Portland Marathon 2009 Race Report

2 Hours Before The Race

The race started at 7:00am an 8 minute walk from the hotel. Damon and I were rooming together and the alarm was set for 5:00 am (the phone and the hotel clock alarm). We’d laid out our clothes and everything was ready for race day and were going to meet some of the rest of the crew at 6:15 in the lobby to head out to the bag drop and start line. Pre-race breakfast was a bottle of vitamin water and two slices of bread with Nutella. The only thing really different from other long runs was the bottle of vitamin water. That was all done around 5:40. Then at 6:00 was the first pre-race GU and two thermolyte pills. My bag for the post race bag drop had a couple of layers for my upper body, a pair of cargo pants and my recovery drink. The temperature for the race was predicted to be in the upper 40s to lower 50s so race gear consisted of:

• Race shorts, singlet, shoes, socks, GU & thermolytes
• Watch, a standard stop watch that laps … no Garmin on race days for me
• Throw away arm warmers (cut off tube socks), throw away gloves, running vest to keep warm pre start and throw away sweat pants (pair I’ve had with me since my time living in the UK … 16 years!)
• Water bottle to avoid the rush at stops early in the race

Got down to the lobby at 6:10 and met up with a number of Team Roguers. Larry and I were both trying to great 2:50 but both decided a few weeks ago that we wouldn’t run together since we have very different running styles and race plans. We all made our way out of the hotel, quick left, then down 3rd street to the start. Larry and I started jogging half way there to warm up, found our way to the bag drop and then made our way to the start.

Start Line

As we got closer to the front we could see the pace group signs, pretty close to each other, and before we knew it we were all the way in the front, ahead of the 3:00 hour pace group and with a red tape in front of us, in front of that some empty space, then another red tape and the timing mats ahead of that. As we get up to the red tape one of the volunteers says, anybody running faster than 3:00 hours should come up in front of the first red tape. Larry and I look at each other and then make our way up. It’s very strange to be so far up front in a race. The Portland marathon doesn’t seem to attract the fastest folks apparently. It’s 6:30 and we need to warm up so we leave the start area, run around a block and then back to our spot. Slowly it starts filling up and the “elites” line up in front of the second red tape. It was a very strange feeling being in the 2nd row at the start of a marathon with 8000 people.

The Gun Goes Off

This was a bit of a cluster. The Portland Marathon has a “wave” start. Note that all the tape that was dividing people is now gone. Ok, I guess that makes sense. The wheelchairs go off and then of course most people assume the countdown for everybody else … NO that would not be the case. We were far enough in front to hear that the next start was for the elites only, everybody else would go a minute later. So the gun goes off again for the elites and probably 15 to 20 other people go along for the ride since the “wave” start was so confusing. One guy next to me gets pissed off, I’m like whatever, this is the least of my worries … I’m not wasting any energy getting worked up over this. Then the gun goes off for us.

And We’re Off

The start is almost a fifth to a quarter mile up-hill, followed by a hard right turn and decent. Damon, Muz and I had walked the start two days before so I knew what to expect and I wore my Garmin at that time to know where the quarter and half mile points were to gauge my pace initially.

The First Section: Miles 1 through 8

In my race plan (read here) I broke the race up into a five sections. The first section was intended to be at “MGP” effort for a 2:49:59 marathon which on a flat course would be 6:29 minutes/mile. Even though the first mile was net downhill I planned on not going faster than flat MGP pace since it was the first mile and I’d need to warm up. Overall the section worked relatively well, as I would have expected.

Miles 1 to 8

The hill between mile 2 and 3 was tougher than I expected but the second mile wasn’t as difficult as the course profile from the marathon web-site (which by the way is very misleading as far as what is really going on at many points in the course) so I was net 2 seconds off. Once the downhill section ended I had trouble getting back into pace until the end of mile 8 so lost some time overall in the section. I realized this but didn’t really worry about it, I figured it’s time I could try and make up later on if things work out, no point going crazy right now.

I dropped my running vest (an Austin distance challenge finisher vest from when I ran the Motorola Marathon in 2004) after the first mile, then the gloves and arm warmers right before mile 3. Thermolytes (2 pills) with my water bottle around 1.5 miles in (this was planned and written on my pace band as were all other planned times to GU and take termolytes) and then threw away the water bottle since there wasn’t much of a crowd in front of me.

