well! The hangover was
gone, and our legs didn’t feel as bad.
We weren’t as sleepy and groggy, and it was time to celebrate! And celebrate we did… 211.5 miles in September, 1764.5 miles in 2014. Solid
 |
| People watching in Oktoberfest |
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| Hobrauhaus |
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| One of the best chickens I have ever tasted |
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| Liter mugs for the festival |
 |
| Yep |
Wednesday, October 1st - ~4 miles. Bad idea to celebrate like we did. Early flight which meant an early wake-up
call and packing and an early cab ride to the airport, with virtually 0 sleep
and operating at roughly 10% function.
Somehow arrived in Dublin, checked in, then did a long shake out run around
the city. Our hotel was alongside a
river on lower O’Connell street, right across from the infamous Temple Bar
District. So we got out, and ran
alongside the river, through some crazy congestion of people before it opened
up and could keep a consistent but slow pace going. Ran through Trinity College, which . My initial sense of Dublin was a lot
different than I thought – pretty worn down, overly congested, and borderline
dirty. Not the country-side old town
feel I was expecting. Quads still hurt,
but making some progress. Slooooow pace
– I think we ran 1 sub 10 minute mile.
At night, we hit the Temple Bar district, and tried out all the
different pubs/bars. Quite honestly, not
terribly different than American watering holes, but we were in a more touristy
location. More to explore tomorrow…
 |
| View from O'Connell Bridge |
 |
| Trinity College |
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| Cool statue by our hotel |
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| First Irish pub! |
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| Temple Bar District |
 |
| Acclimating ourselves in the friendly neighboring waterholes |
Thursday, October 2nd – ~4 miles. Ran through the city, and did some good old
fashioned exploring. We hit up a few
different areas, and explored some of the cathedrals and churches of
Dublin. Absolutely amazing to see
buildings that are centuries old, and see the nuances of the city that you
would miss if driving in a cab or bus.
Highlight of the day was our visit to the Guinness factory, and an
amazing view of the city from their 7th story Gravity Bar! At night, we stumbled around the north end of
Dublin, and found a few local establishments which gave us more of an idea of
the actual culture of the people.
 |
| St. Patrick's Cathedral |
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| Private tour |
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| Our knowledgable host |
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| Slainte! |
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| Catholic Cathedral |
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| Best place in Ireland |
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| Dublin at night |
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| Unrequited Love |
Friday, October 3rd – 0!
Woke up early, but didn’t make it out with Tim who was souvenir hunting
by our hotel, before our flight. Long
travel day home, which included a plane, taxi, train, bus, and car ride. On top of all our delays, our bus hit a deer
at 1 a.m. – just lovely. Amazing the lay
down in my own bed again, and see my beautiful fiancé and Franklin!
 |
| Happy that Daddy is home |
Saturday, October 4th – 5 miles. Ran solo on trails towards Troy, and Village
Circle loop. This was my first run going
at a “regular” effort, and made it a point not to check my watch until the first
mile beeped. Legs felt a little tired,
but pushed my way to the trail entrance.
7:09 – oops, so much for an “easy” run.
Scaled back a ton, and got locked in and enjoyed the gorgeous fall day. I love running in this weather – just
perfect. 7:37 average pace total, felt
very nice.
Sunday, October 5th - ~8 miles. Went down to Mo Cowbell Marathon with Crystal
to spectate the race and cheer on the many friends we knew who were
running. Did some mileage with Tim on
the course, then looped back and ran a couple miles with Megan as she finished
out. Spectated some of the finer runners
in the area tear it up on a perfect running day, then went out to escort
Craigers on his BQ quest. Made my way to
the Katy Trail and started running out, and almost passed him – I knew he was
shooting for 3:30, but expected around 3:35 out of him so was super pumped to
see he was well on pace. Ran him in, and
was pretty jacked to see him qualify for Boston by almost 10 minutes (3:30:01
PR)! Congrats to all runners, especially
Yoch and Colby. Jon ran 2:49 PR for the
marathon, and Colby ran 1:19 PR for the half – great times on a great day! 23 miles this week, 21 miles in October, 1785.5 miles in 2014.
 |
| Go Craigers! |
Monday, October 6th – 4 miles – I don’t remember
this one, just have it logged.
 |
| Thoughtful gift from my coworkers! |
Tuesday, October 7th - 6 miles. Ran with Yoch over in his neck of the woods,
and did a Maryville loop. His legs were
still pretty shot from his extraordinary marathon effort, so more or less went
nice and easy. Nice evening to run, and
felt pretty smooth. ~8:30 pace overall.
Wednesday, October 8th – 6 miles. I don’t remember this one.
Thursday, October 9th – 4 miles. Ran with Clint and Crystal bright and early,
and did a loop around the neighborhood before out and back on Old Faithful,
which is open again! Felt nice and
smooth, and the great company made this run go by pretty quickly.
