More on the Rocket City

Bringing it in
Photo by Amanda Nichols

While I didn't write the last post so people could comment and try to make me feel better, I am glad you came through and did just that!  I have had a few days to put things into perspective.  A fun 15 mile trail run with Rick, Eric Charette, Dewayne Satterfield, and James Falcon today also helped ease the healing process!  I am not utterly disappointed like when I first finished (Do you ever feel seriously emotional when you are finishing so it's hard to think clearly and rationally?).  I was too caught up with that darn number.
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However, I do stand behind the original sentiment in my last post.  My team captain, Eric Charette, does pay attention to how close we got to our time and if we were under or over.  He sent the pacers and the RCM committee an email where he listed all of us and then put our chip time and then put how much we were under/over by.  He averaged how close we were to our goals (see below) and will likely use this in the future as evidence that we are accurate pacers.  I am simply amazed at the efforts of my fellow pacers and for their ability to be just under pace.  I just seem to be the only one who can't do it! 
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Here is part of his email:

I just thought I would let you and the RCM committee know how the Nike Pace Team runners fared on Saturday. We heard some amazing comments from runners and other volunteers how impressed they were seeing the pacers carrying the signs that came through right on schedule.

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Their average was being UNDER by 42 seconds with some staying under by as close as 5, 7, 9 and 15 seconds to their goal time. Jay Lloyd even went as far as running even first and second half splits of 1:47:05/1:47:05. While not many runners stayed with the pace group leaders after mile 15 (turn into the wind) the pacers stayed even through to the end. This was tough to "leave" the runners as they slowed, but other runners (ahead) were also counting on the pacers to come in right on pace. A couple pacers just missed their times but wasn't due to fitness, but to watch/GPS issues and we did not have any complaints that I heard in these areas.

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I am very proud of this team as running even pace for 26.2 miles doesn't just happen on race day; it takes practice and months of training. As my group neared the end, one runner said "This must be easy for you guys". The honest answer is "no". Running a marathon is never easy, especially at an even pace, mostly leading into the wind while the pack drafted behind. 

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I took my job seriously and felt like I fell short at the end.  This email did not improve how I felt about my performance.  I appreciate those of you that said you would try pacing again if you were me.  One of the things I've always said about myself is that things don't come easy to me.  They come with hard work.  I've seen this in my running times in every distance.  And I hope that I will see this in my pacing times as well, if I give it another chance.

Analyzing My Running Shoe Wear Patterns

Here we are three days from the marathon, and all of the doubts/negative thoughts are starting to creep in. 

Here are some of the thoughts I have scrolling through my brain today:

"You should've practiced more with the Garmin."

"What if the Garmin dies in the marathon?"

"Have you really trained enough for this?"

"What if you wear too much and get hot during the race?"

"Did you just slack off after Chicago?"

"Are you tapering enough?" (Ran 6 miles Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday of this week)

"What if you can't do it?"

I usually find that I will overfocus on one thing when I have all of this nervous energy.  It is currently on the wear on the bottom of my shoes.

I mentioned to Rick one day that I felt like I was wearing out my shoes really quickly, more like 200 miles instead of the 300-500 miles you are supposed to be able to run in them.  I told him that I start to hurt when I run in shoes with worn tread, so I replace my shoes a lot.  There were something like five old pairs in our garage just cluttering it up, so Rick decided to take those over to Fleet Feet to donate them.  He looked on the bottoms and told me that I really was wearing my shoes out pretty badly.  I decided to take pictures and bring the old shoes in to Fleet Feet to see if someone can help recommend a shoe that is better for my foot.  It is obvious that I am wearing the outside heel of my shoe out, so I did a little research on my own.  Here was an article about the different types of runners--pronators, neutral, and supinators (or underpronators).  Runner's World had more on supinators.  This one seemed to agree with my wear pattern the best. 

Why focus on this now?  As I said before, I think I am diverting some nervous energy.  But there are many benefits to making sure I am in the right shoe!  I can think of several.  Saving money on shoes that fit right and wear correctly, avoiding injuries, and just minimizing my annoyance of watching my foot striking the ground on the outside edge as a run.  I have been staring at my feet as I run lately, and that's not a good thing. 

