12: #Road2CIM Marathon Training: Week 14 + Run the Parkway (Test) Race Recap

On Sunday, I ran the Run the Parkway 20-miler, the official training race of the CIM (California International Marathon). The pacers were going to run the full 20-mile distance at the same pace as they would run the marathon at CIM, so we could practice our goal pace. 

I was a little nervous because my training had been a bit derailed this week because of my work trip. I was gone from Tuesday to Friday. Initially, I had thought about asking my coach again to rearrange my training plan to accommodate my work commitments but I realized that it would be futile. I knew I wasn’t going to have time for workouts while I was away. I knew we would have long days with evening commitments. The hotel (Inn) that we were staying at also didn’t have a gym, so I knew it would be unlikely for me to get any runs in.

Since I had been very disciplined with my training so far, I just rolled with it and hoped that skipping a few workout sessions would not negatively affect me. In fact, I hoped that taking a few rest days – sort of like a ‘mini taper’ – would even be good for me before my test race. I did, however, go for a 45-minute shakeout run on Saturday to test my legs. I am always a little bit nervous if I take a few days off from running. They felt pretty good though and that made me feel better.

I got up bright and early at 5:15 a.m. on Sunday morning and immediately started munching on Graham Crackers. Gotta get those pre-run carbs in! I got my gear ready, drank some water, and then left home around 6 a.m. to drive to the race start line. I met up with the Fleet Feet Group there and one of the coaches did a warm-up routine with us and then we went for a short warm-up run as well. It was pretty chilly and I definitely needed that warm up. Before we knew it though, it was time to get ready and line up at the start line. I had time to use the port-a-potties and then we were off! 

I wasn’t sure what my strategy was supposed to be. Do I just run at an easy pace and conquer the 20 miles, my longest run yet? Or do I try to actually pick a goal pace and test it out? You know, if you haven’t run a marathon yet, it’s hard to pick a goal pace. How do I know what pace I can hold for 26.2 miles?

My 5k trial run at the beginning of my training suggested I could run a marathon with a sub-9 min/mi pace. Well, that seemed a little ambitious to me. I had run some of my longer (16-mile) training runs at a 9:40 min/mi pace and the ones with goal pace intervals even a bit faster, so I decided to try and hang with one of the pacers. I saw the pacer with the 4:05 sign (which translates to a 9:21 min/mi marathon pace) and lined up behind him. I thought I’d try and see if I could stick with him for a while until I figured out what I wanted to do. As always, the first couple of miles were pretty crowded, so I just stayed with the pack and had some time to figure out how I felt about the pace.

Well, I was feeling pretty good and so when the crowd finally dispersed, I pushed ahead a little and settled into my own pace. The best thing was that I had shared my Garmin Live Tracking Link with Tanja so she could track me, and I also turned on my Adidas Running (formerly Runtastic) app so that my family could follow my race from afar again. The cool thing about the Adidas Running App is that people who follow you can send “cheers” (like “applause”, “Go, go, go”, or acoustic “La Ola waves”) during live events, and the newest feature is that they can also leave you short voice messages. Imagine my surprise, when I heard my sister and mom cheer me on. They sent cheers and encouraging words at almost every mile marker throughout my run and that really carried me the whole way. I think I had a huge smile on my face every time a cheer came through!

I glanced at my watch occasionally and was thrilled to see that I was keeping a really good pace and my breathing and my legs felt good, too. I couldn’t believe how well it was going.

I eventually passed the 4:00 pacer, and then the 3:55 pacer in the last mile, and was on track to finish the 20 miles in under 3 hours. This was truly unexpected, but I guess the predictions from the 5k trial run hadn’t been too far off after all. 

I know, there will be another 6.2 miles to be conquered at the marathon and that’s not nothing. That is potentially another hour of running. Did I feel like I could run another 6.2 miles when I finished? To be honest, mentally I was done and didn’t want to think about having to run another 6.2 miles. As previously mentioned, I always break up the long distance into shorter, mentally more digestible chunks, and I was thinking of the race as four 5-mile segments. When I was in the last 5 miles, I mentally visualized the finish line and did not want to contemplate having to push any further.

Physically, I was tired but I think that under actual marathon circumstances, I could have mentally convinced my legs that I had more miles in me. Coaches always say, if you can run 20 miles, you can run a marathon because the last 6 miles are really run on mental toughness and adrenaline. I hope this is true. This 20-miler was the longest of our training runs and I won’t get another chance to test that. It’s mileage tapering from here until race day. 

But let’s just say that this test race was a huge confidence booster for me and it makes me actually believe that I will be able to finish the marathon distance in a few weeks. I hope we’ll be as lucky with the weather on race day as we were on Sunday! It was a beautiful crisp, but sunny fall day here in Northern California!

Focus for the weeks:

Time for the test race! This week we had the opportunity to test our goal marathon pace. I had no strategy and didn’t really know what to expect, just decided to see how I felt and try to run comfortably.

Monday –  Rest Day! 30 min yoga + 15 min meditation 

Tuesday – 5.7 mi @ 9:32 min/mi (morning temp: 45°F) + 30 min strength

Fuel/water: Fasted.

Wednesday – 10 min meditation + 40 min walk

Thursday – 10 min meditation + 18 min walk

Friday –  10 min meditation + 105 min walk

Saturday – 5.71  mi @ 9:11 min/mi (morning temp: 61°F)

Sunday – 20 mi @ 8:51 min/mi (morning temp: 39°F) + 20 min yoga + 10 min meditation

Fuel/water: 32 oz of water + NUUN, 1/2 of a banana at mile 3, Scratch Labs Sour Cherry Chews at mile 7, Precision Gel at mile 10, Maurten Gel at mile 14.

TOTAL: 31.4 mi/ 50.5 km
MARATHON TRAINING MILES: 448.7 miles / 722.7 km

Marathon Nutrition

I think I could have planned my nutrition better for my race. My goal was to get the 60g of carbs per hour figured out, but I had less than that. The banana had 14g, the chews 38g, and the gels 30g and 40g, respectively. That’s about 122g, so one extra gel would have been good. Luckily, I fueled regularly and didn’t experience any bonking, but I do want to plan this out better for the actual race.

My daily macro needs per day (calculated from this marathon nutrition guide).

Protein	105 g	4-5 servings	25g/serving
Carbs	462 g	18-19 servings	25g/serving
Fats	66 g	6-7 servings	10g/serving

This week, I averaged 91 g of protein,  65 g of fat, and 223 g of carbs per day, respectively. 

How I refueled after my long run

More chicken breakfast sausages, eggs, and bagels. I haven’t been very creative with my post-run meals. I stick with what works.

TL;DR – summary of the week:

My training got a bit derailed because of work travel and I missed three days. Despite all that, I crushed my test race this week and completed the 20 miles in < 3 hours, and that’s all you need to know from this week!

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