Friday, October 10
th – 0! Travel day to Chi, and just slept through the
alarm for an early run. With the shorter
days with sunlight, it’s difficult to get up in the mornings! Late night dinner at one of my favorite
Chicago restaurants,
Table 52. Chef Art
Smith is well known for his comfort food, and I had his fried chicken, which
was the first time I had had fried chicken in probably 5 years. We also ordered multiple orders of his famous
oven baked three cheese mac and cheese, which is sinfully good. Almost had a heart attack from all the bad
food, but it would have been well worth it – soooo delicious!
 |
| Heart attack waiting to happen but so worth it! |
Saturday, October 11th - ~9 miles. Lakeshore run with Anne and Ben on an
absolutely perfect day. Ran north on
Lakeshore and back for 3 miles, before continuing on south by myself. Ran to around Navy Pier and turned back, and
was picking up the pace coming in without much effort. So the run became an impromptu cutdown, and ended
up hitting the last mile in 6:50. Felt
pretty smooth for the most part, and nice to get some faster movement
going. Started out in 8:15’s, dropped to
7:50’s, then last 3 miles were 7:30, 7:20, 6:50.
 |
| Home away from home |
Sunday, October 12th - ~5 miles. Happy Chicago Marathon Day! Went downtown super early, and got hooked up
with an athlete/coach’s pass which let me go inside the ropes. Met up at the Hilton in Grant’s Park (right
next to start/finish), then rode over to the elite tents and more or less hung
out with the athletes and coaches and watched them all warm up and prepare for
the battle that awaited them. Pretty
awesome to watch the runners up close and personal, and very nice to have a
tent literally 100 feet from the start line!
Because of the massive street blockages due to increased security, had
to run through Grant Park to Lakeshore and more or less tempo it around the
city, across the river, then through the city so I could meet up with Coach
Kyle and Schlegel, who were downtown watching the race. The race was about to start in 5 minutes, and
I had to get moving! It was a solid 2-3
miles, and ran with the runners on the sidewalk a little before the 1 mile mark
before weaving around and meeting up with those guys. This was my first time actually spectating
downtown, and it was quite the spectacle from the other side and I have a hell
of a lot more respect to the spectators for the running around they have to do
to see us at specific points. Great
morning to run, albeit a little windy but ran to a few points downtown before
heading to the finish, right before the dreaded Roosevelt hill before the
finish. We didn’t see a course record,
but a hell of a performance by Eliud Kipchoge who dropped a 4:30 25th
mile to separate from the pack and finish in 2:04:10! And he was smiling the entire way –
absolutely insane! A big congrats to all
the local runners who finished out, especially my buddy Gabe who rocked out the
mother of all negative splits (1:30/1:26), and my buddy Ken who PRed during his
26.2 mile training run in preparation for the Naperville Marathon! Fun day with a lot of running in between, and
definitely got me pumped up and excited to run again! 34 glorious miles this week, 55 miles in October, 1819.5 miles in 2014.
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| Elites at the hotel |
 |
| Fast women |
 |
| The start |
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| Eventual champion |
 |
| Getting ready |
 |
| Bekele brothers |
 |
| Game face from Kenenisa |
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| Strides |
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| Lead pack |
 |
| Blazing by in the first 5K |
 |
| Cruising |
Monday, October 13th – 0! Rained all day, and opted to go to the
Rams/49ers Monday Night Football game. Legs
feel antsy, so sort of regret not going.
Tuesday, October 14th – 6 miles. Ran with Mike late at night for some easy
mileage. Misty and cool, and starting to
adjust to the shorter days. Felt nice
and easy, and we picked it up coming in.
Ran out and back on the trails to Troy – fun, fun. Total time was 48-50 minutes, total.
Wednesday, October 15th – 6 miles. Ran with Yoch around the neighborhoods in
Maryville. We met up after work at his
house, and looped around at a conservative pace – his legs were still a bit
trashed from the marathon.
Thursday, October 16th - ~4 miles. Late, late run due to a late NLCS game. Started at almost 11 p.m., and did my first
official workout post Berlin. 10x1 minute
on, 1 minute off, and did on my 270 loop and the streets of Glen Carbon. Because of the time, I did only a half mile
warmup and cooldown, and wanted to add some variety to the terrain which is why
I ran on the hillier 270 loop. The
effort was at 5K pace (~6:00 min/mile), and after calculating the distances
ran, I think I was pretty close. Nice,
cool evening to get the legs moving – I LOVE fall running!
Friday, October 17th – 6 miles. I don’t remember this, but logged in my
files.
Saturday, October 18th – 0! Kyle and Tracy were in town visiting, and
completely crapped out on running altogether.
Poor excuse, I know.
Sunday, October 19th – 12 miles. Ran 6 with Coach Kyle on a weird loop on the
trails (Home Depot route), then did 6 solo on the trails, out and back towards
Troy later in the afternoon. Mid to low
8 minute pace overall, and was getting a little tired at the end but probably
because I am running consistently again.
34 miles this week, 89 miles in October, 1853.5 miles in 2014.
Monday, October 20th - ~6.5 miles. Creve Couer Park run with Crystal over
lunch. Very sunny and a slight breeze,
and it ended up being a very warm day.