Some of the highlights of this part of the course:

• Saw Steve’s mom before mile 2 cheering us on.
• On the turn up mile 2 I noticed my foot was slipping on the road. It had been drizzling and the road was wet and this was an early reminder to try and stay off the painted road surfaces and on the wetter and sliprier surfaces like concrete.
• On the down hill, mile 4 to 6 saw Steve’s mom again as well as Julia, John and Trey
• Got a bunch of “Go Kam”’s from people on the side since the bib had “Kam” printed on it and also a few “G0 Team Rogue”’s because of the singlet.
• At the water stop at mile 6 to 7 the guy infront of me came to a complete stop, I yelled “Holy $#!t” weaved around him and unfortunately knocked into one of the girls handling out water. What is going on, this guy is running 6:30 paces and is STOPPING AT A WATER STOP!!!. Wait, now as I look at that mile it was 6:36, a few seconds off. Not sure if that was the reason or not but it did distract me a little.

The Second Section: Miles 9 through 13

This was the section where I planned to bank some time for the big hill between 16 and 18. This section had some up-hill so I was hoping to be faster than flat MGP for 4 of the miles.

Miles 9 to 13

Coming into this section I was 16 seconds off and coming out I was 32 seconds behind. It seemed like mile mark 9 was of to me, or I was breaking down. At mile 11 I felt good since I was able to pick up my pace and not really feel like I was going to crazy. What really hit me was the next uphill climb, it was a lot tougher and longer than I expected and I lost quite a bit of time there and was almost 40 seconds behind. BTW, I wasn’t really thinking in this much detail at this point. As long as I was within a minute of where I needed to be I felt I had a chance of breaking 2:50 so this was all still good.

In this section there were a number rail track to cross. My left foot got caught first and I started feeling some discomfort in the arch on my left foot, nothing to stop me running but something was tweaked. Then my right foot got completely caught, I stumbled and my foot came out and I kept going. On this second one I was grateful for some of my trail runs that taught me to be light on my feet and keep my feet relatively loose so there wouldn’t be too much damage if my foot gave way.

The Third Section: Miles 14 to 18

This section has the big hill and the goal was to each my effort back to a flat based effort. I expected to loose some time on the up-hill.

Miles 14 to 18

I felt good this entire section. I was within range of a couple of folks and just ran and tried to stay comfortable. Looking back it seems the build up to the hill and the hill were harder for me than I thought they were. When I ran the hill I felt great. I think I passed 10 people on that hill. After the hill and crest on the bridge nobody managed to pass me on the race which was pretty cool. The section overall was fine, I was still around 30 seconds off which was very reasonable to try and make up if I felt good. At this point I was thinking I just need to get back into my pace for a couple of miles and then see if I can push a little earlier than I planned to make up the 30 seconds.

Fourth Section: Miles 19 to 22

In this winding section through a neighborhood the original plan was to run it at MGP of 6:29. About a mile into this section I heard lots of cheering, the lead woman was right ahead of me. I did manage to pass here. After looking at some of the stats post marathon I passed 30 people in the last half of the marathon and nobody passed me … that was kind of cool. I think Damon passed 100 people!

Miles 19 to 22

This section is where the wheels came off. As I sated in my race plan I started the season at the end of April hoping to get over my injury ridden training season for Boston 2009 … which I ended up not running because of tendonitis and to try and break 2:55 in Portland. After the second race prep results and talking with Steve I decided to drop my target to 2:50. This is 10 seconds a mile faster which is a lot. Both the time and running aggressively and out of my comfort zone where my goals. Well I definitely managed to get out of my comfort zone. Mile 19 was a little off, and then slowly by mile 21 I was 10 seconds off pace. These were very uncomfortable miles, my legs weren’t responding, I felt some soreness and twitching in my quads and I felt like I was pushing my effort but was running slower and slower.

I was reminded of a few things at this point:

• Steve knows I can enter my “cocoon” of comfort. My backoff plan was 6:40 pace which is what I was running. I told myself NO, you have to try.
• I remembered Ruth’s text from the morning “Run like the wind” and all the positive comments from everybody else in the weeks leading up to the race and tried to push.

I relaxed, seemed like my GU and thermolytes from mile 20 were kicking in and Mile 22 was 6:32 so getting better and at this point I decided that with 2.2 miles to go I would go as hard as I could.

The Race to the Finish

This is where I planned to make up some time on the nice long downhill section.

