Columbus Marathon 2010

By: Brian Sammons

Race Eve:

Saturday night Chris, Amy & I dined at Trattoria Roma in Grandview Heights.  Nearby a youthful Chris, with more hair, was sucker punched by another kid for talking to his girlfriend in band class (yes Chris was a band geek), but I digress.  The spaghetti & meatballs were great and reasonably priced ($12.95).  On the way back to the hotel I made a decision which may have helped many of us, I had Chris drop me off near our hotel at Du Amici (Italian Restaurant) and met a friend of mine Toye and her husband Chris.  Chris is a member of a team of runners who pace marathons throughout the country. This was the first time I had met Chris face to face and the meeting may have spurred him to call me Monday when everyone was having trouble getting into Boston, he’s who forwarded the link we used to get in!

Pre-Race Routine:

I woke up at 5:00 for the 7:30 race to allow me to go through my pre-race routine without having to hurry.  I ate a double bowl of instant oatmeal and drank a cup of coffee all by about 5:45am.  After a shower I ate a ½ bagel with peanut butter as well as a whole banana, I really don’t think you can eat too much pre-marathon. At 6:45am I met Chris and Amy in the hotel gym for a warm up.  I ran for 5 minutes easy but progressed and ran the last tenth or so at 7:30 pace just to wake the legs up, then a quick trip back to the room to change into my race singlet, do light stretching, style my Donald Trump comb over, and hit the head.  We headed down towards the start line at about 7:15 where I downed half a cliff bar and took some swigs of the bottle of Gatorade.

Race Concerns:

As most of you know I’ve been dealing with a plethora of nagging injuries for the entire year, none of which completely healed because I’m an idiot and wouldn’t take the time off that was necessary, here they are:

-Adductors (right side) –injured “turning back the clock” on the basketball court in February.

-Right side hip flexors – I’m quite sure this was a compensatory injury related to the above, these started bothering me around March or April.

-right side hammy –tight on and off all year.

-Inside of my right knee, likely the Sartorius (sp?) the longest muscle in the body. I hurt this last week because I needed something else to worry about.

-Tendons on top of my left foot.  As a result of this I had to run the last 7 days including the Marathon without tying the top 2 rows of my shoe!

-GI issues started in July and plagued me on many a long run.

-I missed TOO MANY long and/or tough runs (marathon pace stuff) and felt this would come back to haunt me late in the race, and I believe it did.  I ran 2-20 milers while training and they were July 30^th & August 28^th! To go after 3:10, at my age and ability, I think I need more.

Fueling Strategy:

First and foremost I believe in being stuffed like a Thanksgiving Turkey on race day (see above), during the race I also believe in staying ahead of the curve and fueling regular, I believe this helped me at Kiawah, and helped me in Columbus.  However due to the aforementioned GI issues I had to adjust my race strategy somewhat and lay off the GU early. I planned on using Shot Bloks & Gu Chomps during the first half and if I felt my stomach could handle it GU in the second half. Last and most obvious STAY HYDRATED.  The race organization itself helped quite a bit in this regard as there were 21 fueling stations on the course!  That’s one every 1.2 miles, very impressive! As usual I walked for 20 yards or so upon grabbing the fuel to ensure I didn’t spill any. Early in the race I mixed the water & Gatorade pretty evenly, late I used mostly water to help wash down GU.

Weather:

I give the weather an A-; it was similar to Marine Corps 2008 for those of you who ran it.  47 degrees at the start with a slight breeze (I was comfortable in a singlet & gloves), warming to the low 60’s at the finish, which combined with the sunshine made it a little warm the last few miles.

The Course:

As advertised flat and fast.  Kiawah of course was flatter, as was Chicago, and I sure felt the slight upgrades late, but it’s definitely not hilly! It’s also a “pretty” course that goes through some of Columbus’ nicer neighborhoods, historic areas,  THE Ohio State University, Upper Arlington (birthplace of Jack Nicklaus and Beverly D’Angelo…um the mother from the Vacation movies! ), Grandview Heights (birthplace of the legends in their own minds Brian & Chris Sammons), and finishes in The Arena District where the Columbus Blue Jackets hockey team resides.

