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Inaugural Yachats River Road Marathon

October 8, 2017 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Weather: PERFECT. Start: 60, "damp". End: mid-high 60s, sunny (warm in the sun), dry

Comments:
Really important day.

Slept TERRIBLY, at first: metabolizing (what I know to be allergenic) croissant that we ate right before bed. Didn't fall asleep 'til midnight or so. As such, we slept in 'til nearly 8. But once I woke up, I wanted to get rolling. I hustled CA along, and we drove to Overleaf for "pre-race": stretch out, some coffee, a bit of calories (ate a small biscuit with jelly), and gearing up. From there, we drove to the "start": down the entire River Road 'til it turned to gravel.

Parked there under sunny but damp skies. I jogged a mile, did drills and mobility, then did x4 strides. The plan for today:

- back (west, to just past the 1-mile mark)
- out (east, close to the start)
- back

CA would be on bike, and she'd give me aid - water and-or Gatorade - every 3-5 miles along the 9-mile stretch. And...I'd otherwise just run! With me I packed my ipod (with nothing special on it) and two gels.

And, at about 9:40, I hit start and took off.

In general, the "back" is a net downhill (300'?) so it's a net downhill course, by design. But dang, it's rolling. Those rollers provided excellent variety, but they were tough.

Ran gravel for about 0.8 miles, then got on the road, which is with lovely canopied tree-lined drive in the valley, between two coastal mountain ridges. The river comes into view about midway down, after a cool elk-viewing meadow that marks the halfway point.

And so I ran. I felt "good", but not "easy". As such, I was happy to see a fairly quick first mile (6:18) -- it could've easily been 6:40 at that "feel".

I tried really hard to relax and run sustainably, knowing it was going to be a long day and could feel much longer if I ran too hard. Breathing was easy and so I went.

FORM-FOCUS today:
- Forward
- Pawback (flick-pull)
- Salazar stride (heel recovery)
- knee out
- PELVIS PUSH (the wiggle, but pushing more with the left side)

Other than that, I just tried to Find Ease. But, admittedly, it never felt super-"great" in that first stretch. CA gave me water at 4.5, where she'd parked the van. She did a perfect job of periodically checking in -- never biking along side me long (other than to say something nice), only stopping for aid every 30min or so, then taking off for her own ride.

Along I went, clicking mid 6s, and getting hopeful that I could actually run near 2:50. As I neared the first turnaround, I dreaded the return as I pounded down some serious hills. Got a bit of gatorade at ~ mile 8, then water at mile 10 or so.

Hit mile 9.1 at about 58 minutes, then turned back.

As it does, "reality hit" -- and really my only bit of adversity -- a short time later: on the climb back up, my goddamn right abs started cramping again, HARD. FUCK. Why?

Then I got it: BACK ARCH.

Trunk shift can affect it, as can "swivz", but what it's really about:

- "Old man back" (no mid-trunk extension)
- "protective tension" of right pelvis
= right ab cramp

It's that simple. I realized that back in May, and did:

1. Back arch (with a touch of pelvis left)
2. BUTT OUT (mostly right)

and that not only cured it, but led to fast running. And I forgot all about it. F.

So, after struggling for about a quarter mile with ab cramps that were taking my breath away, I got back to a strong mid-back arch, and stuck out my RIGHT ASS...and just like that, cramp was gone.

WHEW.

Got up the hill (remarkably, NOT going over 7:00) and leveled out.

Interestingly a few miles later, CA came up and said, "You could arch your back a little more". BINGO, spot on, CA! ("See? Billy Idol gets it, why doesn't HE get it?")

From there, I had a pretty good stretch of miles: back onto mid-6s and "looking forward" to the turnaround, which would signal the start of "business". The climbs on that upper end were tough, once again, and I notched some 6-highs, but I otherwise felt pretty good.

As I passed halfway and neared my target of 17.6 miles for the turnaround, it occurred to me that:

- I wasn't running that "hard": the Effort simply wasn't very taxing. No heavy breathing, no "bonk" or anything close
- the LEGS - the muscle strength to run that fast - was the limiting factor

This is what I've figured all along, post-MAF Era: that doing all that easy running, that:

- I'm aerobically fit, but
- I lack the gross strength to put it to use

And that's what the day became: executing the Strength.

