It started innocently enough when one of my customers asked if I was running the Towpath Half Marathon. He said he was going with a big group of coworkers and suggested I join them on race day. It sounded like a great idea. After all, I had been consistently running and I had a considerable amount of fitness left from tri-season. Also, a group of my friends were running the half so joining everyone sounded fun.
While the 13.1 sounded nice, I knew deep down I really needed to ramp up my mileage for a 50k I signed up for in November. I gave serious thought to just sticking to my current training plan and just putting in some long steady miles. That's when the phone rang and my long time friend Suzanne, an accomplished ultra-runner, talked me into the full Towpath Marathon. She argued that I needed to get a long run in anyways, it would be a little longer than planned but that was OK, it would be fully supported so I wouldn't have to worry about race nutrition, and I could simply just go out at an easy training run pace. I knew deep down she was right and after a short discussion with my girlfriend she suggested I sign up. I was about 4 weeks out to "training" day so I needed to get a plan together.
I didn't have a lot of runway ahead of me to build up to the long runs usually incorporated into a marathon training plan so I needed to improvise. I knew I had a solid running base from years of tri's and half-marathons but it had been over a year since running the marathon at Ironman Muskoka, if you can even consider what I did there running. What I needed was to build up my strength and stamina quickly and the answer was hills and track workouts.
The towpath is generally flat so training on hills would make the flat course feel easy. Running the loop around Hinckley Reservation would be the perfect training ground to ramp up quickly. Each loop is just a hair over 3 miles and the elevation change was perfect for what I needed to accomplish. I ran there 2 times per week, tempo run on Thursdays and long run on Sundays. Tuesday evenings were dedicated to track workouts, Monday and Wednesday recovery runs and Friday and Saturday was typically a cross training day. Perfect.
The longest I had ran all year was 25 miles at the Burning River Relay at the beginning of August. However, this was not continuous as it was broken down into a 15 mile leg and later in the day a slightly over 9 mile leg. While the distance was there, it certainly didn't match up with your typical marathon distance training runs. In the weeks leading up to the marathon, I was able to get in one hilly 15 mile run at Hinckley. I knew that my distance was short for a proper marathon but it would have to do, I was out of time.
Race morning was interesting. There were a lot more people running than what I expected and I'm glad I arrived much earlier than required. I used the restroom and upon exit realized I had seriously beat the crowd. That took a lot of anxiety off me. I made quick check of Facebook and the FB Memories brought up a post from exactly 5 years earlier when I had ran my first Towpath Marathon. I distinctly recalled saying to myself, "That's a long way to run, I'll never f'in do that again." Little did I know that single day started the path to triathlon, Ironman, and a huge group of like minded friends.
I exchanged a few texts with my girlfriend Judie and she was kind enough to text me an ecard wishing me well on my marathon and not shitting my pants in public. She has a way of making me laugh and quite honestly that broke the morning's tension. Suzanne had decided to run and I bumped into her as she was headed to the bathrooms. She reminded me that this was a training run, treat it as so and don't go out too fast. I shook my head in agreement.
The starting line was about a 1/2 mile walk from the parking lot to the north on Riverview Rd. The air was brisk, mid 40's, and I was just wearing t-shirt and shorts. It was cold walking and waiting but I knew that once I was moving wearing anything more would have been too warm. At a few minutes after 8:00am the bell rang and we were off. The downhill start was easy and I quickly fell into a running rhythm. Boy, the flat run felt so easy compared to the hills at Hinckley, this was going to be a great race, oops I mean training run. As you might expect, I started off too quickly and my game plan quickly went up in smoke. At around 1:50 race time I hit the 13.1 mile mark. That's a damn good pace for me and certainly not a pace I should have been running at for a 26.2 mile distance. At least not with the training I had logged. It was such a beautiful fall day, the sun was low in the sky and the trees cast long shadows across the crushed limestone surface of the Towpath. I was in the moment and enjoying myself along the way. Until mile 16.
At mile 16, I noticed that my legs were starting to feel a little heavy. I checked my heart rate and it had crept up higher than it should have been. I slowed down, took deeper breaths and my heart rate started to settle down. My pace dropped to about a 9:40/mile and I needed to get back into my quicker turnover rhythm and settle into a 9:00 pace. I pushed on the gas and the response wasn't good, I felt slow and heavy. I hit an aid station and downed a gel and sports drink. This additional race nutrition helped me make it to mile 18 but significantly slower than planned. Now it was a race for survival. If you've have ever ran this far you know that the mind starts working on you. The dark thoughts from questioning why you are there to quitting come crashing in. I have said that sometimes controlling these thoughts are as hard as the physical effort of running. Ultimately, the lack of training for this distance and going out too quickly was starting to take its toll. Miles 19-22 were a combination of walk 1/10 run the rest. At mile 22 I started to get the twinge of calf cramps and could only run for short spurts to stave off the cramps. This went on until mile 25 when I finally got my second wind and ran into the finish for a respectable 4:29 marathon with little training. I'll take it.
Some highlights of the race: The CVNP is beautiful. The volunteers are awesome. The run surface is easy on the body. Seeing Judie and Lisa at mile 17 sporting signs and cheering me on gave me a lift in spirits. Todd Smith harassing me on the way out and walking with me on the return trip offering encouragement when I needed it. Suzanne asking me when we passed each other if I hated her for talking me into signing up. The solitude and quiet of running on the Towpath.
Some lowlights of the race: The solitude and quiet of running on the Towpath, the flat and straight doesn't keep the mind occupied long and gets boring. The stretch from miles 18-22 just seems to not want to end. Wrestling the demons that creep into your head when things start to hurt.
I'll wrap this report up the way I wrapped up my 2011 Towpath Marathon. "That's a long f'in way to run. I'll never do that again." Wait, there's an early signup discount?
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