Goal:

Since Kiawah my goal for Columbus has been run 3:10 or better, this is my hometown, I wanted to give it all I had.  I can get extremely focused and dedicated when I set a goal, and in this case that focus…or stubbornness, probably did more harm than good.  If I had rested and taken care of myself properly the first quarter of the year, I think I could have been healthy and perhaps been in a bit better condition for this race, but I was impatient and kept trying to run through the injuries.  This is best illustrated by the mileage rollercoaster I was on throughout training, for instance starting the last week of June my mileage was,  10, 34, 45, 40, 23, 5, 29, 50, 42, 26….you get the picture?  That said I still judged my fitness to be in the 3:15-3:25 range.  I felt comparable to how I felt at Kiawah last year for 20 miles, but didn’t have confidence that I could hold up physically late.  I’m also about 4 lbs lighter than Kiawah and figured that would help.  So taking all that into account I decided to at least give myself a shot at 3:10 and hope I’d shut it down in time if I wasn’t capable of it.

The Race…Finally!

Miles 1-3: START OFF EASY!  Chris and I started off together and had a good time early chatting, talking to the spectators (even seeing one of my 6^th grade camp counselors), and trying to ease into the run.  The course headed straight east into Bexley,  and by the Governor’s mansion.  I knew Chris had a sub 1:40 in him and he looked good early!  My left foot was bothering me (the partially laced one) but that soon went away and never returned.  Our miles were 7:43, 7:36, 7:40 for an average right around 7:40 or a low 3:20 pace.

4-6:  I started feeling a little racier in here, but not great.  Chris and I were still close together with him passing me when I fueled.  Miles 4 & 5 were still relatively easy but by mile 6 I knew I had to start picking up the pace a little to have a shot at 3:10, miles 4-6 went by in 7:27, 7:36, 7:18 (7:27 avg), the 7:18 pace is what my overall pace would need to be in order to run 3:10.

I passed the 10k mark in 47:14, which is a 7:37 pace or 3:19ish overall and my hip flexors started to bother me.  Chris was 4 seconds behind me at this point in 47:18.  Overall in the race I was in 675^th place out of 4,113 marathoners at 10k.

7-9:  The crowds were good at this point (granted they were pretty good most of the way), I tried to relax, run good miles, and not think about the 20 miles I had left. I continued to interact with the crowd and give the bands cheers, all the while trying to ignore the hip and keep the stride efficient.  This section of the course is one of the older parts Columbus, it’s known as German Village (we nicknamed it “Gerbil Village”, but we won’t go into why) and is filled with narrow roads, some brick, brew houses, and restaurants.  I clicked off 7:22, 7:14, and 7:07 miles. The 7:07 is evidence of me feeling a bit behind on pace and trying too hard too early to catch up.

10-13.1:  I knew the only chance I had at running 3:10 was to come through the half at 1:37 or better, I don’t have the speed the artist formerly known as the E-train has so I knew I wasn’t going to bust a 1:31 or 1:32 second half.  I did some quick calculations and knew I had to keep pushing it to get there, I also already suspected at this point that I didn’t have what it took, but I pushed on anyhow back towards downtown and the halfway point of the race.  My miles were 7:11, 7:02, 7:13, 6:58…um yes 6:58 for mile 13, also known as going too fast.  Defending myself a bit, I was going with the rolls on the course as I went, so the reason the miles fluctuate so much is some miles were slightly downhill, some slightly up, but I do fear some of these middle miles cost me a minute or two overall.   I came through the half in 1:36:55, on pace for 3:13:50.  Time wise I was about where I wanted to be, maybe 30 seconds or so behind, but physically my hip flexor was screaming whenever I took a wrong step, and I was feeling a bit fatigued.  It probably didn’t help that I hadn’t taken GU at this point.  Per the marathon website I passed 89 runners from 10k to 13.1 and was passed by 11, so I was moving up!

14-16:  At this stage of my last 2 marathons (Marine Corps & Kiawah) I felt like a caged lion ready to explode, this time I felt like I was grinding out the miles.  Along the side of the road just past the halfway in the Short North section of the town I spotted some friendly faces, 3 or my favorite cousins, Valerie, Scott, and Joe were perched along the side of the road screaming for me!  I was also entering campus, maybe I’d start feeling better? I decided at this point that I was going to stick with my goal of trying for 3:10 until mile 16 or 18, and if it wasn’t there then to back off and run 7:30’s and try to PR. My splits were 7:14, 7:16, 7:07.

