Indy Monumental Marathon Rabbitting Duties

A few months ago, I committed to pacing the 2:18 group at the Indy Monumental Marathon.  I had the same duties a year prior and it went well.  I wasn't too worried because it's a blazing fast course and usually has ideal weather. And if I were in somewhat decent shape, running 20 miles at 5:15 pace would be a great training stimulus.  But after a terrible summer and a dragging butt early fall, I bailed from my duties.  The last thing I wanted was to have to race 20 miles all-out, run too slowly and let the other guys down.  In races, you just run for yourself, so you really don't impact other runners.  But when you're pacing, you hold other runner's destiny in your hands.  And that's not something I wanted to do unless I were pretty confident that I could do my job.

But the Rock N Roll St. Louis Half-Marathon went better than I thought and a couple days later, I received an email from the race staff asking to reconsider.  I'm usually a pushover and after changing my duties to 30k instead of 20 miles (would 1.4 miles really make a difference?), I was back on board.

But with a few days to go, the weather forecast was looking terrible.  Yeah, the upper 20s/low 30s temperature was actually pretty decent, but the strong wind from the north wasn't.  Especially since you run mostly north for 13 miles of the marathon course.  I was really worried that would destroy me, so I emailed back and forth with the race staff acting like a whiny baby.  I had a narrow time range I had to hit in order to get compensated and I thought the wind would be the 2x4 that destroyed this camel's back.  I was now back in my pre-St. Louis scenario in that I didn't want to race 20 miles, come up short and let down other runners in the process.  But I was going to try anyway, even though it seemed like a potentially disastrous idea.

After arriving in Indy, I checked into my room and then was off to the athlete meeting and met the crew of guys who were counting on me to pull them through 30k on pace: Michael Eaton, Tyler Andrews and Brandon York.  They were also worried about the wind but we agreed to re-evaluate things in the morning.  I also met up with Steve Chu, who put a whooping on me at Bolder Boulder and his buddy Nick Purdy for dinner at Rock Bottom Brewery.  I knew I should probably eat something a little carb heavy but the macaroni and cheese was 14 bucks and the brisket stuffed hamburger sounded much better. 


My biggest dilemma on race morning wasn't the weather but what to wear.  I'm a diva with this kind of stuff and I looked around to see what others were wearing since I'm pretty insecure.  I was leaning towards a t-shirt with arm sleeves but everyone else seemed like they were going with a singlet and arm sleeves.  Since I'm easily peer pressured, I decided to go with the singlet as well and was hoping the 18 degree wind chill wouldn't be too bad.

 

The race plan was to go with 5:15s at the start because we would have the half-marathoners to draft off of.  When they turned off a little over seven miles into the race, I'd slow to 5:20s until the tailwinds arrived.  It seemed like a pretty decent strategy and compromise.

I knew the biggest issue would be the half-marathoners making the initial pace feel too easy, so I was really going to concentrate on the pace and rhythm.  When the gun went off, everyone shot off with the 2:18 crew right on my butt.  If I went out too fast, it'd be hard to slow back down.  But if I went out too slow, the group would be a little antsy, which may result in me yo-yoing the pace.  And to make matters worse, solar flares or the buildings or something was screwing up my GPS because it was reading 5:35 pace.  But alas, the first mile marker arrived and I went through in 5:14.  Not bad!

While I was planning on having a steady stream of half-marathoners to pass/run with, the race developed into two very distinct packs with the group I was leading about 10 seconds behind the front pack after the first couple of miles.  That meant I would have to battle the winds a little more than anticipated.  But while we were downtown, the buildings created a swirling effect, which gave some unexpected tailwinds in some areas. So I will blame running the next four miles between 5:11-13 on that. 

At this point we would run down a struggling half-marathoner every once in a while and were finding our rhythm. Steve Chu was also helping out with pace some, which helped me keep the right rhythm. The first fuel table was going to be somewhere around 10k, so I gave the people behind me a heads up to look for it because last year, they would really sneak up on you.  My only gripe with the race is that they only use one table, so you have about 15-20  bottles on a small, square table which makes it nearly impossible to find your bottle while humming along at race pace.  Eventually I saw the table and after scanning every bottle as fast as I could, I grabbed what I thought was my Tum-E Yummy bottle.  But this one was covered in some lame Frozen stickers, so it wasn't mine.  I asked the group if it was anyone's and since no one claimed it, I took a sip of what looked like water with dissolved gel but my stomach wasn't having it, so I dropped it.  I later found out it was fellow Nashvillian, Joey Elsakr's.  And the worst part is that I was the one who talked him into using those bottles. My bad.

