Monumental Marathon 2011

By: Mike Putman

First, let me say Monumental is a great race. Course is generally pretty flat, with the exception of miles 15-18. Last portion is a bit deceptive as the elevation change looks flat, but it feels worse than it is. 2+ miles to the finish is great as you run down the primary road leading to the heart of downtown Indy and have plenty of crowd support since you link back up with the half-marathoners.  The only downside is that the supporters are pretty sporadic through much of the middle stages of the race, but there are lots of things to look at, especially through miles 13-18 as you run through a district of historic homes and Butler University. They also didn’t have Gatorade at multiple stations in the late stages which seemed strange. Anyway, to my race…

Plan was to go out slower than goal pace, catch the 3:15 group somewhere around mile 8, run with them through mile 13, then reassess how I felt at that point. If it was going well, I was going to try and run away from them through the last half. Secretly, my goal/hope was to catch the 3:10 group around mile 24 if I felt good, but I didn’t think the odds of that were very good.

Temp was about 38 at the start. Only downside was the 15 m.p.h. wind directly from the south, which meant most of the last 2.5 miles would be into the wind. First two miles felt pretty good and the clock read 14:56 through 2 with the 3:15 group about 25 yards ahead. Since I was feeling pretty good, I decided to catch up to and run with the group, which was pretty large. Guessing 25-30 people. The pacer (Tony) was doing his best to keep everyone running at pace, and had to reign the group in a few times as people were trying to push the pace. On that note, there was one really annoying guy who was complaining that the pace was off (after we slowed down a little because we had previously been running too fast) and the fact that his Garmin said that the mile markers were off.  Advice to him: shut up and run.

Gel #1 at mile 6 (plan was 6, 12, 17, and 22). Just past mile 7, there is a little downhill. I felt good and was tired of the necessity of running faster/slower due to the people in the group and I ran down it and moved ahead of the pace group.  I was trying not to push too fast and got into a pretty comfortable rhythm. Would love to say what my splits were, but since I don’t wear a watch, I have no idea. I just knew I was ahead of the 3:15 group. Gu again at 12 as planned, but I was starting to feel a little tightness, so I started using the fluids from my belt. Felt pretty good through the half, but was a little nervous about tightness in my legs, so I decided to change strategy and really focus on hydration and modified the Gu strategy to 16, 19, and 22. Strangely, they didn’t have clocks at the half or at multiple points through middle stages of the race.  I didn’t want to look back and see the pace group right behind me, so I just kept going at what I felt was a comfortable, but fairly quick pace. Made it through the hilly section (miles 15-18) by just settling in and cruising up the hills as I wanted to conserve for the finish. Achilles, which I have been nursing all training, gave me a little pain towards the end of the climb, but either I forgot about it or it just went away because I don’t remember it at all after one brief section. Gu at 16 as planned.

I must have conserved a lot (meaning I slowed down) because on the downhill just past the 30k mark, I looked up the hill to see the 3:15 pace group about 300 meters behind me. I decided it was put up or shut up time because: a) I wanted to give myself a bigger cushion in case I ran into trouble in the late stages (like last year when the 3:20 group caught me at mile 25) and b) I really didn’t want them to catch me at all. Must have taken a Gu somewhere in here because I didn’t have any left after the race, but don’t remember doing it. Passed through 20 mile marker, which actually had a clock, at exactly 2:25. I had my doubts about running a 45 minute 10k at that point, but figured I had a decent cushion so that if I bonked, I could still probably BQ.

Enter Paxton Bennett. I was pushing pretty hard and starting to hurt, but suddenly got passed by a guy who was moving at a pretty good clip. I decided to go with him and stayed within 10 yards through 21. He walked the water stop and I was able to pass him. Shortly after, he caught me again and asked if I wanted to run together. I ended up running with him for a good portion of what is typically the most difficult part of the race for me. Took the last Gu at 22. No clue what pace we were running other than at one point, Paxton mentioned we might want to slow down because his Garmin showed that at that moment we were at a sub-7:00 pace. Just past mile 23 we turned the corner for the home stretch and got blasted in the face by the wind I mentioned earlier. Not much to do but push as hard as I could until the final turns somewhere around 25.75.  Somewhere between 24 and 25 I slowed and lost my personal pacer, but tried to keep him in sight because I knew he was shooting for sub 3:10.  I felt better once I turned the corner about a half mile from the finish since I didn’t have to fight the wind and was able to pick it up again. As I was approaching the last turn I was just thinking about finishing as strong as I could and looking for my family. I really wanted to run the last 150 meters with my son and had told my wife to try and position herself outside the barriers just in case this could happen. However, when I turned the last corner, the clock was at 3:10 and I knew I had 20-25 seconds to potentially beat my BQ by 5 minutes and get the early registration. So, I waved to the family and lowered the hammer for what I hoped was a sprint, but probably looked (and felt) more like Frankenstein trying to move fast.  There was a lot of rumbling and stumbling (Chris Berman), but not much quickness. Crossed the finish line at 3:10.23 on the clock and had to hope at that point that I made it. About five minutes later as I was standing and talking to my wife, she got the text update that said 3:09.58.

Boston, here I come.