California International Marathon - Race Report

It was cold... for a road marathon in California.  I love cold weather when I'm running around mountains in the snow, but it's not as fun when you're running on 26 miles of flat road.  I'll take it over the heat though any day.  I've never finished a race before and wished it was a little bit warmer, but I did after this year's CIM.  It was in the mid 20's at the start and low to mid 30's at the finish.  I wore a buff over my hat to keep my ears warm, gloves and arm sleeves.  Why was it too cold for running?  My muscles and joints never really warmed up to the point of feeling loose like they normally do.

Every couple of miles or so I tried to grab a paper cup filled with fluid from a volunteer, then tried not to spill all of it while running 6 minute miles with numb hands and finally get a little bit down the hatch.  I couldn't help but laugh at how difficult this was, and how funny it had to appear.  Good thing the cool temperature kept me from needing much fluid.  I can't wait for my next race, where I can drink easily from a handheld water bottle.  Those road runners have it tough.  Not as tough as swimmers though:

Why I don't swim.

It was weird stepping out of my comfortable cocoon of trail racing where I recognize a lot of the field, to jumping into a sea of 6,500 strangers to run through cities on asphalt.  Luckily, this was a well organized race with quite a few aid stations that were flush with porta potties.  Unfortunately, I had to stop and use said facilities twice during the race.

Before I started my road marathon training my original goal was to run 2:29.  I strained and or ripped my calf at my first track workout, then I got sick for a couple weeks.  So my first month of training kind of went down the drain.  That, combined with the fact that running fast was a little harder than I remembered led me to scaling back my goal finish time to 2:39.  As the race drew closer I thought I'd finish in the 2:36-2:39 range.  I didn't.

Fail.

Looking back at my splits, I was right on track to finish 2:36 or 2:37 until mile 24, that's where the wheels fell off.  Negative thoughts crept in shortly after I started to crumble.  I kept thinking that I was pushing it hard, running okay, but I'd look down at my watch and see a pace in the 6:30's.  I did some quick math in my head and realized that I had to speed up and hold that to the finish to get there under 2:40.  I pushed it harder, my legs were already feeling heavy and I started to get a feeling in them that they were about to buckle and I'd have to cross the finish line like this:

The race wasn't a total loss by any means.  While I didn't finish in the time I wanted to, CIM was a great experience.

THINGS THAT WENT WELL:

I hung out with my wife and awesome in-laws for a couple days.  My dad, aunt Karen, brother Danny and his girlfriend Vanessa, all came to the race to cheer me on.  My good friends Megan and Mike hung out the night before and Mike ran sub three hours for the first time.  Way to go Mike!  Can you please send my your HRM data for the run? Ha!

Lunch at the Rio City Cafe

My new shoes, the Hoka Conquests were amazing.  Hoka has definitely stepped it up in the road running department with these shoes.  They are not as soft as Bondi's, but still absorb a lot of impact.  They're a lot more responsive and feel very fast on the road.

Can't wait to try these puppies out on the trails.

Nate and Gina were selling Hoka's like hotcakes at the expo.

THINGS THAT DIDN'T GO AS PLANNED AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT:

It's easy to throw out a bunch of lame excuses but I just flat out didn't meet my goal, and no one or anything else is to blame but me.  I usually execute races pretty well,  I don't have too many bad issues arise, and I achieve my goals.  It is good for me to fail every once in a while.  I'm hungrier and fired up because of it - I try and maintain a habit of saying that I am going to do things, then doing them.  I don't like coming up short like this.

I should have logged more miles while training for this race.  I peaked at 90 miles one week, which felt good, but many other weeks were right around 60 miles.  I should have logged more long road runs instead of running long mountain runs, but the long mountain runs are too fun!  I should have worn calf sleeves.  I  should have slowed down at an aid station or two to drink more than a little swig out of the cup, and not spill most of it during handoff.

I have some unfinished business with road marathons, but I'm going to put that on the back burner for now.  2:29 will have to wait.


