Cellcom Green Bay Marathon - Race Report

I was not shy with my confidence coming off of my first couple races of the 2014 season.  I was positive this was going to be the year I cross the finish line of a marathon with a time under three hours.  I had ran a 1:24 half marathon and two weeks later put up a 17:42.  My fitness was right where I thought I needed it to be.  I was feeling great and I was hitting all my marks in my training.  I was optimistic, happy, and excited to get to race day, as I just knew this was the year.  Or so I thought....  Then it happened...I don't know what it was but suddenly my calf was having issues, new, unfamiliar issues.  I was having calf issues this past January and was pretty sure I had overcome those issues.  I took time off in January and February and honestly really never had any serious issues after the break.  There were point in my training where I "noticed" my calf or ankle, typically during long runs, but who doesn't feel something during a long run???  If you read my previous post, "My Experience With Triggerpoint Dry Needling", you are completely aware of my attempt to overcome my diagnosed ailment in a relatively short period of time in order to perform at my best for the Cellcom Green Bay Marathon.  That will bring us right to my race report....so without further blabbering....

Training Plan

I had thought I had damn near the perfect training plan that fit my weaknesses and my strengths and would ultimately lead me to my first sub 3 hour marathon.  I had it all figured out.  I had an increased weekly mileage, speed work, tempo work, longer long runs, and even rest days.  I focused on three main types of run workouts, mile repeats for top in speed, long intervals for building my aerobic threshold, and long runs to build strength and general endurance.  My mile repeats were always done on a treadmill which allowed me to maintain a sense of consistency.  I structured my mile repeat sessions to be anywhere from 8-12 total miles consisting of 2-6 repeats and a 90 second rest between sets.  I would begin and end each workout with a warm up and cool down, respectively to reach my desired total distance.  Each mile was done between a 5:46 and a 5:42 pace.  The goal of my long intervals was to build confidence at my goal marathon pace of 6:52/mile.  I started with intervals of 2x2 miles and built up to 3x5 miles all at or below my goal marathon pace.  I took 2:30 minute of rest between sets and would also do a warm up and cool down before and after each work out to reach a goal total mileage of between 10-18 miles.  My long runs had no real specific pace goal but just wanted to stay under an 8:00/mile average.  I slowly built my long run distance from 12 up to 24 miles.  The plan was fool proof, at least that's what I thought.

The final 3 weeks leading up to the race.

My training plan took a HUGE hit after the Jailbreak 5k and to be honest, I never saw it coming.  On April 14th with a time of 1:24:31 (6:27/mile).  During that race I felt my right calf (soleus) but it didn't slow me down and never really became and issue.  I followed that race up with a day of rest, then a couple mixed workouts of biking, swimming, and running.  That following Thursday I did a 6x1 mile repeat workout, Friday was an easy 2,000m swim, and Saturday was my longest run of 24 miles.  That all went without a hitch.  My 24 mile long run went really well and did it in 3:08 with breaks (7:50 pace).  the Monday following was an 8 mile easy run and Tuesday consisted of 3x4 mile intervals at or below goal race pace.  On Thursday I completed a brick workout which started with a 2 mile warm up, then 3 sets of 15:00 on the bike and 1 mile hard on the treadmill.  I ended with a 1 mile cool down.  That workout ended with a total of 6 miles running and about 45:00 on the bike for a little over an hour and half.  That Saturday was the Jailbreak 5k.  I started that morning with an easy warm up and did notice my right calf again, but once again, nothing that would prevent me from racing.  It wouldn't have even raised a concern if I were training opposed from racing.  The next day I distinctly remember feeling sorer than usual, especially for just a 5k.  On Sunday, I opted for an easy recovery ride on my indoor trainer, to hopefully stretch out my legs.

