26.2 Race. Another year at this and more lessons.
First up, the Team Colavita dinner. I positioned myself “south” at our company warehouse for the Friday afternoon to avoid the traffic that always seems to hit driving down to this. That worked well, I drove up the Sawgrass Expressway to Hillsboro Blvd which is close to the Luigi de Roma restaurant.
Lisa Smith, Alicia, her daughter Nikki and myself were the runners at the meal. Matt Lorraine, Jerry Helm and the group of Colavita folks that look forward to a nice dinner filled out what were two tables of 12. All this on Valentine’s Day, which wasn’t a problem as Colavita is well connected to this restaurant.
I wasn’t served a meal, the single waiter we were assigned and his helper did what they could to keep everyone fed and with drinks. Somewhere in that, the kitchen didn’t prepare a Veal Marsala for me. When it came to have everyone served, I asked the waited for mine in a box so the rest could go on eating the warm food that sat on their plates. I wasn’t going to hold up the group to wait for a meal to be cooked and served.
I was home and ready to sleep at 10 pm. Saturday I did an easy run less than 3 miles near the beach. I went for the drive with Maureen to the expo – ordinarily a good idea. We would walk the show floor, see people and drive back on the beach road to familiarize ourselves with the course.
✅ No more of that!
The drive down was smooth, but once we reached 17th St, it was another 30 minutes to travel less than a mile to the convention center. The drawbridge was up, the road was all cars back to US-1. We tried to use the SR-84 entrance to the cruise ship terminal, that was also deadlocked. Parking at the convention center was reduced to $5 from the $20 others were paying to see a truck show. Including cruise ship passengers in and out, it was a frustrating block of time I didn’t need to spend, my bib and packet comes as part of the dinner the night before.
Saturday afternoon I ate a salmon & rice dinner early, 4:30 pm and sat to watch a replay of the Valencia Marathon. I went to sleep early for a 3:30 am drive down to the race. I brought more gels than usual, salt pills and chewables, a diluted bottle of Pedialyte to drink until the start, and a frozen bottle of The Right Stuff in a waist belt.
The morning drive down to the race was simple, we used Sunrise Blvd to the beach road then to the Bahia Mar VIP parking. That was easy to get to. The school buses they hired to get athletes to the start area were loading by themselves, so that was a little disorganized. Our driver went no faster than 30 mph and took too much time to discharge the passengers once near the race start. I believe I arrived at the start area at 5:20 am – having parked at the finish line at 4:30 am.
✅ No more of that, either.
I saw Anne who wisely suggested we take a photo together before the start. She was running with her daughter that was competing in her first marathon. Anne and I share the consecutive marathon streak for the A1A race, now at 20 years.
Our marathon start was two blocks further forward on the road ahead of the half marathon start. My race was off at 5:45 am, the half race began at 5:54 am according to Maureen and Nicole’s watch. It began on time, I felt hurried in the buildup of wanting to make sure I had visited a restroom and jogged around a small bit. I like to NOT have my first mile of the day be miles in the race!
Because the marathon began earlier, the announced 1000 runners started free of the 3-4000 half marathoners. So once I was on Las Olas Blvd, I had plenty of space to run. One less water stop on that road, this was the beginning of noticing several water stops missing from previous years.
Knowing the race day weather predicted the warmest conditions in two weeks, and only for Sunday’s event, I looked ot adjust and outsmart the forecast. I did all the pre race things I’d normally do to be ready. I froze a bottle of The Right Stuff as mentioned, carried many salt pills and gels, and planned to pace with positive splits.
I wanted to run 7:40 pace for the first 16 miles then slow to 8 min pace for the final ten miles. If I did that, I would finish in 3 hours 23 minutes. I read my race report from last year, which wasn’t as warm but close in humidity. My heart rate stayed below 160 for the first half of the race. Today wasn’t going to be the same. I ran the first three miles looking at my pace, all were around 7:35-7:40. It didn’t feel like a struggle to keep that going. When I went over the Intracoastal bridge and onto the beach road (A1A), we ran south for a small bit. I saw Fiona Foster at the turnaround, and then ran north. Around Mile #4 I saw my HR reading for the first time – 166 bpm. The sun wasn’t up yet and I was running with the wind.
My training over the last months has shown improvements in where my HR value goes compared to my pace. It has been encouraging! I wanted this race to be a step in a positive direction, allowing me to train better for the next one knowing I had improved. Reality says the humidity and heat cause a very rapid increase in HR for me – still. It seems to be a source of “kryptonite,” despite my training. I am slowly, very slowly gaining back some of the ability to go faster and not spike my HR. It has been 3+ years of realizing what had changed coupled with many months of easier slow running to build back up.
