Chasing the Elusive Sub-3

California International Marathon - 2016

This race is dedicated to my Uncle David Martinez who would consistently run every morning. 

Running CIM surprised a lot of folks. Truth is, I kept the race on the down-low as this was a personal quest of self-discovery for me. Running competitively was hit and miss throughout 2016. Don’t get me wrong...I’ve had a great year of running! At the beginning of the year, I felt as if something was bogging me down. My training performance seemed to decline and a struggled to make my own personal training standards. I thought it was simply overtraining, lack of nutrition, and low motivation. I stayed in the trenches of training for several months before I decided to look for answers. Turns out I had other things going on that ultimately led to a decline in physical performance.  I’ve been spending the last several months aggressively making those issues right. So far its paid off and the last few months of training have been the best months of training. Quite possibly the best training months I’ve ever had. During this time, I began to run consistent five minute miles and my grind gear seems to be back.

Liza Howard, my coach-friend-mentor, suggested that I dust off the sub-three-hour marathon goal of mine. The last few months of training have been focused on re-connecting with mental grit and getting fast legs again. I couldn’t have been happier with the training program leading to CIM.

Liza and I arrived at the CIM start and headed for the three-hour group. We immediately ran into another trail camp mentor, Zack Bitter, who was on the pacing team of 3:03. We chatted for little bit and then lined up in our group. The first 14 miles of running was solid and consistent pacing of 6:50ish miles. I felt good and relaxed.

Everyone talks of the “wall” being around mile 18, for me, I struggle with miles 15-17. I knew that I needed to be on top of things as I ran through these miles. During this section, I struggled to keep pace on the uphill and some of the downhill sections. The flats also seem to feel as if there was a slight uphill grade. Although my legs felt decent, I seemed to be breathing a little harder than I should. I could definitely feel my heart rate hitting the limits of a “comfortable-uncomfortable” level of effort. Regardless, I concentrated on my running economy and made it through miles 15-17 still on pace.  

Around mile 18.5, I started to feel alert again and my legs felt awesome. I was beginning to gain a lot more confidence that I was out of my “wall” and I could hold down my goal pace. Now it was time to start making assessments about finishing this race. My pace is still on point for sub-three. As we approached mile 19 water station, I picked up a cup and began to chug down the fluids. To my dismay, it was Nuun and it seemed to be a little more concentrated than normal. I tossed the rest on the road and threw away my cup. About 20 steps later, I practically buckled over in pain as my stomach began to instantly knot up. Mile 19 was run a little slower due to the cramps. I fought stomach and abdominal cramping for a couple of miles. Sometimes the cramping was so bad I would have to walk. Even with all of this going on, I was still able to hold down 7:50ish pace the last few miles. Mile 25 and 26 were run sub-8 but were pretty painful. With the near coming to an end, it was time to buckle down and just get it done. I wasn't more happier to cross the finish line of CIM. I put most of everything into that race and I was happy. 

I couldn’t be happier with my performance despite not achieving the sub-three-hour goal. I gained a lot of confidence in holding down a fast pace. I was able to improve my marathon time by 16 minutes almost 17 minutes. There are absolutely no complaints especially since this is officially my 5th marathon.

Three things I did well:

1) Maintained a consistent pace.

2) Stayed relaxed and didn’t force the running.

3) Stayed up on hydration pretty well.

Three things I need to improve:

1) Work on a better nutrition plan.

2) Find some “staple” actions to do once I start to feel a little tired.

3) I can’t panic when things start to not go as planned. Looking back, I believe that I let my mind wonder and panic when I started getting those abdominal cramps. This reaction of being panicked led to me feeling more fatigued. I think I could have ran through most of everything that was going on if I would have stayed focused. It’s a learning experience and I am happy that I went through it.

Highlights from the marathon:

1) Liza asking me what my nutrition and hydration plan was for the marathon and the realization that I completely forgot to go to the store and buy my nutrition. Thank goodness I know how to run a marathon with a Slim Jim and warm water.

2) We caught up with Scott Jurek and Jenn Shelton guiding/pacing a visually impaired runner. Their discussions while holding down a 3-hour pace were absolutely hilarious. So many people were surprised to hear that Scott “hiked” the AT. The look on their faces were even more hilarious when Liza would whisper to them that Scott ran the AT and held the speed record for a while.

3) Getting passed by the 3:03 pace group led by Zach Bitter in the last two miles. Zach was still in his warm-ups, barely breathing hard and coaching the runners around him in a very calm and soothing yoga voice. Dude is fast! Group D!!!!!

4) Running into Joe Uhan out on course---Group D!!!!!

4) Qualified for Boston by a few minutes. Not sure if I’ll run but it’s pretty cool to qualify.

Marathon Stats

Post-race Marathon Dinner