The Cliff Notes version is that I ran a 7:09/mile average for a 3:07:26 which is indeed a BQ time. All that hard work and training has paid off and I’m on cloud nine. For the longer version feel free to read on.

Here is a video of me at mile 16.5 and 25. I was looking and feeling a lot better at mile 16.5 than I was at mile 25. 3:07:26 finish was awesome though just as much as my family cheering me on!

I have arrived in Tyler Saturday around 4:00PM with my wife and two kids, picked up my bib, t-shirt and goodie bag at the sponsor hotel. They also had the medals and age group awards on display and they all looked very nice. The goodie bag was rather Spartan, a couple of coupons for New Balance and some free music download, it was nothing like the bags celebrities get at the Oscar’s. But then again, I was there to run a marathon not to load up on freebies. The shirt was a nice technical New Balance shirt, nothing special.

I ended up with bib 220 which my wife liked a lot; her favorite number is 22 so 220 worked out to her liking. The bib numbers were in alphabetical order up to 260 or so and the rest of them were scattered all over the place. On the registration sheet the highest bib number was 274 and unless some more people registered Saturday that was going to be the final count. There was no race day registration.

Once we picked up my bib and shirt we drove to our hotel and checked in. A fellow runner who I see in the mornings as he lives real close to me was also running the full at Tyler while his wife was running the half. They were also checking in and we went out to drive the course together just to get a feel for it. The full course was basically 15 miles on a large loop then it connected up with the half marathon course and the two were running together to the finish. When you go to the Tyler Marathon website they describe the course as “There will be some rolling areas and a few hills on our course”. Well they weren’t kidding. The course is actually extremely rolling and there is really no flat in it at all. You’re either going up or coming down. And while the mapped course on mapmyrun.com indicates 430 ft of elevation they’re clearly lying. My Polar RS800cx with the barometric altitude measured 1,100 ft of elevation on the course which was not at all surprising once we drove the course.

During our course drive we found a great location for my wife and kids at mile 16.5 that we also hit at mile 25 on the way back so they had a chance to see me twice and there was a nice park with playgrounds right next to it. I told them to expect me to roll by around 9:30 and again around 10:20 and be on the lookout.

Once we drove the course I had serious doubts about whether it will be a BQ course for me at all, it just seemed way too daunting with the constant hills and slope changes not to mention the dozens of turns in the second half of the course.

I also checked the weather forecast and it promised a scary 56F start with temperatures steadily rising to mid 70s by the finish. The hot weather combined with the rolling hills was a recipe for disaster. So I thought that I should get at least my nutrition right.

I had been eating pasta dish after pasta dish for the past 2 days and Saturday night we went to a great little place where I had a nice bowl of pasta with mushrooms in marinara sauce and a dinner roll. I was also going to get some sweetened tea to get some more carbs in my system but it was so sweet that I could not drink it and had to order an unsweetened one instead. Then I sipped on some Powerade Zero throughout the evening to get some minerals in me.

Race day nutrition plan was one 100 calorie gel pack at every 4 miles with taking a cup of water at every water station. I ran a 22 mile long run with this setup and my stomach did well with it so I figured it would work on race day too.

I went to bed at 10PM but woke up at 12AM and kept awake for a while thinking that it was close to morning and the alarm was about to go any minute but once I checked the time I realized that the morning was far away so I fell back asleep only to wake up at 3:30 to take care of No. 1 as I drank way too much Powerade the night before. The alarm went off at 5:15. I had no BM on Saturday which gave me a major concern as I’m usually not shy when it comes to No 2s. I woke up at 5:15 on purpose to hope that I could take care of things before the race and luckily I did so that was a big relief that I did not have to worry about mid-run “runs”. I ate a plain bagel for breakfast; I’m not a big breakfast guy on race days.