Joey in an egg race?  Now you see what Obamacare has done to Vanderbilt's Medical School curriculum.

When the half-marathoners broke off, we saw a lone Kenyan, who turned out to be Edward Tabut, about 20 seconds ahead.  Over the next few miles, we locked into 5:15-5:16 pace and were slowly reeling him in.  When we caught him, instead of tucking into our pack, he didn't want us to pass and shortly afterwards, threw in a long, hard surge, which put a big gap on us. I didn't have any background info on him but thought he was either going to be a stud at win easily or have that move come back and get him later.

Stolen off Lindsey Hein's instagram. Brandon, ?, Michael, Tyler, myself and gloveless Edward

At 20k, the second fuel table popped up and I decided to not even look for my bottle.  I didn't want to grab the wrong one again and by skipping the fuel, I wouldn't be tempted to finish the race.  Not very logical but it seemed like a good idea at the time.  We went through halfway in 69:03, which was right on pace.  I thought for sure, we would have tailwinds after this and we would click off 5:10s with the same effort but that never happened and we were running the same splits. Bummer.

And at this point, the pack was slowly falling apart until it was just me and Brandon York chasing Edward.  He was getting a little bit antsy and would check his lead after every turn and watch us.  Eventually I decided to give him a friendly wave the next time he turned around and caught him around 16-17 miles.  I crossed the 30k with Edward in 1:38:17 with Brandon five seconds back.  Since my duties were officially over, I stopped and waited for Brandon and then ran with him for a little under a mile.  I could tell he was hurting and starting to crash, so I told him to try to stay as smooth as possible and not try to fight it yet.  When you start to hit the wall, there's no winning, only losing less.  And if you fight against it with over 10k of running left, it will get very ugly.

I jogged the last half mile to the 20 mile mark, where I expected to meet my ride back to the start.  Tyler went by me a little while later, followed by Michael about 200m or so behind Brandon.  At this point, I thought the Kenyan had the easy victory and wasn't sure how the other guys would place because there was still a lot of racing left. 

At the 20 mile marker I saw a bunch of kids in their mid 20s dressed up in costumes and cheering on the runners.  They offered me a beer and since you should never turn down a free beer, I accepted. I hung out/shivered with them for about 30 minutes before I realized I probably missed my ride that was supposed to take me to the finish.  I was agitated that I now had to jog another 6.2 miles to the finish and I went on my way.  That is until I saw Jamie Dial a few seconds later who saved me and gave me a ride back to the finish.  Yeah, I had to sit in the back of a hatchback that wouldn't shut all the way, which included a trip down the interstate but the possibility of death by road rash sounded more appealing than finishing up the marathon.  Even if I got a cool medal.

After making it back, I found out that Micheal Eaton won in a time of 2:19:49 to outkick the Kenyan by eight seconds with Tyler right behind.  I was amazed he rallied back that hard and was also surprised that the Kenyan died so badly.  I would bet nearly anything that cute little surge he did when we initially caught him cost him the race.  I think Michael was bummed about his time, but considering I heard he had a pit stop, and with the weather, I feel like it was easily a 2:18:00 performance.

Overall, I consider it a pretty good day for me.  I ran 30k at just over 2:18 pace without fuel or water and felt like I could have gone to 22 fuel-less miles until I was over 5:20 pace.  I felt bad that no one knocked out the OTQ but it was just one of those days.  Tyler was actually using the race for a long run at just slower than marathon pace in prep for CIM in a few weeks.  I believe the long fast run is an underutilized workout for elite/sub-elite types and is a great way at preparing for the marathon distance, especially 5-6 weeks out from your peak race. Brandon had a first rough dance but that's how the marathon can be.  But I expect to see Michael, Tyler and Brandon in LA in 2016. You can click on their names and ready Tyler's and Brandon's race recaps.

Even though I stole his first fuel bottle, Joey ran a phenomenal marathon debut to finish in 2:24 (which was his goal before the weather went to crap) and he also had the fastest last half-marathon in the entire field even though he was mostly solo.  I was also happy for my friend Wade Oliver who ran a five minute negative split to run a lifetime best of 2:47 at 47 years young.