17-20:  THE Ohio State University section of the race was filled with many memory’s, granted most of those memories can’t be written here as we want to keep this PG 13 J…  “Oh wait there’s the place  where drunk Brian and Chris got into fisticuffs with each other behind the Law Building in front of a gathering crowd…Oh there’s “The Oval”, where the young ladies would sun themselves at the first sign of spring…Oh there’s the place little innocent 19 year old Brian was Cougar’d by a 28 year old…what…, that’s right PG 13 J, where was I…oh yeah…pain.  My right knee had started to bother me at mile 10 and by 17 or 18 it had gotten very sore and stiff.  Near Ohio Stadium, due to construction, we had to make a very tight left hairpin turn, I decided to try to make this as swooping and round as possible to maintain speed, but in doing so put a great deal of pressure on the very part of my knee that is injured.  The pain for those two or three steps was excruciating and it would bother me the rest of the race, in particular on left turns.  My splits were 7:00, 7:07 (adrenaline & slight downhill for these two), 7:31, 7:24.  Miles 19 & 20 were the toughest of the race with gradual climbs on both of them.  I was basically done after these two and looking for reasons to keep pushing.  From 13.1 through 20 I passed 89 runners and was passed by 9 according to the website.

21-24:  The Upper Arlington and Grandview sections.  I knew these next 4 miles or so like Diane knows wine, like Dr. Ashenfarb knows my groin, like Jelly Rolle knows pastries, like…well you get the point.  I grew up here.  I had hoped all along that this would help me, I knew that it was basically flat or downhill from here through Grandview, I also knew I didn’t want to walk in front of anyone I grew up with.  Understand I didn’t get some glorious adrenaline rush, I was baked, this is where missing all those long runs, consistent mileage, tough workouts, all came back to haunt me. But what the neighborhood did do was make me tougher.  I refused to quit. I knew I wasn’t running 3:10 but I was going to run as hard as I could until I couldn’t run another step. I kept passing people and kept putting one foot in front of the other.  I ran down 1^st Avenue where we all cruised in High School, I ran past the spot my good buddy Tom started his epic flee away from the police, buzzed on beer and out  past his curfew, as I listened on radio of the policeman questioning me. I ran past my pony league baseball field where I saw Kenny Lester hit a home run in an all star game ¾’s of the way up a light post in left center field, Kenny died in a car accident while I was still in high school.  On this day these miles were my last hurrah and I wasn’t walking, I ran them in 7:19, 7:13, 7:20, and 7:19.

25 -26.2:  Out of Grandview and into Bonksville- I really had nothing left, throw in some mini-climbs, and this was all about refusing to walk, concentrating on form, and ending the pain as soon as possible.  Mile 25 I ran 7:40,  mile 26 with some downhill towards the end was 7:36, my final .39 was ran at a 6:59 pace, most of which was downhill with the last section on an old brick road. As much as I struggled I passed 85 runners the last 6.2 miles and was only passed by 2.

Post race:

Battered but satisfied, I was as spent as I’ve been after any race, not sick like I felt after Chicago & Marine Corps, but every bit as used up, when I finished I knew that on that day I had run 26.2 as fast as I could. At the finish line I received the finishers’ medal from a classmate who used to try to talk me into running cross-country in high school, it was an interesting proposition at the time, problem was, I never saw myself as a runner.

Final numbers:

-Officially I ran a 3:13:27 Columbus Marathon (7:23 pace), that’s a 2:25 PR!

-Per the garmin I ran 26.39 miles at a 7:20 pace.

-I negative split for the 3^rd time in my 4 marathons 1:36:55 for the first half and 1:36:32 for the second, I’m quite proud of this.  The only time I didn’t negative was my first marathon, the 2007 Chicago debacle.

-Overall I came in 290^th out of 4,113 finishers and 35^th out of 422 in the 40-44 age group.

-Jason Orday won the marathon an Olympic Trials qualifying time 2:18:08!

-Erin Kaledina won for the fairer sex in 2:44:20 which I think also meets the trials standard!

-Chris ran a great race and came in at 1:38:07 for the half, with a negative split, if he stays healthy and trains smart I think he has a Boston Qualifier in him!

-Amy ran 2:15:54, an 18 minute PR!