Ohio River Road Runners Club Virtual 2020 Marathon

I was signed up to run this marathon on April 5th. That was postponed and moved to October 25th. That one was cancelled (Ohio is having a surge in Covid-19 cases right now, so even if it wasn’t cancelled, I would have been very reluctant to participate). I had the option of doing a virtual version (or refund, or donation, or register for next year’s event). I decided to do the virtual event. I did run a marathon on April 5th by myself (with a time around 5 hours, 50 minutes) and wasn’t sure if I could or should count that time for the “virtual marathon”. Back in August, I wasn’t sure if I would run another full marathon and just use my April time, since training for a marathon is a lot of effort. But, I wasn’t sure what the “virtual” rules were, and kept the option open in September by running one 18 mile and two16 mile long runs. This isn’t my normal “build up” for a marathon. Since we have to report our results, I decided that using the April time felt like I wasn’t “following the rules”, so I decided I’d just run another one by myself anyway (was I delusional about needing to run this marathon? Maybe).

Last week, my right hamstring felt slightly pulled (just in one spot on my inner thigh muscle, just when my stride was slightly long), and I still wasn’t sure this would happen until about three days before I did it. Thankfully, it got better very quickly, and I decided to just go for it.

I opted to do the marathon at a local bike trail because it involves a whole lot less mental thought about the route during the run, and it was easier to make it a flat route compared to my normal neighborhood runs. It also means driving 20 minutes to the start, no access to bathrooms, and finding a way to carry fluids for 20 miles, and potentially long stretches with few people, and if I get into trouble, I’m quite possibly very far from my car or from help, which makes it a less safe choice, but after April’s marathon, stumbling around neighborhood streets and trying to cross busy roads is also not a great option. Also, I wanted to see the fall colors along the bike trail, and it would be something different for a change.

Pre-race Planning

For a 7:30 am start time, I need to wake-up at 4:45am to take thyroid meds so I can eat breakfast around 5:45 am. This part is so much more stressful when it is an actual race with an actual start time. This time was fine. No fire alarms in the middle of the night (I’m looking at you Flying Pig Marathon), so I slept pretty well even if it was short, no impossible queues of traffic trying to get to the parking lot (I’m looking at you Air Force Marathon).

ORRRC (virtual) Marathon

I started the “race” at 7:30 am on Saturday, October 24. It was still dark (but I felt safe enough to leave my headlamp in the car). The temperature was around 42 degrees Fahrenheit, which is an ideal running temperature for me, and I was wearing shorts and a long sleeve t-shirt. Wind was not so bad at the start, so I was really comfortable at this point.

I started slow (the first three miles are three out of my four slowest miles of this run). and stopped during mile 3 to try to get a picture of some deer in a field.

Between the start and making it to Island Metropark around 7.5 miles, I saw two people on the bike trail and around 15 deer (6 more directly on the bike trail, but not enough time to get phone out and get pictures while running). Once I made it to Island Metropark, there were plenty of people on the bike trail for the next several miles.

The bike trail crossed through the area where the big tornado hit Dayton on Memorial Day 2019, at miles 3 and then again 10 miles in (Miami River trail and Stillwater River trail). 21 tornadoes hit the Dayton, Ohio area on Memorial Day last year. The biggest one was an EF4, which had winds of 170 miles per hour, and carved a 20 mile long path of 0.6 miles wide, stretching from Trotwood through Dayton all the way to Beavercreek. The tornado touched down and destroyed homes in a subdivision about 0.5 miles from my house to the south, and downed trees on my street, and this was the same tornado that damaged these trees about 8-10 miles to the east, on the bike trail. This tornado destroyed lots of homes and businesses and did hundreds of millions of dollars worth of damage (the 21 total did an estimated billion dollars worth of damage).

This is an image from some of the trees on the bike trail that were hit by the tornado. Removing damaged trees in parks is low on the list of tornado clean-up priorities, hundreds of homes were damaged or destroyed, and the 2020 pandemic certainly has not helped tornado damage cleanup and repair efforts.