Even though the weather was rough this year, the race normally has stable weather and you'll have a hard time finding a faster marathon course.  I feel it's the perfect race for the person trying to get a OTQ, BQ or a PR.   And the thing I appreciate about the race is that they do an excellent job of supporting the emerging elite and always make sure there's a competitive race up front.

Indianapolis Monumental Marathon

A few weeks ago, I was debating running the Indianapolis Monumental Half-Marathon.  The course was advertised as flat and fast and they gave a $500 bonus to anyone running under 65 minutes. But training wise, it didn't make a lot of sense. But fellow Nashvillian, Jeanette Faber, mentioned that they were looking for a rabbit to run at 2:18 marathon pace, which is about 5:15 a mile.  I liked the idea of that much better, since I felt it would be more suited to marathon training and would be a good, long stimulus.  After a few back-and-forth emails, I was set to be the 2:18 rabbit.

The agreed upon parameters were to be within 30 seconds of 68:49 at 13.1 miles and 1:45:00 at 20 miles (5:15 a mile, which comes out to 2:17:38 marathon pace). I felt like coming in 30 seconds of 68:49 wouldn't be much of an issue for the 13.1 mile split, but was nervous about the 30 second range for the 20 mile split. However, I was prepared to run as hard as I had to in order to hit the times because I was now somewhat in control of other runners' destiny.

I took a half day off work and Mary and I were on our way to Indianapolis. We rolled in shortly before the elite meeting and I ran into former Tennessee resident, Nate Pennington, who was hoping to run sub 5:10 pace for the half-marathon and is gearing towards the CIM marathon. I also talked to Mark Hadley of Elite Marathoning and later on, saw Paul Peterson, Hurricane teammates Jake Krong and Andrew North and my Nashville buddy, Hunter Hall.  A few people asked if I were going to chase the Olympic Trials time if I felt good at 20 and I guaranteed I wouldn't.  Even Paul cracked up and didn't believe me when I said I was only going to run 20 miles hard.  At the meeting we went over race logistics and some random information and after meeting Jesse Davis, who was also going to hop aboard the sub 2:18 train, Mary and I were on our way to the pasta dinner to eat with Hunter Hall and his mom, where I ate too many cookies, some steamed veggie and pepper concoction and some pasta.  I also talked with the President of the race board for a couple minutes and he said I was one of the most important people in the race.  Talk about added pressure.

Which bald guy am I?

I wasn't feeling too hot at this point and was worried I would wake up sick in the morning.  Thursday, my normal cold routine started.  I had one nostril closed with congestion and Friday night, I had both nostrils clogged and one side of my neck was really sore and tender.  I was worried that I would have some body aches or something in the morning, so I stopped by the pharmacy for some meds, in case I needed them.

But luckily, I didn't need them.  While I was congested, my body felt fine.  I ate a Mixed Berry Powerbar, a couple bowls of Honey Nut Cheerios, some yogurt and chugged some Cool Blue Gatorade.  Cool Blue Gatorade used to be one of my favorite drinks but after this weekend, I think I'm going to retire it.  Maybe I have an aversion or something to it or something now because it used to be my go-to sickness drink.

It was good while it lasted.  It's not you, it's me.

Traffic was terrible on the way to the race and there were a few idiots, who were slowing things down.  I ended up parking with about thirty minutes until the start of the race and I jogged about half of a mile to the elite tent, changed into my race gear, did a few leg swings and strides and I made my way to the line.

When the race started, the half-marathoners shot out as expected and I let them go as I paid attention to my GPS.  The pace felt really relaxed but I went through the mile in 5:08.  Oops. I tried to slow down a little more but ran the next mile in 5:11 followed by a 5:04.  In my defense, the 5:04 was only .98 miles on my GPS, so maybe the sign was 5-6 seconds ahead of place.  While I was directly in front, we must have had a good marathon pack because I heard a lot of "good job marathoners!"  There was a short Kenyan half-marathoner in a Spira singlet throwing me off my game a little bit because he couldn't decide on his pacing.  He would let us catch him, then pull away a bit.  He not only did a great job of running the tangents but would also cut across the sidewalks and grass, saving him a second or two with every turn.  Maybe he couldn't control the springs in his Spiras or something.

