Saving the Best for Last

This was marathon #4 in 2009 for me, and it was definitely the best in every way. I drove to Memphis on Friday and arrived about 2:30 p.m., within a minute of Alan and Brad, who came along as our support person. We couldn't have planned our arrival better if we'd tried. Packet pickup was quick and easy, and the best thing we got for free was an apple. Really, it was a good apple.

My goal before the race was to run it in 3:50 or better; my secondary goal was to finish in less than four hours, and the "salvage something from the race" goal was 4:10 and just finishing.

Saturday morning the race started at 8 o'clock, so we didn't have to get up especially early. That was a nice change. The temperature was just under freezing, but the wind was nonexistent. I'll trade temperature for no wind any day, especially on a race day. About 11,000 people lined up for the races. The organizers had us in "corrals," segregating us by expected finish times. Alan and I started in Corral #7, him since that was his target time and me because I'm a slow starter. Our group started at about 8:11. With that many people it was great to start in groups; although it was crowded it wasn't too bad and we weren't trying to elbow people out of the way.

The first couple of miles thundered south of the downtown area and then west to Riverside Drive. The view of the Mississippi close to the second mile was picture-perfect with the sun shining and the I-40 bridge in the distance. Then we turned onto Beale Street and ran by all the famous music and food joints before heading north toward the St. Jude Hospital campus. Alan, of course, had to stop and pee at mile 4, which added another thirty seconds to my time, dang it. When we got to the hospital campus a lot of the kids were out cheering us on and calling us heroes for running. That was nice of them, but they're definitely the heroes. An older gentleman had tripped and done a face plant right before we got to him. He was dazed and had a big raspberry on his forehead as he was being helped off the course by several people, poor guy.

The course was very flat with only a slight rise as we headed to Overton Park. The course wound through the park and the trees, which was really nice. At about mile 6 or so I felt good and started increasing the pace slightly to try and be at about 9 minutes/mile. As we got through the park and headed back toward downtown you could feel the group energy level pick up as the half-marathoners neared their finish. The good thing about that is you can feed off the energy a little bit, but once the course divides and you realize you're only half done it's a bit of a letdown.

We reached Beale Street again and passed through it going the opposite direction, at which point Alan stopped and doffed his pants and gave them to Brad. I continued on and aimed for an 8-minute/mile pace so I could meet my goal. I consumed my gel packs during the race at 7, 12, 17, and 22 miles. They definitely helped; tangerine and raspberry cream were the tasty flavors. There were aid stations with water and Powerade about every mile or so. Miles 13-18 went by quickly, and it wasn't until about mile 20 that I really started to feel the exhaustion. At mile 23 my calves started to cramp something fierce. They each felt like a lead ball but I was determined to not stop since I knew if I did it once I'd be doing it multiple times. It hurt like crazy but I ran through it and was fine the rest of the way. Around mile 15 I'd been passed by a couple of guys running about the same pace I was aiming for, so I kept them in sight until mile 25 and that seemed to help a little.

I always say the last mile of the race is the longest, and that proved true once again. The race finished in Autozone Park, home of the Cardinals' Triple-A affiliate the Memphis Redbirds. I knew the stadium was up there somewhere but it remained elusively out of sight. At that point I was on autopilot. I kept looking down at my Garmin, expecting to see my pace had slowed, but I was still going at 8 minutes/mile. Guess all that speed training actually pays off since your body will keep doing what it's been trained to do.

Once to the ballpark the course entered the stadium behind the center field wall, where I emerged and took a left on the warning track and then down the first base line to the finish. Got my silver cape and medal and then wandered to center field so I could watch for Alan. My unofficial time according to my timer was 3:49:53 and I was exhaustedly happy. Alan came in at about 4:07.

This is the part where I compliment the organizers: we departed the field and walked up to the concourse level where the after-race food and drinks were set up for the participants. You had to have a tag from your race number to get in, and wow, did they have food. After the race in Dallas in April, the 5k and half-marathoners had descended like locusts on the refreshments and there was nothing left for the marathoners. Not the case here. There was pizza, bagels, bananas, oranges, donuts, water, etc. A great big THANK YOU to the organizers, and I'll also say that from registration to packet pick-up to the start all the way to after the race, this was the best organized race I've ever seen. I had a couple of bottles of water, half a banana, and a Krispy Kreme donut.

The hotel had a nice hot shower waiting, and after resting for a bit we went to The Rendevous for some ribs. Talk about hitting the spot. After heading to another spot and watching Alabama demolish Florida for the SEC championship, we went and found some more ribs. The rest of the evening we spent listening to some good music. What a great experience.

My official race time was 3:49:51, and I finished 69th of 234 in my age bracket. Overall I was 556th out of approximately 2,450 people. I was the 432nd male and my overall average pace was 8:47/mile. Here are my splits:

Mile 6.2 - 59:26, 9:37 pace, Rank 155 in my age group
Mile 13.1 - 2:01:29, 9:17 pace, Rank 140
Mile 20 - 2:58:21, 8:56 pace, Rank 93
Finish - 3:49:51, 8:47 pace, Rank 69

If I was someone studying those results, I'd look at that and figure out what kind of freak gets faster as the race goes on. I look at some of the other results and am amazed at how some people run the same consistent pace the whole time. Guess that's something to shoot for next time.

Speaking of next time, I think next year I'll concentrate on half-marathons and run a full one late in the year. That way I can concentrate on speed and getting faster. Even though I enjoy being in such good shape, running four races in one year takes a lot of time and there are a few other things I'd like to do. Memphis turned out to be the perfect experience and perfect day for racing, at least for me. It was a great time and I definitely plan on doing it again, although maybe not next year. I don't recommend an 8-hour car ride the day after the race, but what could I do? All in all it was an awesome experience and I think I definitely saved the best for last in 2009.