Well y’all … I did it! My first postpartum marathon (and first marathon in almost 4 years) is in the books. I ran the California International Marathon (CIM) in 2:55:48. Consider the band-aid ripped!
I find it a little tricky to dive headfirst into a race recap without some background. Let’s catch up on what life and training have looked like in the last 4 years! Kidding, kidding. No one has time for that! I actually did a decent job of recapping some of the more granular details of my training cycle, so I think I first want to take a step back and look at the training cycle as a whole.
The Training Cycle
I started my “base” building in mid-August and shifted more into an official marathon training cycle towards the end of September. I did six 20+ mile runs (more than in the past!). Within those six long runs there were 60 miles run at marathon pace. My tally comes up to about 60 miles with an average marathon pace of 6:40. I also did quite a bit of threshold work during this training cycle. My tally comes up to about 55 miles with an average threshold pace of 6:05. There were also several shorter, quicker one minute on, two minutes on, etc. type of workouts sprinkled in as well. I did not do any sort of tally on those. Such a slacker. I know.
One thing that stands out to me as I am doing this deeper dive into my training cycle is that there didn’t seem to be as much tangible progress throughout the cycle. For example, my first big threshold workout at the end of August was 8 X 1k and I averaged 5:59 pace. My last big threshold workout in the middle of December was 7 X 1 mile and I also averaged exactly 5:59 pace. Also, my first marathon pace workout at the end of August had 6 miles at marathon pace and I averaged 6:47 pace. My last marathon pace workout had 10 miles at marathon pace and I averaged 6:49. My fitness was in a really good spot at the beginning of the cycle, but typically you would still expect to see more progress throughout the training cycle.
I might’ve been overreaching a tad in my training. I know for sure that I felt more tired and more run down than I ever recall feeling during a marathon training cycle in the past. Granted my life looks a good bit different at this point than it has during past training cycles! Training for a marathon while working full time and being a mom is A LOT.
CIM is advertised as one of the fastest races in the country, but I will politely disagree. While there is technically a net downhill of approximately 300 feet, there is over 600 feet of uphill in there as well! According to one website, “The net downhill, point-to-point California International Marathon (CIM) course is one of the fastest courses in the country. It has long been a popular destination for runners seeking PRs and BQs. The fast course coupled with typically favorable weather, makes the California International Marathon one of the best races for PRs and BQs.” In my humble opinion, a “fast” course is a pancake flat course!
However, I have always known that CIM had rolling hills and I trained accordingly. My elevation gain for this year-to-date according to Strava is over 82k feet, so I definitely run on some hills. In my mind, I was training on way more intense hills than what I would encounter in the race. In reality, this was not the case and I wasn’t as prepared as I would’ve liked to have been. This is not to dismiss my training at all, because I put in a lot of work. Really what I needed was just more time. When I registered for CIM, I was taking a huge gamble on myself and holding on to the tiniest glimmer of hope that maybe, just maybe, I’d have the training cycle of a lifetime and somehow shave 12 minutes off of my personal best. Realistic? No. Have crazier things happened? Probably.
Now that I have sufficiently rambled on about my training, let’s get to the race … shall we?!
The Race Plan
My race plan was to start out at approximately 6:35 pace. Due to the rolling nature of the course, I was expecting to see splits anywhere plus or minus 10 seconds from this pace. The goal was to run relaxed and be patient in the first half. At halfway, I planned to run closer to 6:30 pace with less variation as the course flattens out somewhat. The goal was to run with purpose and be gritty in the second half. At mile 21 (after the last small incline), I planned to negative split each mile. Of course this is absolutely easier said than done! If I executed this plan with exact precision, I had a shot at a small PR (I needed to run faster than 2:49:16). That was my A goal.
I had a very specific fueling plan as well. I recently tried out the Gatorade Gx sweat patch. I’ve been running for 20+ years and never taken a sweat test! My sweat rate is low (this part didn’t surprise me), but my sodium concentration is moderate (30 mg per ounce), meaning that I need to take in more sodium than I previously realized. I estimated that I would lose 15 oz. of sweat per hour. Running for approximately 3 hours meant that I needed 45 oz. X 30 mg per ounce = 1,440 mg of sodium! Wowza. My fueling plan was to take 12 oz. of water each hour, which meant I needed to get at least 2 oz. of water at every aid station along the course. The plan was to alternate Huma and Maurten gels every 25 minutes, as this is what I trained with. Maurten gels have a negligible amount of sodium, so my salt intake was coming primarily from the Huma gels. I wish I had realized all of this sooner! Next time around, I will not be using Maurten gels at all. Give me all the salt!