Here's some pictures in case you wanted to see the evidence:

Uneven wear

I'd say that the outer edge is pretty worn out.

The black tread is separating from the shoe.

Another picture of the left shoe, which is slightly worse than the right.  I actually notice this foot landing incorrectly as I run.

Any thoughts/advice on the matter?

First and Last 20 Miler for the Rocket City Marathon: Pacing Practice

I am running in the Rocket City Marathon on December 10, 2011 as a pacer for the 3:55 group.  This will be my second time to pace in the marathon.  You can read about my time last year here and here.  I felt somewhat discouraged about my pacing experience last year and vowed to be more on pace this year.  If you reading this because you want to run in the 3:55 group, let me assure you that I will get you there on pace this year.  The things that I learned last year will help me, as will having a faster pace (I paced the 4:15 group last year).  I take my responsibility very seriously.  In most marathons, I only have myself to let down, but as a pacer, I have others relying on me.  I don't want to let anyone down.  But to be honest, pacing is a challenge for me.  It will involve very controlled running, something that I struggle to do well.

If you have never heard about pacers before, I would like to share a quote from Eric Charette, organizer of the pace teams, who says pacers are chosen "based not only on their ability to cover the distance within a certain time, but they are also outgoing and dynamic people who are able to motivate runners.  They are all experienced marathoners who have deep knowledge of endurance running and all have run a marathon within the previous year that is at least 20 minutes faster than the pace group they are leading."  I would like to add that I've always seen pacers as helpful if you are trying to Boston Qualify.  The 3:55 time is a 2013 BQ time for males 60-64 and females 45-49.  So those two groups of people will probably make up a large portion of my pacing group.  I am excited to also have people in my group who are wanting to break 4 hours.  I hope to see many of them reach this milestone!    

In preparation to pace the 3:55 group, I ran my first and last 20 miler for the Rocket City Marathon last Saturday, November 19.  I am still well trained from the Chicago Marathon and, more recently, the Huntsville Half Marathon.  This training will help me in the marathon, but I still wanted at least one 20 miler just for this race.  If I were running a training run for a regular marathon (not one I am pacing), I would shoot for a pace somewhere between 60 and 90 seconds slower than my marathon pace, or between an 8:30-9:00 pace.  For this run, however, I wanted to be exactly on pace.  I thought it would be a nice challenge and that it would help prepare me for pacing (I know there are some newer marathoners that read my blog out there, so note that running your long runs at pace is NOT recommended!!).  I somehow remembered the pace per mile wrong though, so I thought I needed 8:55s when I actually needed 8:58s.  Close enough!

The run was a success even though my splits were not consistent, especially in the beginning.  I was running with Jane then, and we were not paying attention to pace.  When I ran alone, I was paying more attention and was more consistent.  I also ran a fairly hilly course!  At Mile 19, I conscientiously slowed my pace to a 9:23 to bring my average down.  I felt very in control on this run, and it gave me a lot of confidence about my pacing this group in two weeks.

Splits (aiming for 8:55 pace)
1 9:03
2 9:00
3 9:03
4 8:56
5 9:08
6 9:24
7 8:35
8 8:43
9 8:58
10 9:01
11 8:26
12 8:46
13 8:48
14 8:46
15 8:46
16 8:52
17 8:52
18 8:58
19 9:23
20 8:43
Average 8:55 pace/691 elevation gain

I've met people who just love pacers and people who pretty much hate them.  But I've learned that walking in someone's shoes can do wonders for how you view them.  I now have so much respect for the pacers in the marathons I've run, even though I've never been in a pace group myself!  Running a marathon at a pace 20 minutes or more slower than your marathon time is very challenging.  Pacers are doing this selflessly for the other runners, for anyone that wants to run in their group.  I have a lot of respect for anyone willing to give that a try!

