Run Strategy

Ok, I've made a decision about the run.

For my first IM Marathon my real goal was to RUN the entire course.  I had blown up my knee a month out but with a lot of rest I was able to complete the run.  For the first half I think I average 8:50 min/miles and on the third quarter and fourth quarter I slowed way down and ended up at 10:59 min/miles average for the race.

Second IM I got hurt 6 months before the race and wouldn't give myself the time to heal so I ended up walking almost the entire 26.2 miles in a little over 6 hours.

Last November I felt pretty good.  Not great, but pretty good.  I had gone a little too hard on the bike I think.  I did the first mile in like 8 minutes and I remember I kept looking down at my HR monitor thinking, "I can't go this fast, I can't go this fast."  But I couldn't force myself to slow down either.

Until mile 2.

I got about halfway to the third aid station and I started walking.  Talk about pissed!  I guess by the time I got to the aid station it was really showing and one of the volunteers asked what was wrong.  I said, "I'm walking what do you think is wrong?"

He looked at me and said, "Don't worry, you'll get it back." 

I remember it really clearly.  He didn't say some mindless dribble like "you can it", or "you're almost there", or anything else like that.  He said, "You'll get it back."  In that sentence he acknowledged that I was walking, which was a bad thing but that I wouldn't have to walk the entire race.  I took it to heart and indeed, within 5 minutes or so I was running again.  I don't think I ever got it back completely but I did run.

Now, by the third lap my legs hurt sooooo much that taking the first running step was AGONY.  It was spooky.  It didn't hurt to keep running, it hurt to start running.  I'd come walking out of an aid station and I would have to talk myself into running again.  I think I ran through station #24 because I didn't want to have to start running again.  I walked through station 25 and started talking to another runner.  I remember she wasn't having a great go of it and I suggested she drink the chicken soup but she refused because she was a vegan.  We walked for a couple hundred yards until she told me that she was only on her second lap.  I sumoned what felt like my last bit of energy and ran the rest of the way down the lake, over Mill Avenue, and to the finish line.  I do remember wanting to die when a volunteer told me I only have a few hundred yards left.

Anyway, I digress.

This year I am going to stick to 10 min/miles.  I like to think it will be for the entire race but let's just say for as long as I can.  I realize that there are aid stations to deal with here so I'm not sure what to do about them and average time but anyway 10 min/miles is the goal.