Jacksonville Marine Corps Half Marathon: Dial M for Mediocrity

Settling into a rhythm at mile 5

My long-awaited return to the start line of a race finally happened yesterday.  I hadn’t raced since April, which is a long dry spell for this incurable competitor.  Much to my chagrin, however, this important step on the comeback trail did not yield the outcome I had anticipated.  After three months of hard work getting back on track with my training in the wake of a lower back injury that sidelined me for the entire month of June, I had high hopes for my performance in yesterday’s race. This race was a landmark 25^th half marathon for me.  For some added motivation, Jacksonville served up ideal racing conditions for this reunion I would have with the world of competitive distance running.  Yet for reasons that aren’t entirely clear to me, I turned in a disappointing performance yesterday that seriously jeopardizes my hopes of qualifying for Boston at the Philadelphia Marathon on November 20.  I ran a ho-hum time of 1:47:31, which is only my third best time of the 5 times that I have run this race, and I placed 307^th of 1766 finishers (top 17%).  This performance was faster than my times on this course in 2006 and 2009 (1:49), but not as fast as my times in 2010 (1:44) and 2008 (1:45).   The deafening sound of underachievement was ringing in my ears when I crossed the finish line.

I’m still sorting out all of the factors involved in trying to make sense of my performance.  First, I ran a smart race.  I was cautious in the challenging first three miles, which featured two significant bridge spans.  I held an 8:00 minute pace for those first three miles, and then ran negative splits for the next several miles.  I was holding a 7:57 pace by mile 9, which was where I needed to be to run my best time on this course.  But that’s where things unraveled as they have in previous years on this course.  My legs started to get very rubbery and I struggled to maintain my pace.  My lungs felt great and I was mentally focused, but my legs just checked out.  I literally felt like I would collapse if I had to run on an uneven surface.  It was clear to me by mile 10 that I would not run a best time on this course yesterday, which was terribly demoralizing.  I struggled to resist the temptation to drop out of the race at that point.  I just stayed with it as best I could, trying to set realistic goals for my finishing time based on my slower pace.

Second, I’m battling the lingering undermining effects of missing a full month of training in June, not racing since April, and not being able to get as many quality long runs (13+ miles) at a sufficiently fast pace because the weather has been miserably hot and humid for most of the past two months.  Ever since moving to Florida in 2006, I have always struggled with my training in August and September.  To quote Robert Hays in the classic movie, Airplane, my training in August and September can best be described as “Sluggish, like a wet sponge.”  After about 5 miles on any given day of training in Florida’s relentless summer humidity, my sneakers and clothing feel like I’ve taken up residence in a car wash.

Third, other factors make my performance yesterday particularly confounding.  One thing that makes me suspicious about not performing better yesterday is the fact that the weather was so ideal (mid-60s with low humidity).  It’s incredibly rare for me not to perform at least reasonably well, if not very well, when the Florida weather cooperates.  In addition, I have lost about 10 pounds since I ran this race last year, and I have been following a disciplined training regimen as closely as I can given my crazy work schedule in Orlando.  In addition, while my transition to vegetarianism since June is indeed a transition, it has been entirely positive as far as I can tell.  I have plenty of energy and I recover quickly from my training runs.   Just to be on the safe side in the next two months of intense training, however, I plan to increase my intake of protein (in energy bars and smoothies) and take a daily multi-vitamin.

While I have averaged 30 miles per week for the past 7 weeks, which is one of my longest stretches of uninterrupted high mileage since high school,  I still need to push my mileage higher in October and November to make up for the lost month of training in June.  Here are my mileage totals for the past three months and my projections for October and November:

July – 107 miles

August – 113 miles

September – 122 miles

October – 150 miles

November – 140 miles

A lack of quality long runs has really held me back in the past two months.  My long runs have been shortened due to fatigue and dehydration on some days, and on other days because of scheduling issues in coordinating long runs with my son, Alek, and his cross country teammates on Sunday mornings.  My longest training run this year is 14 miles.  I need to log at least 4 training runs in the 16+ mile range in the coming weeks to be ready for my marathon.  The good news is that I will be able to attend training runs with Coach Paul McCrae’s training group for the next two Saturdays and I plan to make the most of those outings.  It has been very difficult to make the most of my long runs on my own in oppressive humidity.  I have been doing well with my interval training sessions on my own, but they have been confined to the treadmill because of my work schedule in Orlando.  Coach Paul’s marathon training plan has given me the tools I need to succeed.  Now I just need to fully execute the plan.

All of this doom and gloom notwithstanding, there is room for hope.  My training always improves dramatically in October and November.  I really start to see results with the cooler weather.  For example, in 2009, I ran a 1:49 at the Jax Marine Corps Half Marathon (two minutes slower than my time yesterday) and then I turned things around and ran a 1:42 at the Outback Half Marathon in cooler temps just 7 weeks later.  That’s the same stretch of 7 precious weeks that will make or break my performance at the Philly Marathon this year.  With a 1:42 or better as my half marathon performance level by late November, I will have a decent chance of making a legitimate run at a 3:30 in Philly.  But every day counts.  I will need at least three weeks above 40 miles to develop the endurance in my legs.  So, while my Boston hopes have dimmed somewhat after yesterday, I have spent most of my competitive distance running career defying the odds, so why stop now?

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