Monumental Marathon Race Report

Goal: 2:59:59. Secondary goal: BQ (3:15, but probably need around 3:10)

I drove to Indianapolis from Louisville in the morning, but I still only had to get up at 4:00 AM, which would have been probably the case even for an in town race. The two hour drive before the race is not fun, but it's totally doable.

Out of curiosity I measured myself in the morning, and I was 148 lbs. Somehow I gained 4 lbs during taper! I don't how much it counts, but I did have an extra 5 lbs on me for this race. I'm sure it wasn't just water and glycogen, because I even noticed the extra fat on my body.

I had my usual breakfast, coffee, Gatorade, packed my gear, and I was off for the drive. First mistake: I left my gloves at home. No big deal.

I arrived to my prepaid parking spot at 7:00 (start was at 8:00), and after the walk to the start area, bathroom, gear check, and a 5 minute warmup, I comfortably made it to my corral 10-15 minutes before start. I was tempted to do another bathroom stop, but it was too late: I was in the corral, and the bathroom lines were long. This caused a minor problem during the race: I was reluctant to drink much, and I had small urge to pee through the whole race. I think I was overthinking hydration. Fluids were plentiful on the course, and stations were not crowded at all (not at my pace anyway).

I also started with carrying a small bottle of Gatorade. Totally unnecessary. Nevertheless, I had it until mile 5.

After the usual ceremonies, the race started on time. It only took me about 5 seconds to cross the start line from Corral A. I started my watch to show chip time.

Right after the start (mile 0.36) we ran though a tunnel, and the GPS lost signal there. I know that, because it showed 7:30 average pace. The first two miles were in downtown, among tall buildings, and at least one more long tunnel, so my GPS paces are a bit unreliable. Good thing I had my pace chart.

Mile 1, 7:07 (this is certainly wrong)
Mile 2, 6:35
Mile 3, 6:45

I settled into a 6:45-ish pace. It felt fairly comfortable. I kept telling myself: the first 10 miles must feel easy. We had a bit of wind, so I tried to position myself with larger groups of runners, and that made me vary my pace a little.

Mile 4, 6:47
Mile 5, 6:39

The race clock at mile 4 was wrong (by minutes!) so I got a bit confused, and pulled out my pace chart. I'm pretty sure I put it back to my shorts, but whatever way it happened, at mile 5, I noticed that I didn't have it. That was a bit of a blow. My GPS is inaccurate and my pace chart is lost. I'll have to do mental calculations all through the race.

We ran by many Indianapolis landmarks, but I didn't pay any attention to those. On the other hand, the downtown cheering squads were awesome!

After running under I-65, we left downtown, and ran in some nice residential neighborhood to the north. Then some parks, more residential areas, mostly strait roads, and almost totally flat.

Mile 6, 6:37
Mile 7, 6:43

Right after mile 7, the half marathon broke off. The loudspeaker gave us some entertainment: "Half marathon left, full marathon right. If you take the wrong path, you will be shot!"

Mile 8, 6:47
Mile 9, 6:45

Suburban neighborhoods, some nice parks, lots of trees. I ran relaxed with a small group, which was dynamically changing. Tried to take Gatorade at every aid station where they had it. I had some bonking issues on long training runs, so I wanted to avoid that at all cost.

Mile 10, 6:49
Mile 11, 6:49

I knew that I was a bit ahead of pace, and that made me worried, so I just kept repeating it: it should feel easy.

Mile 12, 6:40
Mile 13, 6:38

There was a gate and a clock at the halfway point. The clock read about 1:28:30. I told myself that I only need a 1:30 half marathon now to finish under 3 hours. It didn't sound reassuring... running didn't feel easy any more. I had to push a bit to keep the pace. I started to tell myself: it's OK to lose a minute by mile 20: I would still be 30 seconds ahead. I kept focusing on conserving energy.

Mile 14, 6:49
Mile 15, 6:53

We turned south, and the hills started. I think the hardest feature of this otherwise easy course that the only hills come between miles 15 and 19. They are not high enough to slow you down much, but they kind of sap your energy.

Mile 16, 6:37
Mile 17, 7:01
Mile 18, 6:44

Now I felt really tired. My legs hurt. Even just to pick up drinks from aid stations felt hard. I did some quick computations, and I realized that I only need to run 7 minutes miles at this point to get in within 3 hours. However, now I wasn't sure I could do even just that.

Mile 19, 6:51
Mile 20, 6:51

Only 10K left, and I had more than 44 minutes. I switched to 2-1 breathing, and I didn't hold back anything any more. We ran a very nice section by a river. I was already improving my place through the race, but here I really started to pass people. Some of them were really slow.

Mile 21, 6:55
Mile 22, 6:57

I felt like I was pushing very hard, and I was passing people, but I was very disappointed to see that I was only running a 7-minute pace. I also realized that another 30 minutes of suffering is left. "I can't do this for another 30 minutes!" I told myself. "Just shut up and keep going," responded my other voice.

Mile 23, 6:52

At every mile marker, I computed how fast I had to go, and how much was left. Every piece of my body started to hurt. I drank some water at an aid station, which slowed me down a bit, and it was very hard to pick up the pace again. "No more drinking," I said to myself. "Just finish it."

Mile 24, 7:01

We were back in downtown, and reunited with the half marathoners, though they were kept in a separate lane. Of course these were 3+ hour half marathoners, so they were mostly walking. Every piece of my body was hurting, and I wanted nothing more than just stop running. It felt as bad, or worse than the last mile of a 5K, but I still had to do it for another 15 minutes! "I'll just finish this race, and then I'll never run again," I thought.

Mile 25, 7:02

OK, now I can run the remaining at 8-minute pace. Even that seemed hard. I ran next to a small woman, and we kept pacing each other. She offered some words of encouragements, and all I said "I'm dying." If she happens to read it, I'm sorry for being so pessimistic and sorry for not being able to offer any encouragements... I think her pacing and talking help meant an extra 10-15 seconds for me. Thank you!

Mile 26, 7:02

I knew I had it. The finish line magic still worked amazingly: once I saw where it was, I could speed up again. Unbelievable, but I ran the last portion at 6:14 pace.

Last 0.3 mile, 1:50

Total time, 2:59:03. Overall 106/3999. Age group: 15/398.

I told the volunteer who gave me the medal that this was the hardest race I've ever done. I hung around a bit, had some food (they had chili!), and rested a bit in the sun. I chatted with some other runners. After quite a bit of time, I felt enough strength in me to start to walk to my car (0.7 mile). It was interesting to see the marathon runners finishing with 3:50-ish times. That was me 6 years ago! Back then, I could not have imagined how it would be possible to run a 3 hour marathon. I smiled...