I went down to the hotel lobby where a bunch of other runners were getting ready and sipping on coffee or having toast or a bagel. I talked with a couple of them. One of them ran 117 marathons so far. He ran his first one in 1976 and 50 of the 117 were sub 3 hour finishes. He also ran marathons in all 50 states and ran the big 5, Chicago, Boston, New York, London and Berlin. His goal was just to get one more marathon under his belt.

A lady was running the half but told me that he had two friends who were running the full and one had a 3:17 finish from last season and wanted to better that while the other guy was shooting for a 3:05-3:10. I figured he’d be my guy to run with if I wanted some company.

My neighbor, his wife and I headed over to the start where I hit up the port-a-potties one more time, with success, checked in my sweat pants and compression shirt with bag check, put on my nipple guards, applied copious amounts of Body Glide to all parts of my body whether they were prone to chafing or not and headed to the start.

15 minutes before the race start I had another 18 Oz of Powerade Zero and a 100 calorie gel pack. At the start I saw Kiplimo Chemirmir, a local elite runner, and I figured he’d be the one to win this one. I also talked with two other guys. One said his goal was 6:52 pace so I knew he was going for the sub 3 marathon finish. He said he’d been trying for 3 years with no success. The other guy was a 38 year old lawyer who said it was his second marathon and he was hoping for a BQ time but he was going to go at 7:00 pace at the beginning to “bank” some time. I knew there was no such thing as banking so I tried to talk him out of that idea and I figured we could probably run together, at least for a while.

There was no bullhorn or air horn or gun, just a “Runners Ready, Go!” at 7:30. And we were off. Me and my newfound lawyer friend stuck together and after the first straight’s 6:20 pace we slowed it down to a more manageable pace.

Mile 1: 6:53. I knew it was fast and I knew that it was not the pace I wanted to run but it felt easy. I thought there were about a dozen people in front of me at this point.

Mile 2: 7:05. That’s more like it. It was still fast with some rolling elevation and by now we were stretched out pretty far and were just me and lawyer guy. We had a good conversation going, I felt like I was doing a long run with a friend. We also had a women pass us at this point and I thought to myself some people are going out way too fast.

Mile 3: 6:58. Another rolling section and we were just talking away. Turns out that my lawyer friend did not drive the course the day before so I thought he was in for a bitter surprise. I tried to warn him and told him that things were going to get ugly and these rolling slopes were nothing compared to what the second half was going to look like.

Mile 4: 6:50. Another fast mile. This one was pretty much downhill the entire way so I felt good about the pace. Legs felt fine and refreshed at this point. Took my first gel.

Mile 5: 7:06. I felt good about the pace, 7:06 felt certainly doable at this point and it was a mostly flat mile. At the end of it we finally got off the major highway and started running on a narrower one lane farm road with much less, practically non-existent, traffic.

Mile 6: 7:05. Another great split, or so I thought. This one had two little humps but it was nothing major at this point in the game. We also found our first group of supporters who yelled and screamed at us. They were carrying signs that said “Go Ashton” so we told them that they should relax as we were not Ashton. Waving back and cracking jokes was fun at this point, things were in smooth sailing.

Mile 7: 7:11. You would think I was fading rapidly by now but it wasn’t the case. Mile 7 had some massive climbs and this is where I realized that my lawyer buddy was more of a constant pace runner than a constant effort runner. He was pushing hard on the climbs but he was running slower on the downhill. I let him get ahead on the climb but I caught him on the downhill. I felt that I had to run my own race and I wasn’t going to jeopardize my finish just to keep with a stranger on some hills.

Mile 8: 6:57. Mile 8 was mostly uphill and apparently I was getting dragged along for the ride. I took my second gel closer to mile 9 right before the water stop.

Mile 9: 6:57. It was mostly flat with a bit of downhill running. Just before the mile marker we had a water stop where we caught up with the 6:52 guy from the start. We told him that he was running 6:59 average and his sub 3 was dwindling away. He said he was aware but he wasn’t feeling it. We stuck together and we were a pack of 3 at this point as we turned back onto another major highway heading back towards town just passed circling around the airport.