(Nearly) Hitting the Target in my Rocket City Trilogy

Photo by We Run Huntsville

Pacing at mile 24, happy and chatting away

The Run

So I began the morning of my first event as a pacer around 4 a.m. when Rick's alarm went off. I laid in bed after he left afraid to go asleep since I might miss my alarm (like in the classic Seinfield episode!). I really take for granted that Rick runs my marathons with me. He gets me up, drives me there, and holds the keys while we run. All of this is harder alone! But once I had laid there until 5:45 or so, I got up and showered (does anyone else like to do this before a marathon?) and got dressed. I was just beginning to wonder if the sitter forgot when I saw her pull up. After going over the instructions and hitting my bathroom one last time, I headed for the race! I parked at the library and headed over to the hotel for one more potty break. With the frantic pace of my morning, I was a little warm and decided to throw off my gloves and long-sleeve shirt back at the car (weather was mid-30s at start but near 50 at finish). I made it a quick jog since I was supposed to be at the start by 7:45 a.m.

At the start, people instantly came up when they saw the sign. I met two of the runners who had corresponded to me via email before the race. And I saw my friends Jane and Madelyn and met Jane's mother, Erin. I am usually not talkative during the race, but I found it easy to have lots of little conversations with the runners in the group, which started out very large in the beginning. I met so many nice people--a guy who ran Rocket City 24 years ago, a woman who ran the last 6 miles of her last marathon with a stress fracture obtained in the race, a guy who ran on a John Bingham cruise to Alaska, a guy who is planning to run his 10th Mountain Mist this year, 2 Pauls (one who offered to carry my sign for me), among many others.

I found it hard to regulate my pace because once I started talking to someone, I would have to let them keep going while I slowed down (though several people slowed just like I did). I also noticed that I picked up my pace each time I passed a crowd or music. Looking back, I was about 5-10 seconds too fast in the crucial first 20 miles. Though I now think, "Why did I do this?" I think at the time that I was worried about the last 6 so much that I wanted to build that cushion. Running very even splits is new to me (and my body), but seriously slowing down at the end is not! So I was overly cautious. Throughout the race, I took the 2 Gu's offered on the course, water or Powerade at every aid station, and some Cliffshots and Sportsbeans stashed in my pocket. I never hit a wall or really even felt like I could not continue running the pace (as I always do when I am running my pace in a race). It was nice to be an encouragement to those around me even in the end (I told them to picture the finish line and brought up other bits of encouragement).

The highlights for me in pacing included obviously meeting many great people committing to that pace, seeing my mom and dad at Whitesburg School, seeing Rick at mile 18, and helping my friend Patrick from miles 24-26. It was so great to be able to encourage others so much while running (usually I am too tired to really do this). But it was funny having people think I was some sort of expert at pacing or even the 4:15 pace (which I had never run before!). Near the end, some people seemed discouraged to see the 4:15 pacer passing them, because with me their goal time was also passing them by. Well, I have been in that same boat, and it is no fun! When I made it to the finish, I knew I was a little ahead of pace but jogged slowly to the end. It felt funny to get a medal since it didn't feel like "my" race. It was strange to call this "volunteering" too, though.
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The Gear

I felt very official in my red pacer shirt (also wore my red FF team shorts since I know they are comfortable and best-of-all, they were free!). We were told to carry small pacer signs for at least the first 5 miles, but I found that it was not heavy at all so I carried it the whole time. People could tell what pace group was approaching, thus finding their relative or friend more easily. And I could shout, "Let's hear it for the 4:15 pace group" which I thought helped get the crowd's support for the runners. And the runners in front could turn around and see us coming.

The Garmin was set up perfectly with the three-screen rotation. It not only helped me but also the others in the group for me to be able to say, "This is a 9:30 mile, but our overall pace is a 9:42" etc. The tattoo did not stick to my arm so at the last minute I had turned it into a bracelet with a little packing tape and a safety pin. I used it several times also as I ran, not every mile but at places like the halfway point. As I began running, I was instantly a little confused about whether to use chip or gun time for the 4:15 pace, but I decided that chip time made the most sense so I went with that.
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The End Result

