Note: The time since the race and posting it is half split between Amy writing it and me posting it 🙂

Back in December, Guido signed up for the Phoenix Marathon. At the time, i definitely thought he was crazy, mostly because I’ve never needed to do an Marathon. Yes, I have actually done two marathon (both at the end of an Ironman), but I’ve always heard and thought that a standalone marathon would be a bit of a different beast.

Course Map for all 3 distances (10k, 13.1, 26.2)

Well, but I kept thinking about it. There was a 10k, a half marathon, and the full marathon option for the Phoenix race. Guido had been prompting me to do the half, since I would be down there anyway. But I kept thinking about the full marathon, and wondering just how I would do. So, I decided to sign up for the marathon!

Mid February I decided my new word of the year would be “Commit”. I’d read a blog about picking a word for the year, and as silly as I thought it was, it got me thinking about what the year would bring.  So, Commit.

“Commit, Committed, Commitment”
Commit to the training, and process of getting ready for IronMan. Its likely to be my last. (Though I said that after the last two also, so we shall see!). I want it to be my best. Commit to showing up for training, not just going through the motions. Sleeping, eating, resting, and enabling myself to progress week over week. Committed, ha well everyone doing IronMan should be committed. Commitment, this year is about commitment, to myself, to Guido, to my Ironman.  No excuses. I know what I want to be doing, and luckily enough I now get to do it. I get to stop whining about it, and go out and enjoy it!

The training for the marathon was just shy of three months (though since it included Xmas and the New years its hard to know how much some of those weeks count!). I spent the mid winter doing long runs in the cold, and rain, though thankfully no snow.

We flew down to Pheonix Thursday evening, and it was a bit warm down there. It was only going to get up to 75, but plenty bright and sunny. We picked up our packets on Friday, and had a great day sitting in the hotel snacking on pretzels. We impulsively decided to go to a movie that early evening, and went to see The Kingsmen. Not a great movie, but plenty funny.

Downhill shortly after start

Race day dawned early, 3:30am wake up. We drove to the race, and took the bus to start. The race is point to point, so it starts 26 miles east of town, and you essentially just run west the entire race. It was cold, and dark, and pretty quiet at the race start, with only 3000 people there.

Happily jogging along…

After standing inline for the port-o-johns twice, I squeezed in one more trip jogged back to the race start, and heard the gun go off right as I got back to the start line, perfect timing! The first mile I spent watching everyone go sprinting past. The sun was just coming up, and sky was quite pretty. I was passed by a man and his small dog. The dog proudly wore a tiny race t-shirt, and I heard the man chatting that they had done 23 marathons already.

Miles 6 and 7 was the one hill of the course, and while not particularly steep, it did go on for quite a while. I was way outside my Zone2 goal for the first 6 miles of the race, but I just kept plugging away at the hill.

I remember thinking it was quite weird that my brain was working while running. It kept wanting to think of things to think about. Completely the opposite of an Ironman marathon! During my last Ironman, I was easily entertained for the entire 26 miles by converting and reconverting from miles to kilometers. (1.6km to 1mile!) But here I kept getting distracted by thoughts floating through my head and wanting attention. I had to quite deliberately push them out, and refocus on running.

The halfway point was the first time i looked at the race clock, and it said 2:07. Exactly at the upper end of my goal. So good, but i decided to see if I could consistently push it just a bit for the second half.

Finish line

The second half was mostly just focusing on running each mile consistently for my heart rate, and unrelentingly. I wasn’t looking at my pace or mile splits, only my heart-rate which was always on the high side of my Z3 goal.

Mile 20 finally came along, and I was surprised at both how sharply tired my muscles were for ‘only’ a marathon was. My muscles were definitely ready to be done running, and I was too. During the last 6 miles I was surprised at how many people slowed down, and that I passed. I kept refocusing on running, breathing, and pushing as consistently as my legs would allow. I was slightly worried about cramping up, because they were feeling quite quivery, and tight. But they never did, and I just kept running. Mile marker 25 finally slowly appeared, and I was quite ready for it. I slowly started to push the pace for the last mile, with some success as that last mile was a 8:40pace.

Finish picture with Guido

Crossing the finish line was great! Guido was there cheering me on at the end.

My final time was 4:15, exactly at the upper end of what I was hoping for, with a total pace of 9:46min/mile. I consistently paced the two halves, my times differed by 1 min.

In the aftermath, my muscles were so very tight. It took a couple of days before stairs were not a painful option. It was also interesting when i returned to training a week later, since i definitely felt that my legs didn’t have any giddy-up in them. I hadn’t ever really noticed that post-Ironman, since it typically takes me a month to get around to picking up the training after those races. But finally after about 3+ weeks legs have recovered, and i can do some of the pre-race track intervals again.

I will probably have to think about tackling another marathon at some point. I think with a few more months of training I’d get below 4hrs, but that will wait till post Ironman AZ 2015. 🙂