Running the 50 States and DC: Whidbey Island Marathon (11 April 2010)

“I think I’ll run a PR tomorrow.” Never in all my marathons had those words floated through my head but yet on the drive to the Whidbey Island Marathon Expo those words actually floated though my head (I didn’t say them out loud since that would have meant I was talking to myself). Was it the wine tasting that I had just stopped at that made me think those words or just the fact that I actually wanted to push myself in a marathon instead of coasting? For the life of me I can’t explain why I would “say” something like that. I hadn’t come close to a 3:12 in over a year and Whidbey Island isn’t known for its fast flat course. I had run the Ragnar Northwest Passage Relay three years ago and knew first hand just how hilly the course was gonna be since both courses shared nearly the same stretch of road.

Once again I had a 6am flight out of DCA – that is really getting old. I arrived in Seattle, got my rental car and headed off in search of a Japanese restaurant. The one I found was located across the street from the Public Market and around the corner from the original Starbucks. Not the biggest Starbucks fan but I usually go there once a day because it right across the street from work - convenience. So like every other tourist there I had to get a coffee or in this case a peppermint mocha with whipcream. Unfortunately the peppermint mocha tasted just like the peppermint mocha at the Rosslyn, VA store – maybe I was expecting it to taste a little better in Seattle.

From Seattle I headed north towards Whidbey Island. The drive went pretty smoothly (even got to see a bald eagle - two during the whole trip) and reached the ferry where I had to wait about 20 minutes. I was not on a mission where I had to be somewhere at a certain time so it was nice to sit there and relax. Boarded the ferry, took a few pictures and just like that we were at the ferry landing. After disembarking it was about a 50 minute drive to Oak Harbor and the marathon expo. Along the way I stopped and had a wine tasting of some local Washington state wines. There was only one that was worth it and I picked up a bottle for after the marathon.

     I reached the expo, got my stuff and was out of there in about 10 minutes. Now the one thing that struck me as weird were two people outside the expo petitioning to get legalization of marijuana on the November ballot. Now maybe I’m naïve or stupid but I’m not sure that was the best place to petition because smoking doesn’t go well with running but I’m not sure if getting high goes well with running? After a quick stop by the shuttle bus pick-up/finish line I headed to the hotel to check in. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to stay in a motel that has a sign with “Hot Water, Cable Tv, etc” on the marquee. Due to a reservation mess-up I got the “Honeymoon” suite. Remind me to never book my honeymoon at the Auld Holland Inn. It was missing about six panels of the vertical blinds which allowed the street light to shine in like it was noon instead of 2am. Very little lighting, a mini fridge in which the ice cube tray was the only thing that worked but it did have hot water. Other than that it looked like a 5-star Marriot once I closed my eyes.

     Before bed, I got my second Japanese meal of the day and an Asahi beer. My intention was to load up on as much salt/sodium as possible to prevent cramps. It worked in Little Rock so why not try it again. After dinner got back to the hotel watched a bit of TV, set the alarm and then at some point fell asleep and woke up about 1am with the TV and lights on. Quickly turned them off and went back to sleep. At 5am, I was awakened by a text -- even though it was 30 minutes before I scheduled to get up - but in reality for my body it was 8am. At 5:30 I finally rolled out of bed, got a hot shower, got dressed and headed over to the shuttle pick-up area and then stuffed my face with a breakfast bar and yogurt before getting on the last shuttle bus. The biggest decision of the morning was whether or not to short sleeve or long sleeve. Temp were upper 40s with a 15mph wind but were expected to climb to 55F for a high. I went with short sleeve since you dress for race/ending conditions not starting conditions.

      After a short shuttle bus ride to the start line it was time to huddle with other runners under the heat lamps that had been set-up until the race started. I had about 40 minutes before the race started to think about my statement the previous day. I hadn’t run in about 4 days and the last time I ran I felt like I was at mile 24 of a marathon. My legs were dead and I had to take several breaks on my run home. Was my ab pain gonna come back, etc. I had so much doubt that my heart was racing as the start approached and it took a mile before I finally settled down.

(Start area several hours later)

A little after 7:30am we were off. The starting area was flat but after 1/4 mile we were into the rolling hills. It would be that way for 21 of the next 26 miles. Surprisingly, given the generally uphill course for the first 4-miles, my times were 7:07, 7:18, 7:30, 7:30. I turned it up on the downhill and had a 6:58 and 6:48 before hitting the steepest hill on the course and knocking out a 7:59. I never broke the 8 min/mile pace during the entire race and that included a few bathroom breaks and stopping at the aid stations for Gu and water. Hit the halfway point at 1:36:12. I was feeling pretty good and had been talking with Jason for the last three miles about running – go figure. As we approached the halfway point I told him about my favorite quote, “Pass but don’t be passed.” There were so few runners that it would be easy to count and within a 1/2 mile we had passed our first runner. A little after 13.1 I stopped at an aid station and Jason kept chugging along (he was wearing a CamelBak). The next few miles would be relatively flat before we hit the hills again at mile 19.

I knew if I kept this pace up I had a chance at a PR and a BQ. It was just a matter of whether or not I cramped or my legs gave out. My ab pain when compared to the past few races was not that bad so that was not really on my mind. As I ran those last few flat miles before the hills things started to look familiar – it was a leg of the Ragnar Relay I ran in 2007. It was kinda neat to run through a stretch that I was ‘familiar’ with – not sure it did anything for me but it was still neat.

My plan the day before was to turn it on around mile 21 and give it all I had. Too bad for me I didn’t realize it was nearly all uphill from mile 19 to mile 24. I guess I would just have to push myself up the hills and cruise the downhill into the finish line. By this time we had merged with the hoard of half marathoners so I kinda lost track of marathoners but I had passed about five of them since the half way point and I could see a few runners at the turn around point around mile 23 and then I realized that I had gained on a bunch of marathoners. As we crested the hill at mile 24 it was mostly downhill and it was time to give it all I had (again). I caught and passed Jason about mile 25 and told him he had Boston in the bag as I ran by. Within a few seconds I passed about 3 more marathoners and as the course flattened out I was running at a 6:53 pace. I started to look for the finish line and looking at my time. I knew that there was no way I was going to break 3:13 for a PR but that didn’t stop me from dropping my pace down to a 6:35. About 50 yards from the finish I squeezed by between another runner and the finish-chute barricades and beat him out by 2 seconds for a 3:13:24 (he was not in my age bracket). My time was good enough for 19th place and 1st in my age. I wound up passing 11 runners from the halfway mark and four of them were in the last 3/4 mile and that pushed me from 4th in my age to 1st. While I didn’t set a PR I still got a BQ. As with my first marathon in which I cried I nearly cried again but it was not to be - I composed myself and walked over to get some water wearing a big smile.

Got back to my hotel, got cleaned up, went back to the finish line got my age group award (certificate) and then made my way up to see the tulip fields on the north end of the island. Along the way, got to see Deception Pass and the portion of the Ragnar relay that I ran at midnight (a portion of it doesn’t exist anymore – it collapsed into the bay).