Mile 10: 6:46. My fastest mile split. We were running into the sun heading east and apparently 6:52 guy was still hoping for that sub 3. I told lawyer guy that we should let him go as he’s still trying to shoot for that sub 3 and it would be foolish to try to hang with him. We also saw the “Go Ashton” cheer group again and we clapped and yelled “Go Ashton” as we passed them to everyone’s great enjoyment.

Mile 11: 6:52. We were still hanging with Mr. 6:52, he was surging ahead but he’d walk the water stops where we’d catch him.

Mile 12: 7:24. Me and lawyer guy were talking about our half PRs, I told him I ran 1:31:20 and he said he also had a 1:31 PR. We felt like a good match and we were thinking about how we just might break that PR today if we keep up the pace. That was until we came up on the 4% incline at the end of mile 12 that killed our split. Took one more gel, little did I know that this was going to be my last.

Mile 13: 7:05. After that tough climb it was mostly downhill for Mile 13 where I picked up some momentum and started pulling away from my lawyer friend. Then just as mile 13 was coming to an end we hit another 4% climb and he started catching up. I asked if he was still with me and he assured me that he was.

13.1: 1:31:59. Not a PR but that wasn’t the goal. It’s still blistering fast and much faster than what I probably should have run. It was a 7:02/mile pace up until this point. They say unless you feel like things were too easy so far you’re already in trouble. I felt things were going easy so I thought I was doing well. Lawyer guy ran the split at 1:32:03.

Mile 14: 6:51. This mile had a massive 6% climb at the beginning then a -4% drop. By the time I hit bottom I never heard of lawyer guy again. He was behind me and so was 6:52 guy. They checked out so it was my race from here on out, no small talk, no BS, just running my own race.

Mile 15: 6:59. Mile 15 ended with a massive climb. I saw the Ashton cheer group one more time and I ran into the back end of the 5K race. They were at mile 1.5ish into their run and they were slow and walking. I was dodging them and hoped that the cops would stop traffic if not for them but at least for me. Luckily they did and I managed to run through the rough patch without much issue.

Mile 16: 6:56. My hams were starting to get a bit fatigued but I knew that I have “banked” an incredible amount of time for my BQ goal. I knew I needed a serious bonk to screw this one up. I was getting to the point where my stomach wasn’t feeling all that hot so I switched from water to Powerade and stopped taking gels.

Mile 17: 7:01. By now I was picking off the walkers at the back of the half marathon group and I was running pretty good. This mile was great as I finally got to see my wife and two kids by the playground as I ran by them. They waved at me and made me feel pretty darn good. One of the best miles on the course despite the fact that my hams were getting really worn out.

Mile 18: 7:03. The calves were cramping. They started cramping pretty bad and I was a bit worried about my run. I still had a whole lot more to go. This was the fastest 18 miles I have ever run and it was getting pretty toasty. Temperatures were in mid 60s by now and I could definitely feel it. I was passing more and more half marathoners and I passed a full marathoner as he stopped to take a walk. I knew I wasn’t the only one hurting at this point.

Mile 19: 7:10. This was definitely fading. The alternating 4% ups and downs were getting more and more miserable and my calves were killing me and I wasn’t even at the 20 mile point.

Mile 20: 7:13. More of the same except mile 20 was mostly uphill. I also almost sprained my ankle on a tight corner as I passed some half marathoners. For a moment I felt like it was going to do me in and my chances of finishing were gone but luckily the ankle held up and I kept running.

Mile 21: 6:57. You might think this was me getting a second wind but I wasn’t. I just happened to run down some steep 6% grades for a little while that helped my pace along nicely. This was the point where I knew that I would BQ. And this was the point where I almost sprained my ankle a second time. This one felt a lot more severe than the first one but it still ended up being nothing.

Mile 22: 7:18. This mile had two steep and persistent hills that were killing me and my pace. I kept thinking that these hills sure sucked ass. But there was nothing to do but run them. I tried to mutter a “thanks” or “keep it up” every time I ran by a group of half marathon walkers but it was getting harder and harder to say anything to them. The times of waves and jokes and claps were long gone. Running was no longer fun.

