Pacing and Back to Back Races

I am a new level of tired.  This weekend was massive for me since I completed 2 half marathons in 2 days that were about 5 hours away from each other.  Whew!

This all started when my husband, Nick, and I signed up for the Mainly Marathons Heartland Series Day 1 Marathon.  He wanted to complete a marathon, the race had no time limit, and if we signed up 90 days before the race it was free.  I thought this would be a good way for him to complete a marathon without a lot of pressure.  He had plenty of time to train and I promised him that I would stick with him the whole way, after all it was a free race.  Unfortunately his training wasn't progressing as it should have been by Mid-April.  I was getting 18 mile runs in while he was still struggling to do 10 miles with his intervals intact.  We discussed the marathon and determined that it was not going to happen; we would reduce our distance to the half marathon.

My Acceptance E-mail

Knowing that we weren't going to run the marathon, I started looking at other races in the area for that weekend (a 5k here, a 10k there) even though I wasn't going to drop out of the race I still wanted something more for the weekend since I was still going to pace Nick on Sunday.  This is when I saw a post on Facebook stating that the Race 13.1 series was looking for pacers for their Cincinnati Race on June 4th.  I had been thinking about pacing for a while and this seemed like a good chance to pace.  I would be able to complete both races slower than I normally would run a race hence helping me to complete both races.  I talked to Nick and he supported the idea and told me I should apply (at least I think he did, I may have just told him that I applied and he thought it was a good idea).  I applied thinking that they would never take me.  I have never paced a race before so they had no reason to believe I could except the fact that my last half (Xenia at 2:03) was faster than the pace I signed up to keep (2:30).  The next day I received an e-mail.... they would be happy to have me as a pacer for both Cincinnati and Detroit (coming in July).  I was ecstatic!  I would get a free race, free shirt, free medal, a huge jump in half fanatics, and I would be able to help people reach their half marathon goals.  I was excited about meeting new people, helping them, and being a good experience for their race.  This was going to be great.

I went down to Cincinnati Friday night to pick up my packet.  I was staying with my Grandma and Uncle Dan on the East side of town the night before the race (can't pass up free lodging).  While picking up my packet I ran into a running friend who had moved from Piqua to Cincinnati in the winter, Andrew.  He was working at the running store of the packet pick-up and it was nice seeing him.  He was running the race on Saturday too so I would at least know one other person at the race.  My grandma, Uncle, and I went to Mexican for dinner, plotted my drive to the race a half hour away from their house (on the other side of the world, according to grandma), and went to bed.  I was a bit nervous about pacing so I didn't sleep well, but I got enough sleep so that I wasn't awake when my alarm went off.  I really didn't want to make any mistakes while pacing.  My mind was racing with the possibilities: start too fast, start too slow, slow down too much at water stations, miscalculate pace I needed to keep, have the race run long and come in over time, have the race run short and come in under time, handle hills poorly, etc.  I've had good an bad pacers, I really didn't want to be a bad one.  I woke up and saw an e-mail from the race, final reminders, stating that I should get to the race before 6 am.  Since I had already picked up my packet I wasn't planning on getting there until 6:30, whoops.  I got moving and got to the site at 5:58, just in time.

Ready to Pace

I picked up my flag, took a picture, and waited for the race to start.  I ran into Andrew again and talked to him for a while.  I also got to meet the other pacers.  It turns out that I was the fastest pacer for this race.  The other pacers included 2:45 and a sweeper; I could see why they were happy to have me now.  We had some soppy weather waiting for the race to start (raining, pouring) but nothing dangerous.  Right as they asked the pacers to take their positions the rain dropped to a drizzle and we were ready to go.  Everyone took their place behind the start, most being told or saying that they needed to be ahead of me.  It's interesting being the physical embodiment of "slow" to some people.  I kept telling myself, I am not racing, this is a training run, 11:27, 11:27.  We started and a lot of people passed me, as they should (our corral placement was a little skewed).  I tried to keep my pace even and right were it should be.  I had my watch programed to "yell" at me if I was going too fast or too slow and I was listening to it.  After a while people settled into their pace and I started gathering a few people. 

The 1st person who wanted to pace with me asked if I was keeping a 13 minute mile.... I told her the pace I was keeping and she said she would try to keep up.  I figured she wouldn't last long if 13 min/mile was her goal.  Nonetheless I talked to her and tried to keep her motivated.  The 2nd person was Andrew's dad, Bob.  He came up asking if the pace wasn't a bit slow for me.  I laughed and told him that it's supposed to be slow for me.  They both stayed with me until the 1st water stop, then I lost them.  By this point I knew that the course was going to be over 13.1 miles.  My watch had chimed for the mile before I got to each mile marker thus far and I was adding time in my head to make sure I was on pace with the markers as well as my watch.  I was keeping a little faster than the pace (11:20) but within 7 seconds seemed reasonable to me.  Every mile I cheered out that I was right on pace. 