I ran north into the Hugh Taylor Birch State Park, it was very dark. And I noticed there were no breezes for the two mile park segment. The first half marathon leaders came up behind me as expected. A few has Nike Alphafly shoes, those are easy to hear coming up behind you. The middle of the park is Mile #6 and has been a water stop in the past – not this time. It was a spot for a few race personnel monitoring a chip may to make sure all runners completed the whole race. I was ok, I still carried a small bottle of diluted Pedialyte so I could drink when I wanted. I was experimenting with the latest David Roche high carb fueling ideas. I alternated between Maurten 100 30g carb gels and SIS Beta Fuel 40g carb gels. I took a Maurten waiting for the start. A SIS at Mile 3, a Maurten in the park approaching Mile 6, a SIS up near MIle 10. My stomach didn’t rebel.
The wind was from the south at 15 mph steady, but I didn’t feel it pushing me. You also don’t part with any swrat, unless it’s on the back of your body. I took water at the aid station neat the half marathon turnaround, never saw Adam come up on me, and I continued north to Commercial Blvd.
I saw Mike and Maria at the switchback, I wasn’t too far ahead of them at only 11 miles in. Once back onto the main A1A road, I was now running into the headwind. It wasn’t too prohibitive because there were still tress and buildings that could help block some of the breezes. I ran for 2 miles south, now shadowed by a guy wearing Alphafly shoes. This was very annoying, they are very loud. I couldn’t speed up, he stayed with me. My attempts to slow found the same outcome, he wanted to run with me. He had headphones on so he couldn’t hear the noise his every foot strike made. Somewhere near the half marathon turnaround, he faded back and out of my view.
I ran ahead to the end of the condo buildings, now it was a road full of the slower half marathoners AND a stiff wind from the south. At mile 13 I saw my pace going into the wind had slowed. This wasn’t a worry, I said I’d adjust to the slower 8:00 pace a little earlier than planned, I’d still finish well was the thought.
I ran south, seeing some of our PBRR guys on the northbound route and coming up on Maureen running south. She said she had already stopped twice and said her pace was slowing. I said the same thing, I was off pace and wouldn’t be back to finish at my original predicted time. I ran ahead to my turnaround near the Ft Lauderdale Beach Park entrance and then back heading north for the remaining 10 miles. This segment had me with the wind, but feeling warmer and not noticing any “gain” from the tailwind. At Mile 17, I noticed my HR was at 177 – this was now becoming plenty of work to remain at the easier pace. I waked through the next water stop, drank a cup of water but mainly to see if my HR would go down. It did, but only slightly to 165. I started running again and it was rapidly back into the mid 170s. Ok to tough it through that, but I still had 8+ miles to go in warming conditions.
I never made one decision to stop caring, it happened as I tested the walk and run again with the same results. Did I want to balance HR and pace for so many miles ahead with not a good reason to do so? I wasn’t overly motivated to earn a BQ, if it happened, ok. I was going in the sun north and feeling it now. I experienced no cramping or GI issues, just the working too hard to just get this pace. As I kept checking my HR reading and walking mixed with running again, I was becoming less motivated to fight this battle. I was now in the shade of the large condo buildings. On better days, I’d make a deal with myself, saying, “Run well here in the shade, its’ a gift!” But I wasn’t swayed by those thoughts. I did more walk breaks and felt better as my HR lowered briefly at each one. I went through Miles 18, 19, and up towards Mile 20. Mike came up behind me and I asked if he was still at 8:20 pace. “Not any more,” he replied. I didn’t think of going with him, he kept his pace and ticked away from me, around the corner onto Palm Ave towards the furthest aid station from the finish line. I went through that water stop, pouring a cup over my head and drinking one. I stopped taking the gels, who needs those to walk and run? I did continue to eat some of the chewable salt tabs I had, they added taste and I didn’t want to begin the cramping ordeal this far from home.
Next up was Maria running up behind me. She stated that she was ahead of her pace, she suggested I just run 9 min miles with or behind her. I didn’t engage that either. This was going to be me, for the first race ever, not answering a call to toughen up and lean into the challenge. I ran some, walked some, and kept pouring cold water on my head at aid stations. I know there were more aid stations even on the Covid adjusted course, I think one was missing between miles 21 and 23. It didn’t matter, I was more comfortable randomly not running and looking to see if my HR was spiking. Now it wasn’t concerned with anything about today’s results. Not a BQ time, which should be easy to achieve, or under 4 hours, or an Age Group prize. This day was over for me time-wise on the course, I was satisfied finishing and keeping a consecutive years streak going.
I came in at 4:01. – trotting across the finish line on a very warm morning. I don’t know what other actions I could take to better prepare for the heat and accelerated heart rate. My plan is to keep doing what I’ve been doing and continue the progress that happens very slowly with heart rate and pace. Our warmer weather is ahead, so is training next for 8+ weeks for a 5k race I’ve entered in Minneapolis, MN.
Thanks to the Colavita Team for including me again in the weekend’s fun.
-dm
drun4fun 