That Monday was supposed to be my last long run before the Green Bay Marathon.  I got up super early (3:30am) just to get it in before work at 8am.  I had planned on doing 4 laps on a 5 mile loop for 20 miles.  I was going to run then harder and try to maintain a 7:30 pace and have it feel relatively easy.  I started running and just didn't feel right...at all.  I pushed through the first 5 miles and at about mile 3 of the first loop was when my right calf started to feel like a painful cramp, it felt really tight and it just hurt.  I decided to continue running one more loop with hopes that it would work itself out.  That wasn't the case.  It got worse.  I then called it a day after 10 miles.  My training took a serious hit after this day.  I didn't complete a single scheduled run from that day up to the marathon.  I missed my last long run, I missed my last race pace interval work out, I missed pretty much all my workouts.  Again, you can reference my Dry Needling Post for more specifics on how the "injury" progressed and how I attempted to cope with it.  My hope at this point was just to allow myself to finish by relying on the fitness I had stored away the past 3-4 months.  I tried several times to see if just a couple of days rest would solve the problem just to have the problem reappear either in the same location or in a different spot on my calf.  I knew the dry needling was working, it was just a matter of whether or not it would be enough to allow my body to push hard for 26.2 miles.  With about a week to go, I knew the calf was still an issue, so I took the approach that I had to just rest if I wanted any chance of finishing.  From April 27th (the day after the 5k) up to the race day, I ran a total of 6 times for 38 miles.

Day/Night Before

The day before the race was spent running errands with the family.  I was out of town for a SWAT training conference from Wednesday until Friday.  Immediately after getting home, we all went up to Green Bay for the packet pick up after I finished my last dry needle treatment.  It was kind of funny, as I am always stiff and sore immediately following dry needle treatments, so I got some pretty weird looks limping around the race expo with my bib as a fellow runner.  On Saturday, it seemed to help my tight calf moving around all day, but I would have honestly preferred to stop moving around a little earlier.  Regardless, we finished running our errands around 4ish and I then started prepping for dinner.  I cooked up some rice, vegetables, a sweet potato, all along with a filet of fish.  After dinner, I helped Sarah get the girls to bed, then I prepped a hot bath tub with Epsom salt to assist with the muscle soreness in my calf.  I was ultimately in bed around 8:30pm with a 4:00am wake up call.

I should take a moment to be honest here with my mentality leading up to the race.  I spent probably the entire week leading up the race mentally debating whether or not I should or should not even attempt to run the marathon.  My training mileage was basically nonexistent, and I tried running 3 miles on Friday, but needed to stop after just 2 miles.  I basically had two trains of thought - 1) I shouldn't put my body through any unnecessary stress and potentially ruin the rest of my race season.  and 2) I could at least try running the race and just pull out at the first sign of discomfort.  I played through just about every single scenario the last few days leading up to the race.  I sat and thought about the worst case scenario of DNF-ing for the first time ever.  I always think I will never DNF, I would crawl to the finish line of a race to avoid posting a DNF.  There's a joke that has made the rounds through social media that basically says an endurance athlete's alphabet goes "ABCEGHIJKLMOPQRSTUVWXYZ."  The joke is that the alphabet is lacking the letters, DNF, meaning an endurance athlete never uses the letters DNF.  I believed it.  I dreaded the thought of not finishing a race, it was the last thing I ever wanted.  To me, it meant I quit, I gave up, I didn't try hard enough.

Getting to the Start Line

The sunrise through the construction at Lambeau Field

My alarm went off at 4:00am and I was out of bed with the usual prerace jitters that I live for.  The only issue was that I had some serious doubt in my head.  My calf was tight, as usual, but I had a mindset that I was going to go out there and try and run.  Sarah and I had made a plan that she would set up at the 5 mile mark and that would give me enough time to determine if I would pull out, or keep trying.  After waking up, I made myself my new prerace breakfast of coffee, blended with a tbsp of butter, tbsp of MCT oil, cinnamon, vanilla, and almond butter.  Around 4:45 my dad was at my house to pick me up in order to get to Lambeau Field early enough to guarantee a parking spot, which was going to be limited due to the construction in the road and the stadium this year.  We made it to the stadium and were plenty early, as we were literally the 3rd car parked in the lot and the 2nd ones in the stadium atrium area.  We found ourselves a bench to hang out and just relax.  I spent most of the morning stretching and massaging my calf, which was actually feeling pretty good.  Before we knew it, I was standing at the start line just hoping that my body would allow me to at least finish.