It was around 10 miles (or 2 hours) into the run, when I realized I was running at around a 5 hour marathon pace, which was a shock for me because I was hoping to finish under 6 hours, but was prepared for up to 6.5 hours based on how my legs had been behaving in the last week. I had zero expectations to run under 5 hours. My fastest marathon, which was my first marathon, was around 4 hour 55 minutes, but I haven’t run close to that since 2012.

At this point, I decided to just try to keep moving at the same speed I had been going u, and see how long that lasted. I didn’t look at my pace at any point, but I knew if I was over 5 miles in 1 hour, that’s slightly faster than a 12:00/mile. To finish under 5 hours is close to 11:30/mile. That still seems quite a fast speed for me to maintain right now. I turned around at around 11 miles to back track (skipping Island Metropark this time). Around 13 miles, the trail was much more open, and the weather started to get windier, and at 42 degrees, this really made me rethink my wearing shorts decision. My first marathon was in freezing cold rain (in the thirties Fahrenheit and raining the whole time, my hands froze and I couldn’t get my packets of Sports Beans out or open after about 10 miles, thanks Manchester, UK!), so this wasn’t my first cold marathon, and I can only suspect that the cold helped me run faster because of my “wanting to be done running faster” desire.

Normally around miles 15 and 16 is where it starts to get tough for me, and I remember it was cold and windy, but I buckled down and somehow did my two fastest miles (10:57 and 10:50) at 15 and 16. I had to do a whole lot of forcing myself to only focus on the current mile I was running and not start calculating how many I have left. This requires a lot of mental control, which thankfully worked today. I also have to say that having to call family to “check-in” every hour to let them know how I was doing (and that I was still alive and nothing untoward had occurred to me on the bike trail), and that also probably helped me take my mind off the full distance and break it in to chunks. I was feeling much better at miles 18 and 19 than I am used to on marathons (this is where things usually start to fall apart for me).

I switched from political podcasts (why? why would I listen to podcasts about the election which already gives me so much anxiety duirng a marathon?) to music, and finally listened to (and fell in love with) the lastest The Killers album, which I bought but haven’t been in a listening to music mood for months. (I tend to listen to podcasts on normal daily runs, but music on the 2nd half of a long run or during marathons.) The Killers have been my favorite band for quite some time now, and there is some sort of earnestness in Imploding the Mirage and especially Brandon Flowers’ voice that makes me continue to love their music. Did the music help me run faster? Maybe.

I also should mention my fueling strategy at this point. I felt for the first two hours like I had the urge to pee (normal for me when it is cold and I am outside). I didn’t stop, hoping that this was just all in my head and not really a problem, and no surprise, it was not a real problem and all in my head. On the first 20 mile out and back, I brought with me two bottles with Generation UCAN and electrolytes (and water), and one bottle of water. I also was trying to get myself to eat fruit snack gummies. I brought 6 packs of 70 calories each with me, and had 3 more in the car, but as per usual, I had 3 packs (around 6 miles, 11 miles, and 14 miles), and was going to have the next at 18 miles but at that point I gave up on eating anything. I also was pretty slow drinking fluids at the beginning, fearing I would have to stop and go to the bathroom in the woods like my last solo-marathon. But once I got to about 7 miles, I instituted a “drink whenever I start to feel cramps or achiness in my legs” strategy. I stuck to the electrolytes and UCAN first, because I have a feeling electrolyte imbalance triggers my cramps. By the time I made it back to the car (21 miles in), I had finished the two bottles, and quickly dumped the hydration vest and 3rd water in the trunk and grabbed the other bottle with just Gatorade and kept going. I was on track for a sub-5 hour finish, so I very quickly grabbed what I needed and took off, probably less than a 10 second stop.