Miles 23 to 26.2

The downhill mile 23 should have been blazing fast but I lost 20 seconds on it. The road curved around to the left my left foot hurt on every foot strike at this point and the downhill as well as the turn was aggravating it. I pushed as hard as I could but that’s all I had. My final GU and termolyte (of 6 GUs in the race and 5 sets of 2 pills of thermoloytes) from mile 22 seemed to kick in for the finish as well. Managed to recover some and saw Julia and John on around 24 and after the 24 mile mark felt like I was trying to sprint as hard as I could. It’s amazing that sprinting as hard as I could ended up being 6:19 my final 1.2 miles (I didn’t split it at mile 26). Half way into mile 25 I started picking a few people off. We rounded the curve after the 40k mark and there was one person ahead of me that I hoped to catch. I caught him, passed him and keep going. I turned right and then left into downtown Portland and then heard something along these lines from the announcer … “another Austin Runner, Kamran Shah with a 7 minute PR”

The Result

I finished with an 8 minute PR of 2:51:08 over CIM last year (2:59:09) and finished 41st overall (remember this race doesn’t attract the fastest folks). This was emotionally the most satisfying race I’ve ever run, I was way out of my comfort zone and even when it looked like I was about to break apart I was able to keep going.

Oh, since they go 15 deep in age group awards I also walked away with a little hardware … which I did take a picture of but I think I left in Portland somewhere

Thank you all for the support and good luck wishes leading to this race. A big thank you to Steve and Ruth for a truly great training group with Team Rogue and the Rogue community. Last but not least to all the members of Team Rogue for the early mornings of training and keeping me honest and motivated.

CIM – The good and the bad on the marathon

This is my take on the race and it’s different aspects, not all of them but the ones that stood out.

The Course: A-
Fast but not as fast as a quick look at the profile on the site suggests. There are some serious rolling hills and if you go fast ok the downhill you will pay the price with your quads. The last 6 miles are blazing fast as long as you run a smart race.

Busses: A
They came to the hotel. School busses and they were heated. Best part, when we got to the start they idled and left the heating on … and you could sit in them and stay warm till the start.

Porta Potties: A+
The start had 250 of them all lined up. Plenty for the number of runners, I’ve never seen this at any other race.

Start: A
Very wide road and start.

Water Stops: C-
Very inconsistent. The early ones had plastic cups Whig were very hard to use. At some stops it was water first an then Cytomax and at others the reverse order. At some the cytomax cups had cytomax and at others those had water. Some had 3 tables and 15 people and some had one table with 2 people. You just didn’t know what you were going to get.

Mile Markers: A+
Very tall signs you could see a quarter mile away. And there was somebody reason out your gun time, pace and projected finish time at pretty much every mile.

Pace Leaders: D-
First off, I don’t believe in relying on pave groups since the race is my race and I should know what I’m doing. We had people from under 3 to 4 and a half hours and only one or two pace groups were good. The pace groups tended to run the race based on their fitness, banking time early and then giving time up. I crossed the half at 1:29:58 and the 3 hour group was nowhere to be seen. They went across in 1:28:30 (two of my team mates were with them). Apparently the secobd or third mile was around a 6:30! This is fine for a 2:35 marathoner like the pace group leader but insanity for the people with him that are closer to their limits. We can’t handle the same pounding on our quads or the lactic acid buildup and suffer later on. At the start there were 50 or so people with the pace group, when I passed the pace group at 22 miles there were 5. And this wasn’t the only group that did that, our coaches were out in the course and this was the trend. Going out blazing fast and then slamming the breaks at the last 4 miles to get in at the groups time isn’t pacing, it’s just trying to get in at that time for you. That said, people should run their own race … however pace groups should really not have plans that 90% of people will fail with.

Road Closures: A
They had all then roads completely closed, 4 to 6 lanes!

CIM race report

This is written from my phone so pardon the typos. Woke up every hour on the hour after 1am (CA time). Got out of bed at 3:40 without any alarm and got ready with my singlet and shorts and lots of body glide. Made a slice of bread with Nutella for breakfast and scarfed that down followed by a quick TP massage session since I’ve done that before 90% of my long runs. Went down to the lobby and met Keith and Ruth at 4:30am and waited for the rest of the team. The lobby had a fire place dividing it and we headed over to the part away from the reception and basically took over it. Then Steve gave us a little talk, he reminded us of all work we’d put in and that what we needed to so was run our plan. Which was to bold it till 19 miles and then open up. It was really nice to have him, Ruth and Karen with us in Sacramento. I’ve trained before but never had my coach with me at a “destination marathon” and this was great. Steve made some modifications to our race pls a after driving the course and that’s not something that can be done from
Austin.

After that if was waiting for the bus. Got on the bus with the 3:10 train and Charles, Larry and Ken. We got to the start and took our turns visiting the ports potty, I made two trips. 20 Ni utes before the start I made it to the bag drop off and then went for a 5 mile warmup. I saw the 3 hour pace group and got close to them and then saw Charles, Ken and Jim and joined them. Then off to the races.

