Chambersburg Half Marathon March 9, 2019
I ran this race on a day when my training plan called for a 20 mile long run to finish a 50+ mile week. I ran about 6 miles before the race and took an hour break to rest/refuel.
I was planning to run a 9 minute pace for 10 miles, then to push the pace in the mostly downhill final miles. I managed about 8:55 to the top of the hill at marker 10. The last 3 miles were at 8:41, 8:23, 7:52, 7:10 for the last 0.1. I passed maybe 10 people in those faster miles including one after the final turn into the finish chute.
This is our local Road Runner Club's main race and I saw many friends before/after the race and along the course. And I chatted a bit with a few other runners trying to offer encouragement to some who were working hard.
Finish time was 1:55:23, average pace 8:49
Salisbury Marathon April 6, 2019
The little group I have been training with made the trip to the Eastern Shore in Maryland do this race. Ron & Kim were running their first marathon, Alexx was doing her first half marathon. The race was something beyond Monique's 30th marathon and about number 15 for me. Training went well enough for everyone and included lots of questions and advice exchanged between the first timers and veterans. Our training friend Gene had selected this race, but dropped out of training with an injury almost two months prior.
The weather forecast was for temps in the low 50s at the 7 am start, rising to low 60s by about noon. It was overcast and foggy for at least the first couple hours of the marathon. There was a light to medium breeze most of the time.
Our race day plan was for each to run their own race, except that I would be running along with Kim at her planned pace. My own training is pointing to a goal race about 6 weeks later, so this race was to be a solid training effort and a chance to help Kim with early pacing and to share the "fellowship of suffering" in the later miles. Our pacing goal was to try to stay between 9:20 and 9:30 per mile. After being a little fast in the first 3 miles, we got into our target range and the miles clicked by uneventfully. For maybe 10 miles we were leap-frogging with a lady going basically the same pace, but she was better at keeping her pace steady. We would slip ahead, then fall behind a little - over and over. It seemed we should acknowledge her and our back & forth but she was pretty much tuned in to her music.
A little before mile marker 11, the half marathon runners split off toward the finish and the marathoners turned away toward the countryside. It seemed to me that about two thirds of the runners were now gone from our view. Part of our strategy to make it to the end in reasonable shape was to walk through water stations to drink without spilling and to give our legs a little break every mile and half. Our gels were planned for about miles 6, 12, 17, 22 as the water stops allowed. I made a couple of quick potty stops in the middle third of the miles to take care of some excess hydration. Kim continued on pace during my stops and I then took a mile or so to catch up.
On and on we went, chatting now and then. We remarked about scenery, flowers and flowering trees, and things we remembered seeing from the course preview video, including a pedestrian tunnel on the Salisbury University Campus. There were some places that seemed they might be tidal backwater places that had recently been full of water, but were only wet and muddy as we passed. Most of the course was set up with traffic cones on the center line to separate runners from vehicle traffic. Runners were to use the right lane and vehicles used the other side. The last several miles shifted runners to the left lane. By around the middle of the course Kim and I had worked out an approach to running the shortest route possible. As the route curved right or left, Kim moved to run the inside of the curve and I would run slightly to the outside of the line she used.
After the split there were many times as we ran on that no one was visible on the road ahead. As we approached the water stations the volunteers made lots of happy noise - maybe they were lonely too and glad for someone they could offer to help. They were offering energy gel, water, gatorade with more cups extended to us than we could drink. I started keeping count of how runners we passed. I think we passed about 10 in the second half, but people were so spread out that I wasn't sure what number we were on.
As is to be expected, the effort and fatigue gradually increased even though we were not running faster. Actually our pace was slowing. Our chatting gradually decreased. With the increasing effort Kim had gotten mostly quiet as we entered the miles in the 20s. I decided to try some story telling to help pass the time in this final hour. I told Kim the long story about the Walking Purchase of 1737 and my ancestor Edward Marshall's role in it as a runner. After describing his story, I told her about my research and my run to retrace Marshall's run. Then I went on to tell about a an article I wrote for a magazine, a newspaper article that covered my retracing and being interviewed for a BBC documentary that connected to that whole story. (see more about that in another blog post here walking-purchase-of-1737) This got us through 2 or 3 miles and within a 5k of the finish.
We caught up to Monique who had a recurrance of a running injury that was forcing her to mostly walk it in. We commiserated with her and offered encouragement, then continued on our mission to finish.
We discussed when or whether we would begin racing to the finish. We agreed on just holding on the best we could. Our persevering was bringing us closer and closer to the finish and the moment we could stop running. During the last mile we were greeted by a wildly leaping and cheering young lady - our friend Alexx was waiting for us to cheer us in and give us high fives to energize us for the finish. It was a happy thing for me.
And then we had only to cross a bridge, turn right and run one more block to the finish. With the end in sight our paced quickened a little and we pressed strongly through the chute and finish line. As we approached the line we heard our names announced. Kim completed her first marathon in 4:09:22 and I was a second later. Volunteers met us to give us finisher medals and some recovery drinks and food.
Chuck and Kim (smiles below may be somewhat forced)
Monique (as herself, then undercover for the race)
Ron
Mile splits/pace from my gps watch
9:07, 9:10, 9:15, 9:25, 9:32, 9:16, 9:46, 9:06, 9:16, 9:31, 9:17, 9:07, 9:57,
9:29, 9:05, 9:04, 9:27, 9:44, 9:24, 9:48, 9:42, 9:55, 9:46, 9:23, 9:59, 9:34, 9:17 (last .2)
