Charlottesville Marathon recap

Holy Hills Batman! That was one tough race!

Okay sports fans, as you may recall, back in December I said that the Rehoboth Beach Marathon was my easiest marathon yet. Charlottesville was my toughest marathon. Ever. I knew it was going to be hilly, but not THAT hilly. What part of 3400 feet of elevation change did I not understand? What part of the elevation profile (which did not show more than a 2 mile stretch that was flat) did I not get?

But I digress...What is also true is that the course was indeed one of the most beautiful and scenic courses I've done. And it doesn't hurt that I got to go back to Charlottesville, home of my beloved Cavaliers (double-hoo here).

My race experience started the day before when I left DC around 2 to head down to C'ville. Who would have thought that Friday afternoon rush hour started that early? Especially with the threat of a government shutdown looming? I-66 was a parking lot until close to Gainesville. But otherwise it was a pleasant trip down memory lane. Except what happened to the Atlas Iron Works, the Town and Country Restaurant, Steve's? At least Clark Brothers Guns & Ammo is still there.

Packet pickup was pretty smooth, got my number and race premium (nice short sleeve coolmax). Wonderful dinner with two fraternity brothers, Dan and Charlie, then back to Dan's where I was staying for the night. Had pleasant conversation with Dan and his wife (both runners), then set my alarm for 5:10 and hit the sack.

Race day came without the anticipated rain (I don't like cold rain, it reminds me of my hour in the medical tent after the 2007 Boston Marathon getting treated for hypothermia after running in 40 degree weather with 20 mph headwinds and rain). It was in the upper 40s, overcast, no wind. Decided on shorts, short sleeve shirt, gloves and hat -- good call. Took care of the bodily necessities or at least I thought so....(ominous foreshadowing here) then got in position at the race start.

Miles 1 - 3
Okay -- for those who have seen previous race recaps, I often put my mile splits in the sub-headers. So major gripe #1 -- many of the mile markers seemed to be mismarked. And this was not just me not running the perfect tangent so my garmin measured 1.01 or 0.98, this was 1.14 miles or 0.89 miles between mile markers. So I'm not sure what my true splits are. Oh well.

Anyhow, the race started on a downhill for about a hundred feet, we turned left and UP the first hill, turned again and continued going up but at a very low grade. We headed down main street, and approached the UVa Corner at mile 1. I had forgotten that this was an uphill walk, but as we passed the Rotunda and turned up Rugby Road past the fraternities I was reminded at how difficult this would be. Of course, the Rotunda in the early dawn light was quite spectacular.

We turned down Lambeth Lane (and when I say down, it was a nice steep downhill run), crossed the new footbridge over Emmet Street (at least it was new to me) just past mile 2. Ran past the new John Paul Jones Arena (I know, it's been a while since I've been in C'ville) and then up Massie Ave. Did some unexpected cross-country as the course cut down a nice mulch/dirt path putting us out on Old Ivy Road near mile 3.

My garmin gives me the following splits: 6:47, 6:50, 6:53. Using the course mile markers, my splits were: 6:40, 6:33, and 7:02.

Miles 4 -10
The marathon and half-marathon start together and run the entire first half together. I was near the front and would often check the bibs of runners I was passing or who were passing me. Red bib -- competitor. Black bib- half marathoner, let them go. The course passed over (or was it under, I forget now) the 250 bypass and left "metropolitan" Charlottesville.

Old Ivy Road is also nicknamed 21 curves. Anyhow, we rounded a curve and I was struck with how incredible the view really was. The trees were gone and the road was in the middle of horse country. Broad fields of grass on either side. To the right, an antebellum mansion (with columns and portico) perched on a hill about ½ mile distant. In the distance, the blue gray Blue Ridge Mountains with their dark green trees rose in the light. Above, a slate gray sky. It was one of the most beautiful scenes I've ever run through. After about a mile, the road went back into forest, complete with gurgling stream alongside the road. The course stayed in this forested area until around mile 6, where it turned onto Garth Road and the broad vistas returned.
Now Old Ivy was mostly downhill with a couple of steep climbs thrown in for fun from miles 3 to 6, and the beauty of the scenery was marred by my thoughts of what goes down must eventually go back up. Turning onto Garth Road I was snapped back into reality by one of the larger and longer and steeper hills of the day. I think it was about this time when my thoughts of running sub-3 hours evaporated. Just past mile 7 we turned around a cone and headed back. As near as I could count, I was 8th or 9th overall for the marathon (didn't catch the colors on all the bibs).

And the scene reversed itself -- a very nice long downhill back to Old Ivy Road, then mostly uphill with a couple of steep downhills thrown in for fun. The scenery, again, was simply gorgeous. As we passed mile 10, we left the broad vistas and forests and re-entered C'ville.

Garmin splits: 6:39, 6:43, 7:28, 6:54, 6:49, 6:49, 7:01
"Mile" marker splits: 6:37, 6:44, 7:12, 7:11, 6:50, 6:50, 7:12

Miles 11 - 13
Not much to say here, back past the basketball arena, over the Lambeth footbridge, the really fast downhill was now a really steep uphill (for those who did Boston Bound with me, think the hill repeats we did except a little bit steeper and a little bit longer). We turned left up Rugby Road and right onto Grady Ave. Now comes the worst part of the course -- we passed by my old fraternity house near mile 12. National, in its infinite wisdom, shut down the chapter two or so years ago, and our wonderful Pi House was now a dilapidated, boarded up shell. A bit of a downer, but I kept running on. Passed mile 13 where the half-marathoners kept going straight to the finish and the rest of us turned left for the first of two loops around the downtown C'ville area.

