Wining about running (Wineglass Marathon race report)

The Wineglass Marathon earlier this month was going to be a low-key race for me, a warm-up  of sorts for my debut running of the Boston Marathon (2018). I’d last run Wineglass in 2013. That was still in the early years of my "serious" marathon training, and I made all the mistakes of a novice. The wall? Oh, yea, I didn’t even wait for Mile 20. I'd already crashed into that shortly before the half way point, followed by a long and painfully slow death march to the finish. My time was some 43 minutes slower than my current PR (3:55). The Wineglass course is BQ-friendly. So, with the benefit of being four years running-wiser, I was confident, though I was planning to take it easy, of finishing with a good time, perhaps under 4:00.

Then came the "Notice of Non-Acceptance" from the Boston Athletics Association (BAA). With that, Wineglass 2017 all of a sudden became the first of my qualifying races for Boston 2019.

Now, I could have stayed with my original plan and still gone for the sub-4:00 (9:10 pace), to guarantee my entry to Boston 2019 (for which my threshold qualifying time is 4:10). But, still rather annoyed with the rejection by BAA, I decided to go for a new PR (sub-3:55; 8:58 pace).

The Wineglass course is point-to-point, starting from couple miles northeast of Bath and finishing on W. Market St. in downtown Corning, NY. The course generally parallels I-86. The following is the Wineglass route mapped by my new toy, TomTom Spark 3 Cardio. It was my first use in a race. (30-second review: Not very fancy but pretty full-featured, compared with my old watch. Especially appreciate the new battery that holds a charge long enough for a marathon and more. Fast acquisition of GPS fix. Still exploring all the features.)

Over the past two plus weeks since the race, I’ve rerun it many times in my mind--what I might have done differently and whether I really had to slow down so much over the final five miles. But, I’ve no regrets about my decision to go for the PR. Training for Wineglass had generally gone well, despite the hot and humid weather for most of the 16 weeks. Of course, in a marathon, once a decision has been made at the start, one is committed for the rest of the race—there’s no backing out. By the time a decision turns out not to be a good one, it’s too late!

I crossed the finish line at 4:11:20. "Every marathon is an act of faith" that "can humble you." At the start line, I acted on that faith--that my training should enable me to go for the PR. For almost 21 miles, I was on track and felt strong. But, just like that, coming out of the water stop shortly before the end of Mile 21, the quads muscles said no, not today. Those last five miles were humbling. And, my time is not even a BQ. Back to the drawing board.

Here’s the pace chart for Wineglass 2017 and, for comparison, that for Wineglass 2013 and Pocono 2016 (where I’d run my current PR). Three different outcomes but all illustrate why an even pace—that is sustainable—gets one to the finish line the fastest. All three runs, for the first 12 miles, were at around the 8:58 pace for a 3:55 finish. But, as the chart shows, if the early pace can’t be sustained, the slowing down in the later miles is very costly. The banked time in the early miles soon gets overtaken by the run on the bank (!). The starting pace for Wineglass 2017 was sustained much longer (almost to the end of Mile 21), thus the 27-minute improvement over Wineglass 2013. Still, the slowing down and periodic walking over the last five miles probably costed me at least 10 minutes, relative to if I’d run a 12-second slower 9:10 pace (for a 4:00 finish). Those 12 extra seconds might have enabled a sustained pace much past Mile 21. Of course, I don’t know that for sure. But, again, I’ve no regrets.

I have, however, been thinking a lot about the various factors related to pace, in part because of the challenging weather I’d trained through prior to Wineglass. I’ll come back to this in later posts. Here, I summarize the four factors that stood out for me during this training cycle.

1. Temperature – This was mostly not a factor for Wineglass, given the almost ideal weather for the race (began in the 40s and finished in the 50s; ~no wind). But, it was the most memorable during training. Here’s the pace chart for three of the training long runs, with September 10^th being the last one before the three-week taper to Wineglass. The ending temperature of each run is indicated. Although each later run was “two weeks fitter,” the temperature effect was clearly dominant.

2. Breathing/stride rhythm – This came up during one of my Tuesday hill repeats workouts. For 75-second repeats, I counted to 115, 2 strides per count. I noticed that a repeat was a few seconds faster by counting through (1, 2, 3, …, 115) than by counting by 10s (1, 2, 3, …, 10; 2, 2, 3, …, 10; 3, 2, 3, …, 10; …). Perhaps there was a subtle effect on breathing (?). During Wineglass, I counted through, which, in addition, helped with the mental aspect (taking the mind off the fatigue).

3. Carbohydrate sensing - I'm still testing the results of studies that showed how rinsing the mouth with a carbohydrate solution without swallowing affected performance (e.g., Chambers et al. (2009). During pre-Wineglass training, I began to hang on to each gel packet after consumption and periodically sweeten my mouth with the small amount that always gets left behind in the packet. (Hope my dentist doesn’t see this!) I tried a variation of this during Wineglass, by consuming the gel a little bit at a time over distance, rather than all at once.

4. State of mind – This is perhaps the most important factor but also the most difficult to effect changes. If I could no-running run and, thus, be not as aware of fatigue, a faster pace might be possible. I did also try this during Wineglass. Still, over those last five miles, I really thought I could not sustained the 8:58 pace. And yet--and yet--when I knew the finish line was just less than half a mile away, on Bridge St. over the Chemung River and before that final left turn onto W. Market St., I somehow could speed up and hold on to that pace all the way to the finish line.

As for the race itself, my previous report for Wineglass 2013 had provided some details. Wineglass is a great race all around, including the impressive logistics of the bus shuttles to the start line; ample (16!) water/Gatorade stations, three with gels; well-prepared and smiling volunteers; enthusiastic spectators, especially where the course winds through the several towns along the way (e.g., Savona, Campbell); downtown Corning finish on W. Market St.; and well-stocked finish line food (great vegetarian chili!). Free parking was plentiful at the bus shuttle pickup point. The race expo was at the Corning Museum of Glass, which was very fitting, given the unique glass finisher’s medal. The bottle of champagne with accompanying wineglass was a nice inclusion in the race swag. As one of the many spectator signs said, “Run now; wine later!” The biggest change/improvement this year, compared with 2013, was the stay-warm tent at the start, along with garages opened courtesy of the Steuben County Highway Shop. Because getting all the runners via the shuttles to the start took some time, having a sheltered place to wait, especially for those (like me) who took the early buses, made a big difference.

So, back to the drawing board. For Boston 2019, I'm planning on two more marathons during the first half of next year: (1) B & A Trail Marathon on an asphalt “rails to trails” bike and running path and (2) Pocono Marathon. I'll be training for a 5-minute PR, at 8:47 pace (for 3:50), which I feel is realistically doable. For Boston 2019, that would be 20 minutes under my threshold BQ time and put me in the first group to submit applications. I don't want to leave anything to chance!