Felt pretty good for the most part, and we were threatening to drop to a
fast pace but kept it pretty honest with the help of my trusty Garmin. I forget how nice CC is, and should utilize
more – it’s only 10 minutes from work and lots of people are usually out and
about, which is nice to have company from time to time. 50 minutes total.
Tuesday, October 21st – 6 miles. Forest Park run with Joe Lyons on a perfect
evening. We did the reverse loop (up
Skinker, down dinosaur hill) and more or less was cruising. Was getting a little tired at the end, but
mainly because we were in the process of negative splitting every mile (I have
decreed this type of a run, the “Sullentrup run”). We started at high 7’s, but finished at high
6’s – did not feel the best at the end, but it got done and the conversation
made the run/pain go by pretty quickly.
It’s scary that I did a marathon in low 7 minute pace roughly 3 weeks
ago, but mid 7’s feels uncomfortable right now.
Am I really that much out of shape again??? 45 minutes and some change, overall.
Wednesday, October 22nd - ~6.5 miles. Hill Workout and did with Mike over in
Troy. He had scouted the area and found
a decent hill in a neighborhood, roughly 2 miles away so we headed there later
in the evening. The goal was to do 10
repeats at tempo effort, and we decided on 45 seconds since that seemed ok
after the first couple reps. We measured
from street light to street light, and used that for our start/finish. Jogged back down with a small rest in between
reps, and we hammered them out. Outside
of the first rep (43 seconds), we were between 45-47 for the rest so was happy
with the consistency. The rep was
roughly 0.12-0.13 according to Garmin, so we were hitting ~6:08 pace, which was
a bit faster than the tempo goal pace.
We were more or less running at 5K pace, but the turnover felt great and
was relaxed more or less the entire way.
Almost got t-boned by a truck on one of the repeats, and had a few close
calls with some cars on the way back.
Apparently no driver in Troy will yield to runners, so be warned if you
are running through the mean streets of Troy!
Thursday, October 23rd – 6 miles
Friday, October 24th – 4 miles
Saturday, October 25
th – 7 miles (FATHER MCGIVNEY 5K: 18:53, 5
th overall). Hot, sunny day for a local race in Maryville. Finally, I was in town to do this race, and we assembled a group to go conquer this event between Yoch, Colby, Crystal, Megan, and I. 70’s and sunny, and was very sweaty after a 2 mile warmup with Colby and Crystal. Out and back course around the Maryville YMCA – first mile split was literally at the trail entrance, then we ran out and back with the last mile being uphill. Crystal had a workout, and asked me to help pace her through 6:00 miles for the first 1-2, so we worked together to nail that split. Backed off a little once we got on the trails, and tried to stay as relaxed as I could and was on good pace through the 2
nd mile (6:14). The problem was the last mile – we had to climb up a small but steep annoying hill, which was the first stomach punch for me. We wrapped around the Y parking lot, then headed towards the school which was flat but once we made the turn, we hit a long hill which was the knockout blow. I climbed what I could, but mentally and physically was gassed as my pace slowed down and finished the race with my tail between my legs. However, hit my season’s best (albeit slightly short course), and better than I thought I would be considering I’ve done virtually 0 turnover work in awhile. Cool down with group, then enjoyed a nice day with lunch at Cleveland Heath with Megan and Crystal, and dinner in St. Charles at a wonderful restaurant called
Prasino.
 |
| Cleaning up |
 |
| With my favorite fan |
Sunday, October 26th – 12 miles. 4 miles with Yoch on the trails/Crystal’s
neighborhood, then group run with Crystal, Mike, Pat, and us. We did Old Faithful out and back on a
gorgeous day, and felt relatively decent given the tough 5K the day
before. Perfect day for company, and the
run went by very quickly. 1:39 total,
~8:15 average pace. 48 miles this week, 137 miles in October, 1901.5 miles in 2014.
 |
| Post long run recovery |
Monday, October 27th – 6 miles.
Tuesday, October 28th – 4 miles. Art Hill repeats with Joe Lyons after
work. We met at Forest Park, and did a 2
mile warmup around the area before doing 5 hill repeats on Mount “Art Hill”. Tweaked my back after the first rep, and had
to shorten my stride a bit to get through the rest. The top of the hill has the highest incline,
and is absolutely murderous – we went with a relaxed effort, and was still
pretty brutal. Definitely a lot of work
to be done…
Wednesday, October 29th – 6 miles. Solo on the trails – out and back towards
Home Depot. Gorgeous fall day, and took
a few quick pictures to capture the moment.
Went out a little faster than usual, and apparently picked it up – my body
was leading the charge, and I was trying to hold back. Felt pretty decent considering the hill
workout, but could feel a little tired on the last mile. 43:04 total (7:11 pace) – a little quick for
a recovery run.
Thursday, October 30th – ~4 miles. Easy run after work in the spitting
rain. Boy it’s gotten a little chilly
outside! Ran out and back on the trail
for an easy 30-40 minutes. Legs were a
bit beat up, and my back was screaming.
Tune up appointment with Dr. Clint post run will help.
Headed to Indy tonight for the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon! I'm running the 5K, and watching our group tear up their races!
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