Next up, SEAN O'BRIEN 50M!  Can't wait to run with Dylan Bowman, Timothy Olson, Chris Vargo, Rod Bien, Jesse Haynes, Jason Wolfe, Jorge Pacheco, Erik Schulte, James Walsh, Dom Grossman, Ricardo Ramirez and others on February 1st.  The entrant list is growing every day, but I'll post some predictions before too long.

Griffith Park Trail 1/2 Marathon

With the California International (road) Marathon a couple weeks out, I thought this would be a perfect race to jump into.  I've heard great things about it from people who've run in it the last couple years, I've yet to set foot in Griffith Park (crazy, I know) so I signed up.

Myself, John Mering and Andres Diaz

8:30AM rolled around and we were off, straight up a nice hill.  I quickly fell a little behind the lead pack of last year's winner John Mering, Andres Diaz, Jesse Haynes and Sergio Arias.  I was dying trying to keep up, and eventually had to let them pull away a bit.  After climbing 500' in the first mile we got to head downhill for a bit and I caught everyone except the leader.  But as soon as we started uphill Andres would pass me.  I'd pass him again on the downhills and we continued to yo-yo like this for the first 6 miles.  At this point I caught up to John, but he pulled away as soon as we began climbing again and eventually kept about a minute lead on me the rest of the race.  Results here.

Before the race I was concerned that with 400 runners the out'n'back sections would get crowded and chaotic.  This wasn't the case at all.  The majority of the course was on smooth and wide dirt roads, and the volunteers at nearly every turn helped keep the race running smoothly.  The out and backs were fun because I got to see how friends behind me were doing, was able keep tabs on my buddy Jesse Haynes (who was close to catching me), and other runners and I got to cheer each other on.  My favorite out'n'back turn around aid station had to be at the observatory where I was handed a sports drink from this friendly guy:

The views on the course were amazing.  The recent storm left the air crystal clear with stellar views of the Pacific Ocean, downtown LA, and the San Gabriel Mountains - including Mt. Baldy with a fresh blanket of snow.  I haven't run anything but ultras for years now, and wasn't expecting a whole lot from this race on trails in the heart of LA, but it was a very cool event.



Un Id, John, RD extraordinaire, myself

With Keira Henninger running the show I knew everything would be marked extremely well, there would be a small army of friendly volunteers and there would be great stuff in the swag bag - a Patagonia Capiline T-shirt at this race, among a handful of other cool goodies.

Finish Line Feast: Kale salad, fruit, sandwiches, cookies, coke, Poweraide, etc., etc.

Equipment:

Rudy Project Sunglasses and visor worked well on this bright and sunny day.

Ink'n'burn tank and shorts felt great, as per usual.

Hoka - The Stinson EVO's have been my go-to shoes for a long time now, and they worked flawlessly today.  I love reeling people in running full speed downhill in the 4-5 minute mile range and having my feet feel great.  In the past I've used them primarily for long runs, but with all my road marathon training I'm realizing that they are great for shorter distance and speed work as well.  I'm insanely stoked to announce that I recently joined the Hoka Team.  They make the best shoes and I am very proud to represent them.  I have recently stepped up my training and am eating healthier.  I'm looking forward to a breakthrough year.  Time to fly!

My Drymax Trail Lite socks always feel good and today was no exception.


It was very refreshing to mix it up a bit and run a shorter race.  My body seems to have responded well to the faster/shorter/flatter training that I've been doing lately.  I see quite a few of the Bay Area runners jumping into shorter races and it seems to work for them.  Jorge Maravilla for example, recently ran a 1:09 at the Berkeley Half Marathon, and we all know how talented he is. 

...bro

I would love to jump right into another local shorter trail run, like one of the Paramount Ranch Trail Runs, but I'll be up in Sacramento running the California International Marathon that weekend - I'm not cool like Mike Wardian, so I'm not going to do both (he recently ran a marathon in San Antonio and Las Vegas in the same day).  After my road marathon when all I have on the horizon are ultras, I hope I'll still be able to talk myself into speed work and occasional shorter races.

We'll see if all this speed work I've been doing pays off come Sean O'Brien 50M, when all the big dogs come to town.