Mile 23: 7:14. I was inching up on another marathon runner and I finally passed him on this section. I really contemplated to just sticking with him but when I got next to him the momentum just carried me away from him and I never looked back.

Mile 24: 7:42. A miserable split. But this was the split where I had to be thankful for some nice people who decided to run their sprinklers in their front yard so I could run through it and enjoy a much needed shower. Temperature was 70F at this point and everyone around me was hurting just as much as I was.

Mile 25: 7:53. Getting close to that magical 8 minute mark. It was downright pathetic but that is all I could muster at this point on some tough 4% elevation grades. I saw my family one more time, I was much less receptive of the cheering and I barely waved at them, I was ready to check out.

Mile 26: 7:57. Worst split of the day. I was done. My legs were done, mentally I was done and I just wanted to call it quits. I knew I had the BQ in hand even if I ran a 9 minute pace and I no longer cared about my time or anything else other than finishing the course. The last climb was another killer and while the elevation chart indicates a mostly downhill mile it didn’t feel that way with the two short but sweet climbs in it.

Mile 26.2: 1:42 I had a tiny bit of kick left in me and when I heard over the PA my name and that I was 4^th overall I could not believe it. I hoped that I finished in the top 10 but to be 4^th it was just awesome. 3^rd would have been better but I’ll take what I can.

When I stopped my Polar it read 3:07:28 and I knew I BQd. It was a fantastic feeling but I needed a good 15 minutes of walking and stretching before I had the guts to sit down without the fear of cramping up to the point of no return.

If you had asked me at that moment whether I was going to run another marathon I probably would have said that you were out of your mind. I felt like that even though I BQd I’d never run Boston or any other marathon. I was done with this stupid distance forever. But 30 minutes later I was already contemplating whether I should run a full or a half next month, under ideal conditions at the Fort Worth Marathon where the course is straight, it has +200 ft of elevation in the first half and -200 ft of drop in the second half on an out and back course by the Trinity river that I run every week.

My family made their way to the finish by then and I learned that I finished 4^th overall out of 252 runners and 246 finishers. I got 2^nd in my age group out of 16 and I got 3 out of 145 for men. Top women ran an impressive 2:54:15 with an awesome negative split (1:28:16 at 13.1). I was 9^th at the half marathon point, one guy DNF and I picked off 4 guys. My age group winner finished with a 3:06:45.

Lawyer guy ran a 3:56:13 after that 1:32 half. I’m glad I didn’t stick with him for the second half and I didn’t bonk as hard as he did. I think “6:52 guy” finished with a 3:19. My neighbor was shooting for a 4 hour marathon and ended up running 4:08. The guy that the lady at breakfast mentioned running for 3:05-3:10 ended up running a 3:28:26 after a 1:24:15 half, another serious bonk. “Go Ashton” ran a 1:38:42 half and ended up with a DNF. I was wondering about him and the lack of his supporters after mile 14, he probably threw in the towel shortly after the first half.

According to my GPS I ran 26.39 miles but we all know that I ran 26.2. It was a tough course with tough weather but I still managed to run what I planned to run. A BQ at 7:10. I wish I had achieved it with more even pacing but I take it either way.

Some other aspects of the race besides the incredible amounts of rolling hills and elevation and the high temperature worth commenting were the road quality, the number of turns and the race organization.

Roads for the first half were very coarse highway asphalt where I could feel every single gravel packed into the tar. It was a choice between that rough texture and running on the tight camber of the concrete curb. I chose the rough surface to save my knees. Once we were back in town running through the historical Azelea trail the roads turned into red brick that had zero give or cushioning but in return they were perfectly uneven.