Once we got 4-5 miles in, the half-marathoners were breaking away and there was no one directly in-front of me.  With the road mostly clear, I was then able to lock into my rhythm, hanging +/- a few seconds from 5:15.  Jesse was right behind me, off my left shoulder and Paul was off my right with David Tuwei and Boniface Biwott behind them.   Paul and I chit-chatted some but I didn't want to talk to him too much so he could focus on his race.

Elite men's marathoners on mile three in the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon, Indianapolis, Saturday, November 3, 2013. Robert Scheer/The Star

At around 10k in, I grabbed my first water cup.  The lady was holding two cups with two fingers and her thumb and was shocked when she dropped the second cup after I grabbed the first. Seriously? I was able to get a total of about half an ounce or something since I still don't know how to drink out of those.  After that copious amount of water, I took my first gel.

They had clocks with the cummulative time at every mile, so I tried to do some rough math to make sure I wasn't running too fast.  I went through 10 miles in 52:17, which meant I was 137 seconds slower than 5:00 pace, which meant I was running 5:13.7 pace.  A hair quick but pretty much on target.  The four guys were still in tow, with the Americans still in second and third.  Jesse was the hometown boy, so he got most of the cheers.  I would have wanted the local to win, but since Paul was in the race, I was hoping he would be able to pull it out.  Sorry Jesse. 

Around 20k, we approached the first fuel table.  I didn't bedazzle my water bottle enough, so it was hard to find and I had to put on the brakes for a second but was able to grab it.  I took all of my gel and a squirt of water before asking Jesse if he wanted some. Boniface got it first and I assume he gave it to Jesse next.  Finally, the half-marathon sign was approaching and I went through in 68:39.  It was nine seconds fast but you can't get much closer than that.  And Jesse and Paul still sounded like they were feeling good, so that was a good sign.  At this point, I was debating finishing the race since money went five deep and there were only four other guys.  I definitely didn't plan on racing to the end because that would have been a chump move, after telling them I wouldn't and I knew putting my body through the extra stress wouldn't be too smart.

I continued to lead the pack of four as we knocked out the splits pretty consistently.  I paid constant attention to my watch so I wouldn't run too fast because I was finding it very easy to accidently sneak into the 5:10 range.  A few miles after the halfway point, I checked over my shoulder and noticed Paul was about five meters back.  I wanted him to catch up but I had my duties to fulfill.  A mile or two later, Jesse was also off the pace.  I turned around and told Boniface that the mzungus were gone and we kept on.  At 30k, I was hoping to get my third gel but I couldn't find it in time since all of the bottles looked alike and the table was pretty small.  Oh well, I didn't really need it anyway.

My duties were close to becoming completed and it couldn't have come any sooner.  Not because the pace was hard but because I really had to use the bathroom.  In the 19th mile, Boniface pulled up right beside me like he wanted to throw in a surge.  I told him that I was the rabbit and was stopping the pace at 20 miles.  He was confused at first but I assured him that if I kept on running at 20 miles, I would slow down the pace a lot and would not fight for the win. He then pulled back in behind me and I focused not on the 20th mile but on finding a porta-john.  

I reached 20 miles in 1:44:47 (pretty good pacing!) and then stopped.  I knew a guy was supposed to pick me up and when a guy asked me if I was ready to leave, I told him I was going to finish up the race and started jogging away.  We were running through the middle of a park and I used my hawk vision to try and spot any bathrooms because I wasn't seeing any porta-johns in the near future.  Nothing was spotted (or maybe there was one there and my hawk vision is off).

I was hoping to run 6:30s but my body was fighting anything slower than 6:00 pace.  Six minute pace felt like eight minute pace, so I guess my body just got locked into a fast rhythm.  This was the one and only time I wished I was running the Top of Utah Marathon because they had porta-johns every mile.  After going through 22 miles, I was in survival mode.  There's no hiding anything on the internet, and I knew I had to find somewhere fast.  I walked for a few seconds before noticing some kind of plant or something that had a car in the parking lot.  I ran over to it and rung the doorbell, waited about 30 seconds and rung it again.  No answer.  Things were about to get messy until I noticed some heavy, dense shrubbery about 50 meters away. I parted the bushes, did my business and kept my eye on the road to make sure a runner didn't pass.  Talk about a crappy situation!  No one went by and I was back on the road, only to pass a porta-john a minute later. Seriously?

