City of Oaks Marathon Race Report (11/2/08)

Sony Ericsson City of Oaks Marathon
2008-11-02
Raleigh, North Carolina
United States
City of Oaks Marathon and Half Marathon, LLC
45F / 7C
Sunny

Run - Marathon
Total Time = 3h 26m 38s
Overall Rank = 72/728 (m/f combined, 61/472 males)
Age Group = M35-39
Age Group Rank = 13/94

Pre-race routine:

Woke up at 3am. Not sure why. Waited until 4 to eat (2 pieces of wheat toast w/strawberry jam, banana, 8 oz. OJ, and half a Clif bar, drank 24 oz. water). Potty stops, and departed for the race at 5:45. Drank 20 oz. of GU2O in the car on the way, ate second half of Clif Bar. Got to the race site, potty stop, bagged drop, then got in the 7:00/mile corral.


Event warmup:

Not much time for it (we got there late), so I did not get a jog in beforehand. Would've liked to for sure, but it didn't happen. So, I tried to take the first few miles very easy. Tried to. Honestly, I did.

Run

03:26:38 | 26.2 miles | 07m 53s min/mile
Age Group: 13/94
Overall: 72/728
Performance: Average
7:40 (including :16 chip/gun differential)
7:03
7:02
7:26 (missed the mile marker, so this was long for mile 4)
6:55 (short for mile 5)
7:24
10k split 44:50
7:22
7:21
7:21
7:04 (running down Edwards Mill, gaining a little time)
7:20
7:06 (again, made up a little time on a downhill)
7:22
half-mary split 1:35:06
7:36
7:35
7:32
7:41
7:51
7:46
7:58
8:03
7:53 (tried to rally)
8:20
8:35
10:14 (started walking)
12:49 (continued walking)
2:07 for the .2

Course: First half isn't too daunting. The first hill of any consequence is on Glenwood South, between 4 and 5. Then again up through Cameron Village, before mile 6 or so. Pretty flat to rolling out to about mile 10, then it starts more hills. Downhill until about 11, then is a climb pretty much all the way to 15, then again from 16 through 20. Coming back on Blue Ridge, I could feel a crosswind from my left, and knew it would be a dead headwind on Hillsborough Street.

Keeping cool Good
Drinking Not enough

Post race
Weight change: %3ish
Overall: Average
Mental exertion [1-5] 4
Physical exertion [1-5] 4
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes, kind of
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Below average
Race evaluation [1-5] 3


Comments:

I honestly held back at the start, and I still think I was going too fast. I was working VERY easy to hold that pace, very easy breathing, not even sweating for the first 5 miles. I just don't think I had the miles in the legs for this race, as compared to Umstead back in March where I was doing 55 mile weeks. Oddly enough, I could fly on the uphills but would slow down on the flats and downhills.

To the angry soccer-mom who was inconvenienced by Ebenezer Church Road being closed; go back to Starbucks in your Cadillac Escalade and have a Grande Mocha, and don't yell at the race volunteer who threw himself in front of you to keep you from running over the marathoners between mile 11 and 15. I wanted to stop my race and go knock the crap out of her!

What would you do differently?:

More mileage per week, one extra day, and slow down the long runs. Get out there for 3 hours instead of my 2.5. I really needed something in the tank from mile 18 on, and thought I could rally.


Post race

Warm down:

Chocolate milk. Pizza. Water. Lay down. Try to get up. Try to walk around. Hit the potty (encouraging note, I didn't have to use the potty during the race!)

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Long run speed, weekly mileage

Event comments:

The flow of the finish chute wasn't logical at all, and I couldn't find anything to drink other than water or chocolate milk. I NEEDED Powerade/Gatorade or something like that, and a COKE, but didn't locate those. The post-race meal was pizza or oranges or banana, a far cry from the smorgasbord we're used to in the tri-world!