When I thought of road racing I never considered the number of turns and how it might affect your run. That was until I ran this race. The first 15 miles had 7 turns and some mildly winding roads. Things were perfect. The second half was an utter disaster in terms of turns. I counted them on the map and there were a whopping 42 turns in the last 11 miles which means that on average we had to make a 90 degree turn every quarter of a mile. It was utter misery. Some of the turns were well manned and marked while at others I was hoping to see some half marathon runners in the near distance to know which way to go even though I already drove the course the day before and had some recollection of which way the race was meant to go.

The organization of the race was great. Start was prompt and friendly, port-a-potties were abundant, and the water stops were well manned and stocked with ample warning about which side had which kind of refreshment. Post race food offerings were plentiful 3+ hours after the half marathon start even though I only had a banana as that is all I could stomach shortly after the race.

So there you have it, my first marathon race report. Thanks for reading and hanging with me throughout my training, it was a great experience and I can’t wait to do it again!

I chose a “local”, if you consider driving 3 hours and staying in a hotel overnight local, race as I wanted something that didn’t cost an arm and a leg to fly to and I was also looking for a marathon that was not too crowded as I will be running to finish with a Boston Qualifying time or better. Boston Qualifying time for me means running a marathon under 3:10:59 which means running it faster than 7:17 minutes/mile. If I look at my recent training runs I would say I have this in the bag and running a 7:17 would mean I’m sandbagging it. Given my recent race results I should be shooting for something closer to the 3 hour mark, a 6:52/mile pace. But I don’t think there is anything sandbagging about running a marathon.

During the last couple of weeks of taper my mind was going 100 miles an hour to decide on a marathon pace. “Should I play it safe and run 7:15 pace? Should I go balls to the wall and attempt a sub 3 marathon that I’m theoretically capable of? Should I go with something in between?” This is what they call taper madness. Not only I’m running less and less but I have all this time to keep thinking and playing different, both realistic and unrealistic scenarios in my head about how to run the marathon. I have also been checking the weather information for Tyler and it’s not looking all that great.

Right now it looks like the race will start in the mid 50s and temperatures will rise to closer to mid 70s by the end of the race. I also finally came to my senses and asked the most important question from myself: “What’s my goal with this race?”. And the answer to that question is that I want to qualify for Boston. It takes 7:15 to qualify so there is really no point in me attempting to pull off a sub 3 marathon at this point. I will have plenty other times to achieve that goal. So I finally decided that I will play it safe and I will run 7:10 pace up until the 20 mile mark at which point I will re-evaluate how I feel and whether I should attempt to run anything faster than that for the last 6 miles. If I can pick up the pace great if I can’t I still have a BQ finish in my sight as long as I keep my pace above 7:30 for the last 6.2 miles.

The only other thing that kept my mind preoccupied for the last two weeks was nutrition and weight gain. I cut back on my breakfast, I’m only eating 200 calories instead of my usual 400 calories. I also try to cut back on the snacks and eat only 100 calorie snacks instead of the 200 calorie ones. As of today I’m also starting my carb-up plan. I’m going easier on the protein and fats and trying to consume more carbohydrates. So far I think I have my weight under control but it is definitely a balancing act to get things right. Don’t eat too much but eat enough to fuel my body just right and keep my glycogen stores full.

So that’s pretty much what taper madness feels like. If you think this post was just a jumble of thoughts, it is not much different from the actual state of my mind where ideas and scenarios just keep going in full circle. I’m really looking forward Sunday morning when I can finally put and end to this madness and just go out and run.

My first and original goal, in terms of running, was to finish a 10K race. But I didn’t just want to finish it, I wanted to be in the best possible shape I possibly could by then. Considering how difficult it felt to even run three two plus one miles on my first run the best possible shape wasn’t going to be something all that stellar. But I set out to run the Cowtown Marathon’s 10K race. I made that goal so it would give me a reason to run and a reason to train. This goal also required me to follow a plan.

