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| My first Carmel race Photo credit: Sam Kan |
Shadow Race
The Carmel
Marathon really began two years ago for me. As I mentioned in a previous blog,
the group that I ran with and helped to run in Kuwait was founded by a National
Guard unit from Indianapolis (adjoining Carmel). During my time there the KRM put on a shadow race of the
Carmel Marathon at our little base. About 40 of us ran a
half-marathon and an 8k around the base. The race organizers sent us the shirts
and medals from the run.
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| KRM friends running the dusty base roads in Kuwait Photo credit: Sam Kan |
Sometime
in 2016 one of my fellow “dons” of the KRM reached out to the rest of the
alumni and suggested that we run the real deal. I have always liked the idea of
running races that I did shadow runs of while deployed and I had not yet done
Indiana in my lifetime goal of running a marathon in each state. But
really, it was a fun opportunity to hang out with some folks who added much
levity and sanity to my last deployment.
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| Finishing the Kuwait edition of the 2015 Carmel Half-Marathon Photo credit: Sam Kan |
I should
also mention that the organizers of the race, in particular, the one we worked
with were excited about a group of shadow runners coming to do the real race.
They gave us VIP bibs and had great chats with us before and after the race.
Training
Training for the real Carmel Marathon was a much different
animal than the shadow run – or any of my previous marathons. Since returning
from the deployment my wife and I had another child. They are a joy, but. . .
they make taking off for two to three-hour long runs a bit more challenging.
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| Eventually the chaos seems normal Photo credit: My ever awesome wife |
Our
first son took fairly reliable epic (2 -3 hours naps) in the afternoon and
so getting out on a Sunday afternoon for a long run had been a manageable
event. In spite of our efforts to reason with our second child, he did not see
our logic of why he should reliably nap at the same time as his brother. So
while I managed one or two long runs on Sundays I had to find a more
sustainable way.
My
wife hit upon the solution of running into work. On Mondays and Tuesdays she
worked about a five-minute walk from my office (which happened to have a pretty
decent shower). So one Monday I bit the bullet and gave her my computer bag,
lunch and a change of clothes to take in. Being the front range and the
satellite communities of Boulder, I was able to find a route in that consisted
entirely of paved and gravel paths and trails. There was a two-mile stretch of
the Denver-Boulder bike path that at times had comically high winds, but it was
otherwise a pretty pleasant route.
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| One long-run route from home to the office |
Speedworks
also required some tweaking. Previously I had done much of my harder running
with the Boulder Track Club. But with my oldest needing to leave for
pre-school at around 7:30 the club's 7 am start time became
less attractive. Fortunately, our friend group in Lafayette is coming to
consist more and more of other folks with young kids so when I asked a nearby
friend if he wanted to do a speedwork at 6:30 he came back and said 6 would be even
better. I could do that.
Returning to a new location
I arrived at Indianapolis on Friday evening. Since there was
a group of us we got two rooms at an Airbnb house.
It was a short 15-minute drive to downtown. The really nice thing about doing
an Airbnb set-up was that we were able to use the kitchen to make our own
awesome pre-race pasta meal. It was a much more relaxing way to do a pre-race
dinner than going out to a restaurant.
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| This crowd fears no glueten Photo credit: Shane |
The Carmel Marathon is Indiana’s second biggest marathon
(according to their website) but it is still fairly small compared to bigger
city marathons. There were about 600 folks run marathon. When we arrived about
an hour before the race parking could still be found within easy walking
distance of the start and there were plenty of porta-potties.
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| All ready to go Photo credit: Shane |
Somehow I had ended up with an “elite” bid given my
estimated time of 2:50:00 and so I toed up to the edge of the starting line.
The weather was overcast with a 10 – 15 mph wind out of the northeast and the
temperature in the mid to high 40’s – overall pretty reasonable weather.
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| In all our KRM glory |
The course started off running through some beautiful
neighborhoods. Carmel reminded me of Boulder in that it was wealthy and active
as evidenced by the beautiful houses and miles of nice paths. The marathon ran
several of its miles off-road along these nice paved paths.
Minor Issues
The course was well marked although I did have some minor
complaints. Twice the marathon course departed from the half-marathon course
only to rejoin it later. In most small marathons that I have run this would not
be an issue because during the second half of the race the person ahead of me
was usually out-of-sight and the next person was often minutes behind me.
