When a pace chart goes into atrial fibrillation (Abebe Bikila Day International Peace Marathon race report)

It was a somewhat eerie feeling at the onset—the leg muscles doing their own thing and oblivious of, or at least out of sync with, what the mind was commanding. I was just into Mile 21, on the second “back” leg of the out-and-back course (done twice) of the Potomac Marathon in early this past September. The start and finish of the course, along the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Canal Towpath, was at Fletchers Cove Boathouse, and the turnaround was just outside (to the west) of I-495 (Capital Beltway).

At that point of the course, the C&O Canal was to my left and, to the right, a steep drop down to the Potomac River. What flashed through my mind at the time was my out-of-sync legs catching up too late with the mind and carrying me right off the Towpath and down into the river. The onset of leg cramps in both the quads and hamstrings occurred rather suddenly, without any intimation.

I had not planned to run Potomac this year. But, after I had to sit out both of my scheduled spring marathons, the B&A and Pocono, because of a left hamstring injury, I decided to add Potomac. It’s always run in early September, on the last weekend for qualifying for Boston the following year. Of course, with weather in the Washington, D.C. region, one’s always taking a chance trying to squeeze in an early September race.

As it turned out, the weather for the race was not too bad for temperature—low 70s for high—considering what early September could be in D.C. Of course, that's still much higher than the ideal temperature of the 40s. Plus, there was the humidity. But, at least my shoes remained dry, compared with those that splashed through Potomac 2015.

My finish time of 4:34 was way off my BQ time, even that of my new age group (4:10). Most of the time loss was in the last four to five miles, as I was trying to manage those steadily worsening cramps. Basically, every time I felt the muscles tighten, I'd slow down and walk a bit. Those bits eventually added up to a lot of minutes! The following pace chart shows pace (min/mi; decreasing downwards) plotted against time. Particularly between Miles 22.5 and 24.5, the alternating bits and short running intervals reminds one of a heart monitor screen in one of those TV ER shows, when the patient has atrial fibrillation. Well, sort of.

If I'd been even paced through the entire race and taken the same amount of time at each aid station, then the pace chart would be symmetrical around the start/mid-point/finish of the course, at Fletchers Cove Boathouse. Obviously, that was not the race I ran! My splits for the four 6.55-mile segments were 1:00, 1:02, 1:07, and 1:25. Even before the onset of leg cramps, the deterioration of my pace was already evident. The dips (walking through the aid stations) progressively got deeper and wider. As the finish line got closer, though, I did recover somewhat; there was even a very small end spurt!

So, Potomac turned out to be more an extended long run, the last one before taper for the Wineglass Marathon that I ran three weeks later. The unsatisfying feeling after crossing the finish line was somewhat mitigated by the post-race injera with some kind of delicious Ethiopian hot bean sauce!

For the purpose of qualifying for Boston, I don’t think I’ll be running Potomac any more. It’s just not optimal for BQ, for two main reasons. The first is time of year of the race. Early September means summer training and sub-optimal race weather, even in the best cases. The second is the course itself. Though I quite enjoy the scenic and essentially flat C&O Canal Towpath, the runners do have to share the narrow path with non-racers. Also, this year, because of rain prior to the race, there were still some wet patches that had to be negotiated. The narrow path also means there is, for the most part, no cheering crowds. Along with the small field of runners, which means everyone is mostly running on one’s own, the race is essentially a long Sunday long run.

But, as was the case in my two previous runs of this race (1, 2), the volunteers at the aid stations, turnaround point, and start/finish were super, all cheerfully helpful and encouraging. A big thanks to them all! As well, the race organizers did a nice job in coordinating the different start times of both the marathon and half marathon runners.

A day after Potomac, I ran--slowly--a previously scheduled, wet Howard County Police Pace 5K. I used the race as a checkout run; and I was quite happy to find all the body parts accounted for and functioning. 😊