I realized pretty close to the end that I was too far ahead of my goal time. I later heard that some of the pacers turned the last corner and started walking to get closer to their pace time. I may try that in the future if I get too far ahead, though running more on-target splits throughout will be my main goal next time. I was actually the furthest from my pace time of all of us pacers. That shows you what an awesome group of pacers we had and gives me something to strive for next time. The chip time was 4:12:47, or 2 minutes and 13 seconds above pace. We were supposed to do 1-2 minutes ahead of our goal pace max. I am trying to not be too discouraged, but I know that running the earlier miles too fast might have discouraged those trying to keep the 9:44 pace. That is hard to swallow.
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Eric Charette (who organized the pacing team) wrote the nicest thank you letter to us pacers. Here it is:

On behalf of the Huntsville Track Club, Rocket City Marathon and the sponsors Nike and Fleet Feet, I wanted to send our gratitude to you as pacers for your service this weekend. While many people volunteer on race day, you not only sacrificed your own marathon, but put in the training time to be able to hit your goal time. This was an incredible task for which you volunteered, to run even pace for the entire race and come under your goal time. I am proud to say that with only minor variation, were we able to meet all of our goals.

I heard so many great comments about the pacers and how they helped people realize their goal times, qualify for Boston or just pull them along with encouraging words during the race. Tut Said from Nike expressed his appreciation multiple times and Suzanne Taylor and Wayne Smith even noted it at the award ceremony.

I hope that each of you rests tonight with the pride that you helped others realize their dreams while you unselfishly gave of yourself. I know that personally this was one of the most rewarding things I have ever done with running.

We will definitely be looking to have pacers help to complement our marathon in 2011 and beyond.
Listed below are the names and times of the pacers
Josh Hite (3:10) - 3:08:10
Eric Schotz (3:15) - 3:14:35
Jon Elmore/Eric Fritz (3:20) - 3:20:59
Brett Addington (3:30) - 3:29:33
John Nevels/Dana Overton (3:35) - 3:33:23
Eric Charette (3:40) - 3:38:46
Eric Patterson (3:45) - 3:45:04
James Falcon (3:50) - 3:49:58
Linda Scavarda (4:00) - 3:59:33
David Rawlings (4:05) - 4:04:24
Katie Maehlmann (4:15) - 4:12:47
Jane Reneau (4:30) - 4:29:16
Rob/Kathy Youngren (6:00) - 5:58:46

Pacing and Partying

The Rocket City Marathon is tomorrow morning. Rick has been hard at work getting the course sentries and all of the stuff that goes along with that. I have the sitter ready to come at 6:45 a.m. so I can leave with plenty of time tomorrow since he will get up at about 4 a.m. to begin his duties (thank you to all the volunteers who work so hard!).
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I have already learned a couple of things about pacing as I prepared to pace the 4:15 group for the marathon. First is that actually staying on pace is much more complicated than I thought! Pacers are told that the first couple of miles might be slower than pace due to the crowds at the start. Then, from miles 2-20, we are supposed to run 10-15 seconds faster than pace since we will probably slow a little at the end. Our optimal finishing time is just under the actual pace, so I would be perfectly happy getting a 4:14:59 tomorrow :) We are also supposed to take fluid at every aid station. That is new to me since I usually only take every other at the beginning, then maybe take every one near the end. I have had Rick adjust our Garmin several times, trying to get it to read what I think is the most useful information possible. Mine will show 3 rotating screens: total elapsed pace along with total distance, pace for the current mile, and then overall elapsed time. Along with that, I bought a tattoo of the 4:15 pace. I thought I was all set until Jane pointed out to me that my arm will likely be covered for the race! Oops! These are the things I am learning as I go along. A final word about this is that I have never set a time goal and finished at that time before! I once made my own pacing bracelet out of an index card, safety pin, and some packing tape. And I sometimes will set a pace goal just in my head, then I use my watch to see each split. I am interested to see if the Garmin and tattoo will help keep me more focused. And I am hoping not to let anyone down if I do fall off pace.
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I have a work party tonight (not a great night to be up late but we are eating Italian so that is good!) and then Rick and I are hosting a Christmas party tomorrow at 4 p.m. This is such a busy weekend! I am looking forward to the next few weeks when I will have a break from work and also begin my trail running in preparation for Mountain Mist.
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Good luck to all of the marathon runners tomorrow!