I kept going and gathered a new group of followers.  These were people who had run a half before and were trying to keep a good pace.  They stuck with me quite well and I even told them a joke at mile 6 to keep their spirits up.  We talked a lot and were having fun.  Admittedly, I may have sped up a few seconds while running with them; it's easy to do when you are having a good conversation.  But every time I felt we were going to fast, I pulled the pace back a bit.  The worst part was the hill.  Around mile 7 (at a turn around) we had to go about 1/3 up a very steep hill then right back down it.  I knew that I hadn't banked enough time to slow down on this hill so I kept my pace going up it and coming back down.  I lost the group on this hill.  One person in the group caught back up to me and he expressed that he didn't appreciate me "gunning it" up that hill.  I apologized, but right as we were talking about it we hit the next mile marker where I again was right on pace.  I felt less guilty about the hill after that.  The guy who didn't like the hill was also from Southeast Ohio where they have mountains so he couldn't make me feel that guilty about it, he's supposed to be used to hills.  He stuck with me until about mile 9 but then he couldn't keep the pace any more. 

This is where the race turned sad for me.  After mile 10 there were no runners keeping pace with me and I started to pass quite a few people.  Some people would see the in the corner or their eye, say something nice, then realize I was the pacer and that was when their look turned into shock, dread, or disgust.  I was the symbol of their failure.  If they wanted to finish under 2:30 I was proof that they would not meet their goal.  Some people tried to find a second wind.  As soon as I passed they picked up their pace and tried to keep up then they got tired and slowed down.  I even tried to slow my pace a bit more (I figured I had about a minute or two to spare) so I wouldn't take hope away from those I passed but it didn't work.  They were fizzling and I had a job to do, I had to keep that pace.  I few I passed started talking to me, hoping the conversation would keep them going and it did for a while.  I met a 19 year old who was running his first half after losing a lot of weight (he was asking me how I became a pacer) and some girls who were running it together (own personal pacer).  I threw in a joke for the last mile that seemed to help them until we got to some small hills at the end.  I really didn't want to pass them and I mentioned I was ahead on time (the best news they had heard all day) but in the end I had to pass them. 


Finisher Photo.  I wore bright green to be easily seen

I crossed the finish line alone in 2:28:23 (a minute and 37 seconds ahead of time, about 7 seconds faster per mile, and right within the range of good pacing, or so I've read).  While I kept the time I felt bad that no one crossed the finish with me.  I cheered for the people I paced as they came through.  I talked to a few afterwards and hoped that they didn't have any hard feelings.  They seemed happy with my help, just disappointed in themselves.  It was tough to see but I am glad that I could help even if they didn't reach their goal.  If I had not been a pacer, they wouldn't have had one to help them at all so I am glad I did this.

This isn't the end, no.  This will be a long post.  You might be able to blame the fact that I am a Language Arts teacher, writing a lot is a strength of mine.  I grabbed a shower, left my grandma's house, and headed home just to head back out again.  As soon as I got home Nick started loading the car for our next race.  He had determined that a 2 hour drive on race morning would not be ideal, we didn't have the money for a hotel (and there is not a lot of lodging in Bryan, Ohio), so we would be camping at a state park.  Honestly, I left the organization of the second race to him since I knew I would be busy planning for the 1st race.  He started loading all our camping supplies into the car while I tried to recover the best I could.  Before I knew it we were back in the car headed to pick up final supplies and drop the kids off with my parents.  We left Piqua at 5 pm headed to Harrison Lake State Park (incidentally the Race 13.1 was in Harrison, Ohio) which was 3 hours away meaning that if we had left Piqua on race morning we would have had to have left by 2 am.  We thought the race was 2 hours away and we would have been late because our calculations were wrong.

Ugh, Camping

As we headed to the park we were hit with a lot of rain and I really didn't think we would be able to camp.  I hoped that Nick would change his mind and we would end up in a hotel, no such luck.  We arrived at the camp to see multiple families camping, in tents, in the rain (I wasn't getting out of this).  The one thing that helped was that I convinced Nick to build the tent on his own in the rain while I waited in the car; I am a city girl and this was his idea.  Right as he did, the rain calmed down (this seems to be a pattern) and he successfully put the tent up on his own.  We unloaded our things and headed to find food which turned out to be a travelers' center along I-80 and that seemed to be the only food around.  We got some Burger King and went back to our tent.  I tried to go to sleep right away, I was already tired and had another race in the morning.  Sleeping was not easy.  My body has an hourglass shape due to my bone structure.  That means my hip bones and ribs stick out quite a bit beyond my waist and stomach.  No matter how I tried to lay down, the thin foam cushion did not stop my bones from taking the impact from the ground.  I did not sleep well.  It was also a mix of muggy and cool so temperature control was difficult.  After a lot of tossing and turning it was 4 am and time to get ready to run.