Oh yeah, Gripe #2. Around mile 10, I started feeling a rather unfamiliar rumbling in my abdomen. To put it bluntly, I had to go #2. There were no portajohns on the course. I figured when we neared the finish (which was the same place as the start) or neared downtown there would be portajohns. Nope. Luckily the urge subsided for a while.

Garmin splits: 7:05, 7:04, 6:30
"Mile" marker splits: 7:12, 6:52, 6:30

Miles 14 - 19 (first loop)
When I mentally prepared myself for the race, I thought most of the hills would be in the first half, thinking the downtown area (from my memory) was pretty flat. Of course, as a student I was rarely downtown or I would have known it was anything but flat. Lots of hills -- steep ones. Sometimes I got the benefit of the down, and sometimes I was not so lucky.

Meanwhile, the urge resurfaced with a vengeance. And still no freaking portajohns. Around mile 15 I was getting ready to knock on a door and ask a resident if I could use their bathroom. Mercifully, as the course entered the Rivanna Riverwalk park, there were portajohns at the trailhead. At Rehoboth, I had to pee for the first time during a marathon. At Charlottesville, I had to poop for the first time during a marathon. And it was the quickest poop I ever took.

Feeling somewhat lighter, I hastened my step hoping to reclaim lost ground. My overall pace before the bathroom break was 6:55 (slower than the 6:52 overall pace I needed for a sub-3) and my pace post-break was only 6:57, so I didn't lose that much ground. Plus, the runner I was attempting to overtake before the break, I eventually passed (I also passed several other runners who had passed me during my stopover).
Anyhow, the only truly flat part of the course was the about 2 3/4 mile stretch along the Rivanna River. And it was a beautiful stretch of course. The Rivanna as it flows passed C'ville is a lovely river -- broad enough to have body, fast enough to have a great sound, but not so fast to be a roar. Around mile 17, someone had chalked "naked cheerleaders straight ahead." I quickened my pace, only to be disappointed. Just an Elvis impersonator (I guy can always hope, right?) I asked "where are the cheerleaders?" "Out selling cookies" came the reply.

The river trail ended, we did another bit of cross-country over a soccer field then up a very steep hill and back onto the road. To be met with even more hills. And more turns that I have ever seen in any race of any size. We meandered up and down hills, left and right all between miles 18 and 19.5. At around mile 19.5 we turned left for the second loop.

One of the disheartening parts of the first loop was running past the second loop mile markers (why can't it be mile 22 now...) Also, the mile markers were really off.

Garmin splits: 7:13, 6:41, 7:49 (includes pit stop), 6:49 (much lighter), 8:01 (cruel hills), 6:54
"Mile" marker splits: 6:23, 7:02, 8:56, 6:05, 7:42, 6:57

Miles 20 - 25 (second loop)
Lather. Rinse. Repeat. All the ups and downs, lefts and rights, except no pit stop this time. The ups were more cruel the second time around, and I was not able to take as much advantage of the downs. Nevertheless, I did pass several of the runners who had passed me during my bathroom break, and even overtook three runners (two male, one female) who I knew were ahead of me before I stopped.

Funny, during the last part of a marathon, your brain often thinks you are running fast. Then you look at your garmin. No, you're not.

The best part of a two loop course: I joined in with the bulk of the runners who were only then doing their first loop. Now, I had a feeling of relief passing the lower mile markers and only caring about the higher ones. It was also very ego boosting to be passing them left and right.

Shortly after mile 25, I got to go straight (instead of left for another loop) for the final mile to the finish.

Garmin splits: 7:30, 6:58, 7:13, 7:22, 8:20, 7:24
"Mile" marker splits: 6:54, 6:48, 8:33, 6:30, 8:04, 7:15

Mile 26 to the finish
"Finish strong sweetheart" Sweetheart? Is that guy talking to me? Oh, it was the female runner right behind me. She passed me just as we hit the 26 mile mark. Now I'm no chauvinist pig, but I just did not want to finish right behind a female runner. More importantly, I did not want to be passed in the final 1/4 mile of a marathon. We were neck and neck down the final uphill grade. We turned left and (similar to Marine Corps) began the steeper uphill climb to the finish. "I don't think I've got anything left for that hill" she gasped and started to drop back. "Yes you do" I said "we'll take this hill together." Up the hill we went. I finished with a 3:05:15 clock time, she finished with a 3:05:17 clock time (as it turns out, her chip time was faster, so she beat me after all).

Garmin split: 7:29 (7:17 for the final 1/4)
"Mile" marker split: 7:06 (8:10).

Final Thoughts
Overall time: 3:05:12. 13th place gun time, 14th place chip time (out of 411 finishers). 2nd place in my age
group 40-49 year olds (out of 50). 11th place male (out of 263).

My fourth fastest marathon and fastest hilly marathon (much much hillier than Boston).

So all in all, I was quite pleased. I didn't run sub 3, but to be honest, I didn't really think this was the course to run sub-3. Not that I didn't try. I gave that course my all. My Achilles tendons were quite mad at me the entire drive home for subjecting them to that elevation change. But today they felt much better.

Much thanks to the Boston Bound Training Program and coaches Steve and Renee (and of course the late coach Mike) and everyone I ran with on Saturdays and at track. I trained so much smarter this time around. I know I would not have run as well as I did without putting in 50 and 60 miles weeks.

Next up -- a 3 week rest and then the Potomac River Run Marathon on May 1. That is a flat course (out and back on the C&O Canal towpath). If I can get my 44 year old legs rested enough between now and then, maybe I can squeak a 2:59???