However, around mile 15 I still found myself passing folks who had gone ahead
of me a few miles back and being passed by folks who I thought I had put away. Rejoining with the half-marathoners sometimes made it harder to keep track of the competition.
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| How pleasant to see you again |
The other minor compliant I had was that a few short road
sections were not completely closed to traffic. There were the
usual cases where only one lane was marked off with cones for runners and the
other lanes were open – this I was used to. But there were a couple of times
when I was running my tangent across what I assumed was a lane entirely for
runners when a car came up behind me. The drivers that I saw went slowly and
were polite – but were surprising none-the-less.
However the things done well more than made up for these
minor issues. The course was well marked, the water stops sufficient and the
volunteers friendly.
The plan and the course
Based on my long runs and speedworks I thought I could run
close to a 2:50. Choosing a goal pace feels like placing a wager. Too
conservative and you finish feeling like you didn’t leave
it all on the course. Too fast and the last third of the race can be absolutely
miserable. I still think I have a low 2:40 marathon in me; but, my track
workouts had indicated that it was probably buried below some kids, sleep and
beer.
My plan was to take 3 gels – one at each quarter (roughly 10k) of the 42.2 km distance. Unfortunately, at the 10th kilometer I learned that the two gels I had placed in my back pocket had slipped out (and hopefully went to good use by some other deserving runners). I had one gel in the front pouch of my shorts and decided to save it for the half-marathon marker. Someone told me there was gel along the course by my marathon-brain did not notice it. I instead took a few more Powe-ades at the water stops.
A 2:50 marathon works out to 4:02 kilometers. I prefer
kilometers because they go by faster and give you faster feedback if you’re
going too fast or slow. About two-thirds of my kilometers were within four
seconds (roughly one percent) of my goal pace.
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| Splits by kilometer |
The running coach Mike Faneli told runners “to divide a race
into thirds. Run the first part with your head, the middle part with your
personality, and the last part with your heart.” My interpretation of this
advice was for the first 30k to kept a close eye of my GPS watch. I set it up
to take automatic splits at the kilometer marks. I keep in on a screen that
shows the time of the current lap, the lap distance and the lap pace. Constant
monitoring let me keep a close watch on my pace and quickly corrected going too
fast or getting into a lull. There is something that feels a little artificial
and less “natural” about this approach – but I like the results.
But at 30k I stopped looking as closely at my watch and did
a status check. My legs felt a little tired but still with some pluck in them.
So I opened up my pace and started picking folks off. I may have gone all in a
little early as some of these folks or other behind me passed me back but
overall on the pass vs. passed count (one of my high school coach’s metrics) I only
ended up down by two. I came into the final turn and crossed the finish in
2:50:30. My half-marathon split had been 1:25:11 putting my two halves within
10 seconds of each other.
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| Bringing it home Photo credit: Sam Kan |
My two other friends had done the half and by the time I
came back with my gear were waiting in the VIP areas sipping beers and watching
the finishers. I joined them as we waited for the last of party. She crossed in the early afternoon and we celebrated a job well done. The race organizer, who had been
some great to us, even allowed one of us to put on her finisher’s medal.
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| Bringing home the team Photo credit: Dave V |
Afterwards we went out and celebrated a good job and tell
near-war stories of running in Kuwait. We checked out Upland Brewing in Carmel.
They had a good selection of hearty pub food and a surprising number of
vegetarian options. I also enjoyed that a lot of their beers were around the
five percent range – after Colorado where few self-respecting IPAs are below
seven it was nice to be able to try a sampler and let the legs recover.
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| Fruits of our labor Photo credit; Shane |
And we let ourselves have a good desert a few doors down at the Quirky Feather Confections.
Closing thoughts
While the race went rather well and according to plan, I did
learn a good lesson about testing my gear. My long runs had missed the devious
escapism of my gel packets because I usually kept these in my water bottle
belt. I have long lamented the lack of “hand-warmer” pockets in running shorts
but will try to find another pair that at least has a zipper for the rear
pocket.
On the other hand, doing my long runs into work and my
speedworks early prepared me rather well without cutting too much into family
time. My friend’s choice of an Airbnb and cooking dinner in a kitchen the night
before also is something I’ll try to repeat.
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| 17 States down, 33 (and DC) to go |
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