Pre-Race Photo

We got to the site of the race easily and early enough.  Most of the people running in this race were going to be completing 7 races (marathon or half) in 7 states in 7 days so I can't complain about my weekend when they are doing so much more.  We picked up our bibs, downgraded to the half (Nick would have gotten a plaque from them for doing his first full, but he couldn't have done it) and prepped for the race to start.  This was a small race with a close-knit group of people.  Many people there knew each other from prior times running the series and there were only 30 of us running the half where Saturday saw over 400 running the half in Cincinnati.  The course was a multi-loop (like an Ultra marathon) with water and food at the start/finish as the repeated aid station (very much like an Ultra) including actual food like sandwiches.  The "loop" was an out and back course that covered about 1.6 miles which we had to complete 8 times.  Each time we came back to the start/finish area we picked up a rubber band to indicate our number of laps.  While they had cameras at the start/finish and turn around, the race is run heavily on the honor system.  You see the same people on the course multiple times and everyone is encouraging everyone else.  The Strava Flyby is really a mess, but you know what distance you cover and until people start finishing you really don't feel like you are ahead or behind anyone.  Someone coming up behind you might be lapping you or passing you for the first time, you really can't be sure.  While the course is repetitive, the people along it make it fun throughout your time on the course.  You watched for certain people and they watched for you.

True to my word, I stuck with Nick for the race.  The first 2 laps he was doing well.  He was running a good, even pace and taking few short walking breaks.  He was on pace to set a new PR.  Then his walking breaks increased in both duration and frequency.  There were times when he wasn't running at all.  I tried a few times to get him to add a section of running, but he didn't even want to try.  He didn't seem tired and he wasn't complaining about any pain but he didn't want to run.  I kept talking to him and trying to figure out how we could make this better.  He didn't know, he just felt disconnected mentally.  This is when I started to worry about him.  He talked about having some tunnel vision and being dizzy without being dizzy and I knew that the problem was with his head.  Even though he had told me that I could leave him, at this point, I couldn't leave him.  I was worried he may pass out or have s stroke; I had to stick with him.  We kept going and we kept trying to fix the problem.  He ate various foods, drank Gatorade, tried to sprint, drank Coca Cola when they made that available and while it helped him some, nothing seemed to clear the fog.  He was just acting odd for him and I wanted him to feel better.  By the time the fog did begin to clear he had formed a blister which meant that his body was now preventing progress that might have been possible now that his mind was clearer.  This was also when my knees began to feel all the impact I was putting on them.  While I have been out for 3 hour runs, I don't heel strike like I do when walking and I usually don't do a 3 hour run the day after a 2.5 hour run.  My body needed to run, especially my knees.  I felt I might be injured if I kept walking.  This all came as Nick and I started our 8th and final lap.  He was feeling foggy again and I couldn't slow down anymore than I already had.  We talked about it and realized that I would be ahead of him on this last lap no matter what, so I might as well run.  I ran and felt good, almost like I could cover the distance again at my pace, for that last lap.  I finished with a new PW 3:24:32 but I enjoyed completing most of the distance with Nick.  You can read about how he felt on his blog and he did qualify for Half Fanatics with this race.

Since I am such a fast runner and he is such a fast cyclist we can't really do a lot of events together.  We can do the same events but our time together tends to be before and after the events, not during.  The people at the Heartland series were great and it was a well run race.  In the future I may want to run in another series of theirs but I don't think I will be sticking with Nick.  If we had to pay for the race, it would have been $85.  If I'm paying that much, I'm running my own race. 

Race Goodies

Overall, it was a busy and tiring weekend.  I think next time I run back-to-back I will run my own pace for both.  Pacing is a unique challenge.  Even though I didn't run my fastest on Saturday, my muscles were sore and tired in different ways.  Your body reacts very differently to a controlled speed versus pushing to go your fastest and slowing down when you need to.  Even though the pace was around a training pace keeping it controlled was a bit of a workout.  Walking for three and a half hours was also stressful in a different way.  My knees need some work and my thighs are tired from that effort.  I learned a lot about myself this weekend and I'm eager to run a race to try to get a PR now.  While I thought pacing would satisfy my need for a race, it seems to have only amplified it.  I'm also excited about pacing for Detroit.  I need to slow down a bit more and I hope I can come in a little closer to the goal time.  I had fun, don't hate running, and am eager to meet new goals; I call that a successful weekend.

Thanks for reading :)