Miles 0-6

After the gun went off, I just started with no real concrete goal in mind.  Sure, I would have jumped at the opportunity to finish in under 3 hours if it presented itself, but I was not going to stress if it didn't.  As the first mile marker passed, my calf was a non-factor.  Then, about a half mile later, I noticed an all to familiar tightness in my right calf, only it was in my lower calf, in the soleus area.  I thought for sure, my day was done.  I made the decision to keep pushing until it made me stop.  For what ever reason, the tightness went away after about a 1/10 of a mile and I was back to feeling normal.  After the first 2 miles, I realized that my auto-lap feature on my Garmin watch was turned off for what ever reason.  I have no idea why it would be turned off, but it was.  I always have it on and set to beep and alarm every single mile to make it easy to track my pace and my mile splits.  I was actually happy that it was turned off.  I was going to allow me to not stress over my pace and would truly allow me to run based on feel.  After the first 4 or 5 miles, I knew a 3 hour marathon was out of the question, even though I was posting mile splits in the range of 6:38-6:48/mile.  My body was clearly telling me that I missed a TON of training the past month.  It was pretty damn obvious that I had not run more than 10 miles in one workout since April 19th, my legs were tired and I was only 6 miles into this thing.

Miles 7-13.1

At this point, I told myself I was going to stop looking at my watch and just run.  I knew I was not going to be setting a PR and I had just hoped I could finish with a sub 3:30 marathon.  I slowed to a more comfortable pace and my calf continued to be a non-issue.  I took my first and second gels at the 7 and 12 mile mark, which I premade the night before in a multi-serving flask.  I put a little over a single serving of Hammer Gel, along with Mito Caps, Race Caps Supreme, Energy Surge, and Anit-Fatigue Caps, and topped the rest of the flask off with water.  I continued to feel surprising good, all things considered.  When I crossed the half way point, I was at a time of 1:31:XX.

Miles 13.1-18

After crossing the half way mark, I mentally began counting down the miles to the finish line.  My body continued to remind me how shitty my training was the last month.  My legs were sore, and I kept thinking, this is just how it feels to run a marathon without training.  At the 15 mile mark I was on pace to run a 3:12 marathon, which I would have been more then happy with.  I saw Sarah and my daughters for the third time around the 15 mile mark while on the Fox River Recreation Trail.  Within the next 1-1.5 miles, my right calf locked up and brought me to a walk.  I stopped to stretch it out and tried running again, hopping that I could just work it out.  I worked for about a quarter mile then it came right back.  I again tried to stretch and run again, but it never went away.  It was at that point I realized my day was done.  I was going to pull out from the race.  I knew Sarah and her family would be around the 17.5 mile point, so I just had to walk a little less then a mile before I could get pulled off the course officially.  I kept telling myself I was making the right decision, and I knew it was, but I couldn't help but think about how I was quitting.  I think I even called myself a "f---ing quitter" out loud a couple times.  While I was making the walk of shame, I could hear volunteers and spectators try to offer their words of encouragement as I walked to find my family.  I heard, "you're looking good," "keep it up," "you're almost done, just 9 more miles," and my favorite, "just walk a little bit, catch your breath, and get back at it!"  Ehhh....I just wanted to say, you have no effing clue.  But I just smiled and said thank you, they were just trying to help, which, hindsight, I do truly appreciate.  Just before finding my family, my dad passed me, he looked good, he didn't even look tired and was running really strong.  He and I just shared a look and he knew exactly what was going on.  I shook my head to say, "I'm done."  We shook hands quickly as he ran passed and said I was making the right decision and continued down the street.  Below is my Garmin File for the portion of the race I did complete...

Green Bay Marathon - Details

Post Race

After pulling out and finding Sarah and the kids, we jumped in the car and headed to Lambeau to watch my dad cross the finish line.  It was at that point were the emotions of not finishing the race hit me.  I tried my best to not cry, but I would be lying if I said, I didn't shed a single tear.  It was hard on me, completely regardless of the entire "quitting" aspect.  I kept thinking back on the past 3-4 months of regimented training, all the sacrifices I had made, and ultimately all the high hopes I had when I scheduled this race.  It was my first ever DNF.  I knew I had made the right decision.  I had two goals this race season.  1) Run a sub 3 hour marathon.  2) Qualify for Team USA at the USA-Triathlon National Championships.  I knew that if I was foolish and just ignored the pain and pushed through the last 9 miles just to finish, I was not going to finish in under 3 hours and I would definitely put my second goal in jeopardy and more then likely have to miss other races this summer.  I could have easily walked the final 9 miles of the race to finish and not get tagged with the dreaded "DNF."  But really, why?  If I had, Sarah would have more then likely remained along the course for the next 3-4 hours just to watch me walk.  And also, what would I have proved?  I have finished 8 previous marathons, 9 if you count Ironman Wisconsin.  I had nothing to prove by simply finishing a marathon.  