The Actual Race
Race morning came with an early wake up of 3 a.m. PST (5 a.m. CST). We had to load the busses at 4:30 a.m. and had to walk a little less than a mile to get there. I ate a banana and a bagel and drank about 12 oz. of coffee in the room while we got ready. We arrived in Folsom about an hour and a half before the race started. We got off of the bus to go to the bathroom, then got back on the bus to stay warm and stay off of our feet. I ate graham crackers and drank 12 oz. of water with Nuun while we waited. Pro tip: make your Nuun the night before and put it in the fridge overnight to eliminate the carbonation on race morning!
The weather on race day left a little bit to be desired. It was mid fifties at the start and mid sixties by the end with high humidity. Granted, these are the exact conditions that I trained in most of the training cycle, so it wasn’t terrible! I was just really hoping for the as advertised “typically favorable weather.” I think it is usually in the low to mid forties with less humidity. But alas, this is not the hand we were dealt this year.
Let’s break this thing down into 5Ks!
1st 5K – 20:14 (6:30 pace): I was getting passed by a steady stream of runners and having a hard time settling in with a pack. I had a seeded bib, which put me in the corral with a bunch of really fast people. In hindsight, I really wished I had moved back into a regular corral.
2nd 5K – 19:47 (6:23 pace): I took my first Huma gel at about 25 minutes into the race and finally seemed to find a couple women to work with. One of them was of another McKirdy Trained athlete (shoutout to Kat!). We chatted briefly and discovered that we essentially had the same race plan. Her presence was very calming and we worked together for several miles. She’s in the green crop top and black shorts (same as me!).
3rd 5K – 20:42 (6:41 pace): I was running almost exactly what the race plan called for, but already knew that it felt harder than it should. I took a Maurten gel at 50 minutes in. I don’t know if it was because I was in my head about the sodium intake, but I distinctly remember feeling like the Maurten gel didn’t give me any sort of “boost.”
4th 5K – 20:25 (6:35 pace): I came through half with Kat exactly on pace at 1:25:31. I took my third gel a little bit early at 70 minutes (instead of at 75 minutes).
5th 5K – 20:25 (6:35 pace): The course flattened out a bit, but my energy also seemed to flatten out as well. I was scheduled to take a Maurten at an hour and forty minutes in, but ended up taking another Huma instead. Unfortunately this was my last Huma gel! I knew I was going to need more sodium, so I grabbed a Gu salted lime gel from one of the on-course fueling stations.
6th 5K – 21:33 (6:57 pace): Things started to kind of fall apart at this point. My splits were fading and I was working harder than I needed to be to maintain a slowing pace. My stomach also started to feel questionable. While it wasn’t an all out emergency, I decided to make a pit stop in hopes that I would feel more comfortable afterwards. I also took my next Maurten gel at two hours in, continuing with the theme of taking them a little earlier than planned.
7th 5K – 21:21 (6:53 pace): The original plan was to pick it up once I got to mile 20. This changed to just hold on for dear life and don’t let the wheels fall off completely. I took my last gel (the salted lime Gu) and prayed it would be enough to sustain me until the end.
8th 5K – 22:09 (7:09 pace): The last 5K felt like sweet, sweet relief. I knew I was *almost* there and I knew most of my wheels were still in tact (as opposed to falling off completely). My heart rate came back down a little bit during the last 5K as well. Looking back I feel like I could’ve pushed myself more in the last few miles, but in the moment I was doing everything I could!
My finishing time was 2:55:48 (6:39 pace!). Remember what my marathon pace miles averaged out to be in training? Yep! 6:40. I guess you might say that I ran exactly what my training indicated I was capable of! While I didn’t hit my A goal, in the back of my mind, I knew going into the race that I wasn’t in the best shape of my life. When I ran 2:49 in Indy, I was consistently able to run 17:20 in the 5K. I haven’t run faster than 18:20 in the 5K since becoming a mom. The shorter distance stuff is typically my stronger suit (I realize that this may change a tad with age). My shorter distance races typically predict a much faster marathon than I am able to run. This training cycle, I was holding out hope that my shorter distance races predicted exactly what I would be able to run. For some people, this might be the case, but I am not one of those people.
Random Takeaways
- The marathon is hard. It’s also not my favorite distance to race!
- Travelling to races is overrated. Local races are underrated.
- CIM is overrated (hot take!).
- Humidity is dumb and I am a salty sweater.
- Rebecca is an awesome friend! I am so thankful that she travelled with me!
- I should not be in charge of booking airline travel.
- Strength training can be fun!
- It is difficult to keep a marathon race recap very concise! My apologies.
Whew. It is time to get back to some shorter distance races! Stay tuned!