Surf City Marathon Post Race Recap

In pursuit of life's ambition and dreams I tackled my 3rd annual SurfCity Marathon on February 2, 2011 at Huntington Beach, CA. My raceresults for the past 3 years are listed below showing a year over year improvement of 8% for 2010 and 5% for 2011.

• 2009 8:34 pace, 3:44 final time
• 2010 7:56 pace, 3:27 final time
• 2011 7:35 pace, 3:18 final time

Yep, this year I'm only 3 minutes off Boston, that's it. A 3:18 marathon PR! Even better, I feel like I finished this race strong & healthy, a great way to kick off the 2011 season. Here is my reflectionleading up to this race.
During last year's tri season, I did my first Ironman and became distinctly aware of the final leg, the marathon & to be blunt it's brutal. Therefore, going into this year I'll take the winter season as time to isolate training to a marathon focus. With my marathon training schedule laid out, I hit November and December according to plan. I adopted a 6 day a week running routine with every other day hard/easy. My easy days were an 8 mile airport loop completed in one hour, a bread and butter routine. My long days landed as close as I could schedule them to a holiday meal to add some balance to the gluttony of the season. My training weight was held at an even 170, right on target to not slip this time of year.
Then comes January 1st and boom an unexpected change to my plan. I'm suspecting one of three scenarios: it was my old pair of ski boots used on New Year's, it was my tendency to wear old shoes when running in the rain or it was my increased December volume (more than 10%). Whateverthe case or perhaps all three, I was injured and it was humbling to once again be reminded that I am not immune to age or injury. The important thing is my response, I immediately took an eraser to my training schedule, stripping it down to the bare minimum and erasing all three easy days. This left only the bare necessities, keeping a mere 3 day aweek schedule for sprint work, pace work and the long run. My post run regimen also got nailed down to a ritual, with an ice massage, toe raises and the like to treat the shins. I also upgraded my running shoes from Zoot Racing flats to Brooks Launch to provide more cushioning. One last thing, I learned to put on KT Tape for shinsplints, which works very well. I believe it was my ability to re-focus on corrective recovery actions that kept me on track for a healthy race.
At the start of the race I made the decision to go out with the 3:10 pace group along with two friends. The first 9 miles go by fast, similar to the familiarity of a training day. Mile 9 - 15 is an out and back on the Pacific Coast Highway and although I let the page group go, I received a word of sound advice from a friend (who did hold on to qualify for Boston), keep them in your sight. Mile 16 begins the public beach path's out and back, the point where the tough mental race to endure really starts.
I tapped into several race day mental strategies. I found the backdrop of the Pacific Ocean was relaxing and I transferred this thought to relax my run. I felt right at home consuming a gew or a salt tablet along with Vitalyte at the aid stations so my nutrition plan was executed flawlessly. I used someone passing me as a virtual leash, just as I would my training partner and tucked in right behind him, stride for stride, mimicking the high repetition turn over in both our footsteps. I also felt flow in the transfer of my remaining energy to naturally cycle through its ups and downs, achieving my runners high to finish strong, Ole!
A marathon is a spectacular journey, through your physical ability, through your mental focus, through your healthy lifestyle, through the humble and the impressive, through the wall of pain and back again and ultimately through the finish line. See you again Surf City in 2012, after all its only 3 minutes to Boston.