Sarah's post to Facebook, informing those, that I pulled out.
This post still means so much to me.

Without a doubt the hardest point came after we arrived back at Lambeau Field and I was pushing Maya in a stroller to the finish line and she turned and simply asked me, "Daddy, are you going to finish?"  Ugh, it still hits me where it counts.  That made me cry, I felt like I was letting my kids down.  They just wanted to see me finish and get a medal.  They don't know the difference between a 2:59 and a 3:59, they just want to see me wear a medal and let them wear it around their neck.  Maya was honestly just as sad as I was about not finishing.

Other Notes

I was able to make it to the start line to watch people finish their race.  I got to see the other end of the emotion's spectrum and see the joy and elation of months of hard work come to an end.  I was able to see a friend accomplish his goal of finishing a sub 3 hour marathon by finishing in 2:59:02.  Shortly after I was able to watch my dad cross the finish line.  He looked just a strong at 26.2 as he did at mile 17.  He finished with a Boston Qualifying time of 3:28:03.  It was really neat to watch him finish.  We then shared a post race beer and talked about his race and my decision to withdraw.  After we left, we grabbed a celebratory (for my dad) beer at Title Town Brewery.  

Lessons for Future Events

Well, it basically comes down to avoiding injury, no matter how severe.  I have no idea what the specific issue is, or the underlying cause of that issue.  I have a few ideas however.  First, I made the conscious decision to change shoe brands AND styles this year.  I have been running in traditional high mileage trainers for my marathon training and racing and then traditional racing flats for all races 5k-10k.  This year, I opted to make the switch to running in Newton Gravity's and Hoka One One Conquest's.  Both of these shoes have a minimal heel to toe drop which puts an added stress on the ankle and calf.  Secondly, after taking most of January and parts of February completely off from running, I jumped right back into run training, even with my 30 mile adventure on March 2nd.  If I were to ultimately guess what the one cause is, I would blame it on the change of shoes with no real transition period into them.  It comes down to the old adage, "DON'T FIX WHAT AINT BROKEN!"  From here on out, I will go back to wearing the shoes that have worked for me for years.  I have already purchased a new racing flat from a company who I have raced in before, Zoot.  All my shoes have a more moderate heel to toe drop.

My first DNF, so sad...let's drink

What's Next

With my first ever DNF now behind me, I am focusing on the start of my triathlon season.  My first triathlon is already less then a month away.  I will be racing the High Cliff Sprint Triathlon on June 14th.  I found an aggressive sprint triathlon training plan leading up to the Age Group National Championships in August were I will try to qualify for Team USA.  The training plan is very specific when it comes to paces and intervals.  The training plan consists of short, yet very intense work outs.  Most work outs are 30-60 minutes in duration with the longest one being about 90 minutes.  I think the transition from long endurance work outs from the marathon to short duration intense triathlon training will be a good change of pace for me and my injured calf.  This transition will also limit the miles of running and break it up more with swimming and cycling, which will also strengthen my legs which I think is something I could benefit from.  I have also, already scheduled a redemption marathon later in the fall to hopefully break 3 hours at.  I signed up for the Whistle Stop Marathon in Ashland, WI on October 11th.  This race works out perfect with my current race schedule, as my last triathlon in August 10th.  That will leave me with 9 weeks of training to prepare myself to run a fast marathon.  This race also works out for my family, as I am already off from work that weekend and my in-laws have a cabin about 30 minutes south of Ashland.  So we already have plans to go up there for an extended weekend as a family and watch the race and celebrate Maya's 5th birthday together.  There is also a kids fun run after the marathon, which Maya is already excited for the opportunity to participate in.  So the more I look ahead, the better I feel about my decision to withdraw from the race.  I even created a wallpaper for my phone to keep me focused on my goals...