While the pace was feeling super easy, I stopped at a fuel table to get some Clif Shot Bloks to be safe and get in some extra carbs. I've always liked the taste of them but trying to chow down on them while you running was very similar to trying to chew on very dense gum and took me a few minutes to eat all three of them.

Around 24 miles, the half-marathoners and marathoners merge onto the same road.  There were some cones designed to separate the two groups of runners but I still had to do some weaving because the half-marathoners decided to run in the marathon lane as well.  I was still cruising at a pretty easy effort and when I checked over my shoulder in the 26th mile, I noticed a marathoner about five seconds behind me.  I wasn't about to get in a marathon kick, so I threw in a minute or two at sub 5:00 pace, checked over my shoulder again and saw I had a nice lead.  I cruised across the line in 2:26:33 (2:23:20 running time, which included an extra .13 miles of running to the business, the bushes and back on the road), got my medal and a beanie hat and made my way back to the elite area so I could see how everyone else did.

Myself, Andrea and Jake.  I'm kinda embarrassed that I have by-far the tightest pants in the picture

Jake Krong was trying to make a run at sub 65 in the half-marathon but came up short.  But he's gotten in some killer training and maybe just has some residual fatigue in his legs.  But he's more of a marathon guy and will make a run at 2:18 at CIM.

I was surprised to see that David won.  He was always in the back of the pack and didn't strike me as being a threat when I dropped out.  I guess he was hiding out and biding his time but he won by almost two minutes in the last 10k.

Paul was a little short in 2:19:40 but he didn't get in a ton of training for this and ran off my shoulder quite a bit.  I think he will be ready for a sub 2:18 after getting in a couple months of marathon-specific training.  Jesse was a little behind him in 2:21:43.

Hunter ran really well to finish in 2:38, which I was glad to see.

49 year old, Colleen DeReuck and 16 year old Alana Hadley finished 1st and 4th in the women's race to both qualify for the Olympic Marathon Trials.  Pretty wide range in age there.

I ended up taking two gels during the twenty miles, three shot bloks on my 10k "cool-down" and had probably less than four ounces of water during the race.

Overall, this was a very motivating trip.  At no point did it feel like I had to focus on pushing the pace, I was constantly slowing it down.  I've never felt as relaxed at 20 miles into a marathon as I did here and feel like I could have run 2:16 without a problem if I finished the race, even though I wasn't tapered and haven't done any marathon workouts yet.  Take away this weekend, give me a two-week taper and people to run with and I know I'm in sub 2:15 shape, even without the marathon workouts.  At first I was debating re-entering CIM but after thinking about it, this race shows that I'm best suited to rhythm courses, which Houston is and CIM isn't.

I was also really impressed with the race board.  When some companies are taking away elite support, these guys are increasing it.  They had about 100 elite runners and gave a $1000 bonus for a sub 2:18 and $500 bonus for sub 65.  Part of me wishes I would have hung in and gotten the extra $1000 and take my chance at the $1200 first place prize, but I had to play it smart. 

Not only is the elite support great, but the course is fast and the weather is traditionally perfect.  This year, there was about an 8mph wind but tempos were in the low/mid 40s.  And I remember one gradual uphill and a couple downhills.  This thing is fast and in my opinion, faster than Houston.  With hotels being pretty cheap (mine was $65), this is a good, cheap marathon that is a perfect place to PR.

Always hangs around 700 ft. with a little bit of running over 750 ft. Can't get much better than that.

For some reason, the results make me look like a chump and that I wasn't doing my job.  They show I was fifth at 10k and the half-marathon and third at 30k, even though I was leading the entire time.  I got a bit of a jump at the start, so maybe that's chip time or something. Hopefully the people who brought me in to rabbit don't think I was slacking.

Balanced Splits: 5:08, 5:11, 5:04, 5:11, 5:23, 5:14, 5:15, 5:19, 5:14, 5:17, 5:18, 5:15, 5:14, 5:13, 5:14, 5:17, 5:16, 5:16, 5:07, 5:20 (end of rabbiting) 6:08, 7:05 (extra .13 of running with the bathroom break), 6:15, 6:04, 6:07, 5:46, 1:10.