I knew from the email from the pace group leader that they were going out fast, first half goal of 1:28:40 which makes no sense to me for people at their limit. There seemed to be 50 to 70 people with the group then. They peeled away from me at the start as did Ken and Charles. I wanted to hold back.

Mile 1 – 6:55

I was glad I didn’t push it on the downhill start.

Mile 2 – 6:40

Time to slow it down, negative splits I’d the goal. Sweet my goal is 6:52 to 6:53 average pace through 19 miles. I take my planned thermolyte pills at 2.5 miles. I carried my own small ozarka water bottle (with tap water) to avoid the rush of people and used that to wash down the pills. When I took my pill bag off my safety pin opened and I lost 3 bags or 6 pills … which were foe the rest of the race but luckily I doubled up since I had a similar issue on a training run.

Mile 3 – 6:53

GU

Mile 4 – 6:40 and overall time of 27:10 with a target of 27:32 (SLOW DOWN)

Mile 5 – 7:05 and overall time 34:15 with target of 34:21 (better)

Mile 6 – 6:53

At this point the 3 hour pace group is nowhere in sight. I’m ahead of pace and they have to be a half a minute if not more ahead of me. This has to be the worst pacing, it might be fine for the pacers but people at their limits cannot deal with the lactic acid build up, it kills us. More on that later, remember the 70ish size of the people with the group at the start, I’ll have more on that around 22 miles. At this point there are a few people with a red Gecco of lizard trying to run a 3 hour pace pulling away from me.

Mile 7 – 6:54 (locking in based on effort)

Another GU. Have to thanks Mike for sharing the spots of the stops and his pace band strategy of marking when to fuel. At this point I loose a GU but have two more than I need with me

Mile 8 – 6:55

Thermolytes but this time I hold all the pill bags and same issue so I drop them but pick stop and pick them up. At this point Fred is with me and stuff the pill bags into my gloves. Fred and I pretty much run with each other for the next 10 miles, it was nice to ha e a familiar face there.

Mile 9 – 6:56 and overall time of 1:01:55 which is 5 seconds slower than overall goal time. No worries I’m negative splitting.

Start feelingy quads at this point buy I figure I need to give it time.

Mile 10 – 1:08:44 overall and within two sec of 3 hour pace goal! Chickens.

GU followed by a long steep hill which is followed by another. Fred and I are within 10 feet of each other for a while

Mile 11 – 1:15:39 TT (1:15:34 goal)

Mile 12 – 1:22:31 (1:22:26)

Mile 13 – 1:29:21 (1:29:18)

Mile 14 – 1:36:11 (1:36:10)

Start feeling heavy in the legs. GU

Mile 15 – 1:43:04 (1:43:03)

This is where Steve said NOT to pick it up. Thermolytes. Man it was hard to rip the baggir open with numb hands andouth

Mile 16 – 1:50:00 (1:40:55) Keep holding it back.

Jim from Team Rogue who I saw at the start passes me and says something. I’m so focused I had no idea who it was till half a mile later when I finally saw hi and wish him good luck.

Mile 17 – 1:56:46 (1:56:47) Need to keep this going till 19.

Mile 18 – 2:03:42 (2:03:39) lost a little time

Mile 19 – 2:10:41 (2:10:31)

I’m ten seconds behind flat 3 hour marathon target but this is the plan. Time to speed up a little, I find some people and start reeling them in and try and keep Jim in my sights. He is amazing to run with, he has pulled me in on so many long training runs I just need to be close to him. GU

Mile 20 – 6:51 pace

Mile 21 – P 6:40, TT 2:24:14 (G 2:14:16)

We cross the bridge (last hill) and I tear off my 3:10 pace band, scream is that all this course has got and throw it at some poor guy on the side who looks a little surprised at my actions.

Mile 22 – 6:42, 2:30:56 (2:31:07)

I see the three hour pace group, with 5 or 7 people … that is not good for such a big group. I also see the Gecco uniforms that I pass (except for one who was way ahead).

Mile 23 – 6:39, 2:37:36 (2:38:00)

I’m getting closer to the three hour pace group, within 15 feet. I’m taking water and Cytomax at every stop since I can’t work my fingers well enough to get my last GU. I pass the three hour pace group. The guy I inch up to starts to pick it up bit I just hold steady and he doesn’t have it in him.

Mile 24 – 6:39, 2:44:16 (2:44:52) I’m going to break three hours.

Mile 25 – 6:41, 2:50:57 (2:51:44)

I catch to Jim how gives me a few words of encouragement. I ease in and finish: 2:59:10

My PR before this was at my last race, Boston ‘06 in 3:01:08

GO TEAM ROUGE!