Thanks to my co-worker, an avid runer, marathoner and fellow weight loser, I found Hal Higdon’s website. Hal’s an older guy in his late 70s who has completed over 110 marathons in his lifetime and authored several books on the subject of running and marathons. His website provides an abundance of information and a multitude of free training plans from 5K races all the way to marathons for runners at all abilities and fitness levels. I decided to go with his Intermediate 10K training plan and started it on Week 2.

By Week 4 I ran my very first race, a 5K that the plan has called for. Shortly after the race I got injured due to a bum knee that I should have let to heal but I overcompensated and developed tendinitis of my right foot instead. It forced me to quit running for a week and only left me with two more weeks before the big 10K race.

8 Week 10K Intermediate + 12 Week Spring Advanced weekly summary

After my first 10K race I needed a new goal and a new plan. I needed a goal to keep me motivated and I need a new plan to keep me on track. So I have decided that I will run a marathon. Running a marathon and finishing a marathon are two different things. Some people just want to finish one, get across the finish line, get the beer and the finisher’s medal so they can say they have done it. If you have been following me for a while you would know that this is not me. I don’t like to do things half assed. I like to do them right. This meant I couldn’t just point at the calendar and pick a marathon in the next couple of weeks and make a run for it. No sir! I knew that I would have to train and be in top shape to be able to run it in a way that I would want to run it.

Most marathon plans are 16-20 weeks long. So it’s not only the 26.2 miles that’s a marathon, the length of training that gets you to the start line is a marathon of a training session itself. You can’t just wake up one morning, roll out of bed and walk up to the start line and expect to perform well. Sure, some might pride themselves in doing a “no training marathon” but I wanted to do it the right way. It meant that I would have to look at marathons in the June/July time frame. Let me remind you that I live in Texas. There just aren’t a whole lot of races let alone marathons in June/July in Texas. And while I was committed to the plan of running a marathon I was not committed enough to travel out of state for one. So that left me with no option but to look for a fall marathon.

I found one in Tyler, Texas, the Tyler Rose Marathon on 10/10/10, the same day there is a small race in Chicago known as the Bank Of America Chicago Marathon. So I have decided that while I would not travel to Chicago, I would most certainly drive 3 hours to get to Tyler Texas for a small and cozy inaugural marathon. But since the Tyler marathon is not until October it left me with 30 weeks of training left. What was I supposed to do with all that time, the marathon training was only going to take 18 weeks?

Lucky for me, Hal Higdon also has a 12 week plan that he calls the 12 week advanced spring training plan. This plan called for numerous 5K and 10K races along the way and this is what I had been following for the past 12 weeks more or less. I have ran three 5K and three 10K races that were on the plan and I have reported from every single one of them. The end of the plan got kind of messed up for me due to race scheduling and timing so i kind of finished the plan a week early which left me with nothing but relaxing easy runs for the last week. Ironically I have logged the most miles in a week last week on this easy week.

So now that I have finished my spring training, I have started working on my marathon plan this week. I will be following Hal Higdon’s Advanced II marathon plan for the next 18 weeks and I should be in top shape by the time I’m going to toe the line in Tyler, Texas on a hopefully cold fall morning in October.

If you have read this far I will also tell you that my goal is not only to run a marathon. My goal is to run a marathon and finish it with a Boston Qualifying time of 3:10:59 or less. So there you have it. My new plan is to follow the 18 week marathon plan and finish with a sub 3 hour 10 minute marathon in October. I have started my fat to fit transformation on 10/25/09 and I’m planning to BQ (Boston Qualify) on 10/10/10. I call this my C2BQ plan. Why C2BQ? There is a plan called C25K which means “Couch to 5K” and it’s supposed to help people to get up and start running and it gets them from being a couch potato to running a 5K in 9 weeks. My plan is the Couch to Boston Qualify in a year plan. I’m 7 months into it and I have another 18 weeks to go.

Since I will be concentrating on my running throughout the summer and my weight is sitting at a comfortable 165 lbs I will probably not worry so much about shedding the last few pounds but I’m sure losing them will be a side effect of my vigorous running regime.