As such, as I got back onto the gravel rolling uphill, I got pissed at myself when I momentarily saw "7:15" for a pace on my watch. I Timmy-growled and pushed it down to sub-6 to the turnaround, a creek bridge, then turned back.

For that WHOLE time I somehow had "Unwell" by Matchbox 20 in my head (which was playing in the hotel that morning). I forced myself to switch it, at first to some Pearl Jam, then settling on Pitbull or something ("Time of Our Lives"?) for the remainder. That helped.

And...I just ran. With 7.8 miles to go, I wasn't going to be a hero, but I executed enough to maintain mid-6s, again...though they were drifting to 6:30-high, rather than 6-teens. Did my best to:

- FLICK & Pull
- stay arched (right butt out)
- Salazar heel recovery

[I didn't, as it turned out, lean forward enough]

CA had checked in at about mile 16, and I thought I'd see her at 18 or 19, so I pounded my second gel...and wound up choking on i t a bit. The micro adversity ensued when I didn't wind up seeing her again until about mile 21 or 22, at which time I had some water.

The last 4-5 miles were...wild. No bonk, no serious degradation, but just....HEAVY. Hills came tough to efficiently run: I felt like I was lumbering. And the downs became more difficult to efficiently digest (accept "the gift")...but I kept executing. I switched my watch to overall distance mode as I hit mile 25, getting ready to stop just at 26.2x.

The last big climb was at about 25, then a nice long down, broken up by a short up. Then flat. CA drove the van past me at 25.5 or so, then parked at "the finish".

And...that was that. Hit 26.2 and ran "to the pole", just a bit longer and stopped.

Done.

2:51:4x or so. 26.22 miles.

Excellent.

I was anxious about this because...well, it was a REALLY important run:

- it seems like for the past 3+ years, I have a Plan to Do Something, and it either fucks up, or I simply don't deliver. This very nearly was one of those things.
- I said I was gonna run a marathon. I told everyone: friends, clients. I could not puss out (yet again) with some excuse. I needed to deliver. No PDX? No problem.
- I needed to be ABLE to run a shitload of miles in the mid-6s. It's been YEARS, like, nearly FIVE, since I've done that. That base fitness - but really, Efficiency - is 100% necessary for any big-time ultra success

As I told CA, who was instrumental in making this happen, "This is the most important run you've seen me do in our time together".

And that was that! Post-run:

- drove back into town, and stopped for coffee. It was BEAUTIFUL out and a little warm (side note, I actually ditched my shirt mid-run)
- had coffee and a cookie, then Michelle and Pete stopped by to chat before they headed up to PDX
- CA and I headed back to Adobe, where the 30K was finishing, and snuck into the pool and sauna. I grabbed some finish line food, again (and a beer!) and we had a nice soak in the tub ("SOAK OF THE YEAR"!)
- had lunch at the Brewpub
- went back to Overleaf to get work done
- had "early dinner" of fish fry at Luna's
- drove home at sunset.

GOOD. DAY.

Splits (uphill', downhill'), per my watch:

0:06'17.9 10 59
0:06'27.9 30 49
0:06'18.0 10 69
0:06'34.0 0 20
0:06'24.0 10 49
0:06'37.6 39 39
0:06'30.4 72 102
0:06'24.0 49 59
0:06'27.1 59 89
0:06'40.9 85 105
0:06'42.0 72 30
0:06'49.0 112 69
0:06'21.5 49 102
0:06'48.6 95 30
0:06'40.9 66 95
0:06'48.0 112 82
0:06'43.0 82 56
0:06'45.0 95 69
0:06'30.0 69 59
0:06'20.1 30 102
0:06'28.0 36 39
0:06'31.9 39 79
0:06'43.0 62 59
0:06'33.0 72 98
0:06'34.1 59 69
0:06'25.6 59 98
0:01'26.6 20 20