The last 5 miles involved strategically planning how this marathon would end. The Taylorsville Dam is about 1.5 to 2 miles north of where my car was parked. After crossing the Miami River (the pedestrian bridge involves a small hill), it is fairly flat to the dam, but if I wanted to turn around so I would have 2.5 miles left on the way back, I would have to go up and over the dam, and then back up and over again – two massive hills. At 22 miles, my legs were saying “no thanks” to that idea, so I did a little bit of back and forth of a very flat section (of about 0.3 miles) around 23 miles in, and this is when my legs were starting to get very achy, and I decided to just go back over the river, past the car, and head south (and cover the part where I started the run), since that was flatter, then just turn at a point where I can finish near the car.

Miles 23 and 24 were very hard. I wanted to quit. I wanted to drop my sub-5 hour pace. I don’t even think I was in that much pain, but marathons are hard and there will always be a part where I want to quit. I’ve never run a marathon and not wanted to quit. I’ve also never quit a marathon I’ve started.

Two miles to go, and then mental finish switch gets flicked in my head. I can do two miles easily. That is a very short distance. I count on my fingers in out loud the tenths of a mile I have left starting at 20. I don’t know what the heck kind of strategy this is, but it works for me. 20 x 0.1 miles is so much easier to think about than 2 miles, which is at least 20 minutes.

As my watch was ticking to 26.1 miles, I felt tears starting to come in my eyes. I’m not sure if it was because at this point, it was now super windy and very cold, or if it was because I was relieved to finally be able to stop soon, or if it was the emotions of realizing I was under 5 hours for the first time since April 2012, over 8 years ago, and it has taken losing 40 pounds, a thyroid cancer diagnosis, multiple surgeries, dealing with hypothyroidism and fibroid and anemia, to finally get back to where I was 8 years ago, but holy cow, I finally did it. It was emotional.

There was no one at the finish line, no medal (until I got home), but the only person I run marathons for is my myself, and I felt just as proud and thrilled that I had done than any other race I’ve run. 26 miles is not an easy distance for me.

I’m going with my Strava estimated marathon time of 4 hours, 56 minutes, and 33 seconds, which has the marathon “starting” after I stopped to tie my shoes at 0.08 miles in, and finishing at 26.28 miles. This is about 1.5-2 minutes off my marathon PR. I probably could have pushed myself a little harder the last two miles and perhaps set a new PR, but since virtual marathons are not measured and verified, I don’t think that would be a “valid” PR anyway, and I am thrilled to just have finished under 5 hours.

I am so glad I chose the bike trail. While parts were secluded (thanks to heavy rainfall the night before and cool temperatures, which kept bikers away since there were a lot of slippery wet leaves on the trail), running along the river and through the forests was so good for my soul. I also could focus on just moving forward and not cars or traffic or deciding which way to go. It was also very flat!

I actually negative split this marathon (estimated: first half 2:29:08, second half 2:27:25).

Fun fact: This is the first marathon I’ve ever negative split. This is only the second marathon (out of 7 total) that I have not started out “way too fast” and then paid for it later.

The benefit of making up my own route is I finished at the car! Then I got in the car and drove home. Now, many may say this is” an awful post race strategy”, and that I should walk around for a bit so I don’t cramp up. 48 hours later, I’m going to say this worked out perfectly fine, better than any marathon where I’ve had to walk a mile back to the car, or back to the tram station and then bus and then walk another half mile home (Manchester, UK – I could barely walk for 3 days after).

I was home by 1 pm, and found a package with my t-shirt and medal in the mail! Great timing! X is for Xenia, a nearby town where the marathon was supposed to take place. Xenia is known for being hit by one of the worst tornado outbreaks in US history in 1974. It sure does sound like we have a lot of bad tornadoes in this part of Ohio, but they don’t happen here that frequently. (We’ve just had two of the worst ones in the last 50 years.)

Recovery involved protein powder, compression socks, and lying on my bed for 3-4 hours straight.

At some point later that day, I realized it is good for me to move my legs a bit to get some of the broken down protein out, but I wasn’t feeling up to going for a walk outside (I also had already showered, and my all the time seasonal allergies make it difficult to go outside and not take another shower), so I went on the stationary bike (slowly) for 15 minutes, and then walked (even slower) on the treadmill for 15 minutes.

Sunday, I did a slow 3.5 mile recovery run. Besides some DOMS in my glutes (which apparently I did use on this run?) and my forearms being sore, I felt pretty good, just very tired.

Monday, I ran 6.5 miles. This is the best I have ever felt 48 hours after a marathon. Very little soreness in general. Why? My best guess (in descending order of what I think is the main reason): a.) I drank enough water (3 bottles over 5 hours in low 40s temperatures), and had a ton of Gatorade electrolytes while running, and noticed very little protein in my liquid waste after, so I think that I successfully stayed hydrated on this run, b.) colder temperatures, again, this probably helped me by keeping me from sweating as much and staying more hydrated than I usually do on a 5 hour run, c.) I am not anemic! the last marathon I ran that I was for sure not clinically anemic (Hemoglobin lower than 11 or 12 depending on the lab) was probably in April, 2013. I’m 75% sure I was anemic for my September 2013 marathon, and very likely anemic for May and September 2019 and April 2020 marathons due to my huge fibroid. It is not fun to be anemic, and certainly not fun to run a marathon while anemic. d.) improved physical fitness. I’ve put in a lot of miles in the last 3 years, and my “run everyday” strategy is finally paying dividends, e.) flat route – besides Manchester, UK, this was one of the flatest marathons I’ve ever run.

Post-race analysis

What went right:

a.) temperatures were low – around 42 deg F (5-6 deg C). There was also wind, which made it chillier and kept me moving forward, especially the last 2 hours when the wind picked up.

b.) I brought three bottles of water with electrolytes, and two of them had generation UCAN powder. Anytime I felt my legs start to get achy or crampy, I drank electrolytes (I guess it worked? I did not bonk, my legs did not give up.)

c.) I was probably “undertrained”. I know they always say it is better to be 10% undertrained than 5%, so I guess about 30-40% undertrained is even better?

d.) I’m not anemic this time.

e.) Zero time expectations.

f.) I did not start out too fast.

What went wrong

I’m not sure anything went wrong. I massively exceeded my own expectations and did something I did not know I could do.

I regretted wearing shorts when temperatures stayed in the low 40s but wind chill picked up, and my face felt wind burnt hours after finishing, which isn’t all that surprising. But, I think being cold helped me run faster, so I wouldn’t say this was a bad thing.

I’ve never made it all the way to22-23 miles before my legs start to feel very achy, so that was a massive improvement.

I stopped taking in gummies at mile 14, but that’s normal and I planned around that by taking in Generation UCAN and Gatorade (which also has carbs).

Final Thoughts

I can only guess what I would have done if I was around other people in a race setting. If this was the Xenia marathon with less than 200 people total in the full marathon, I might have been able to do something similar, although I think all the stars aligned for this one to happen like it did on Saturday. If I were in a big marathon like the Flying Pig, there is no way I would have done this well. I tend to start out way too fast in race settings, and then end up spending lots of time weaving around other people to get in front – that is an awful strategy and I know it. I’m very good at running lots of long, lonely miles by myself. It is not surprising I’ve had a good performance running by myself. (I sign up for races to run with other people because I know I should be more social, but I love just running on my own, day after day.)

This was a great marathon for me. I feel like I am getting back to my old form, and haven’t seen a marathon this fast since 2012, and that feels very good. Since I have no plan on stopping working on my speed, I hope that eventually I will be able to set a new marathon PR in the next couple years. I also think that it is a very good idea to continue running marathons with zero time expectations. (So I would like to set a new PR, but do it without actually trying to set a PR!)

Every marathon I run reminds me that I can do hard things, and I’m very proud of this one.