I guess I didn't feel much like updating this blog after my previous post in August. But for most of the previous several months I've been able to train and did in fact run the Rehoboth Marathon on December 2 - my first marathon since coming back from my hamstring tear. My goal was mainly just to make it to the start and finish lines, but I also hoped to run faster than I did in my previous marathon, the Shamrock Marathon in 2022 (3:15:34), which I ran on limited training after recovering from an earlier (and less significant) injury. I succeeded, running 3:15:01 (7:27/mile average pace) in Rehoboth on what is certainly a slower course than Shamrock. My hamstring tightened up a bit the last few miles, but otherwise it didn't give me trouble.
I won't give all the details of my training here. But here's my weekly mileage for the 16 weeks leading up to Rehoboth, beginning immediately after my last post: 35, 51, 54, 55, 21, 10, 33, 35, 35, 45, 50, 55, 60, 45, 37, 42 (race week including the marathon). Average: 41.4 miles per week.
The reason for the dip in mileage after the first few weeks was that I injured my back doing exercises to strengthen my recovering hamstring. All year I've been doing such exercises 2-3 times per week, and many hamstring exercises are effectively also lower back exercises. I think it was single leg Romanian deadlifts with a dumbbell, one of my staple exercises up to this point, that somehow tweaked something in my lower back. It was very uncomfortable for about a month, but eventually it recovered and I still had time to get the long runs and weekly volume up to a pretty good level before tapering. I stopped doing all single leg exercises after that back injury (but continued doing other exercises 2-3 times per week once my back recovered). I plan to experiment with new hamstring/back exercises going forward.
Workout-wise, I basically just did some strides, threshold intervals, and a long run each week, in addition to easy/recovery runs (and always at least one day off). The threshold intervals of course got progressively longer over time, both in the sense that individual intervals got progressively longer and in the sense that I spent more total time at threshold pace per workout. They culminated in a 3 x 2 mile threshold workout two and a half weeks before Rehoboth, and then a 5 mile Turkey Trot probably a bit under my current threshold (6:27 pace) a week and a half before Rehoboth. Long runs ascended to a peak of 22 miles before immediately tapering. I didn't really do specific pace work during long runs but tried to run vaguely marathon effort during the second half of some of the longer ones.
Going into the marathon, I thought optimistically that I might be somewhere around 3:10 shape. So, I planned on going out at 7:15 mile pace and seeing how that felt. I figured that on a good day I might be able to speed up a tiny bit later on, but realistically not much. So I was thinking 3:08 would be the absolute best time possible for me that day if everything went better than expected. 3:10-11 was the more plausible goal if I could just more or less hold 7:15 pace the whole time. But I at least wanted to run faster than I did at Shamrock. I was happy just to be running a marathon again and couldn't be disappointed with any time faster than my previous marathon.
I knew that nearly half of the Rehoboth course is off road, and I had never before run a marathon that was not entirely on roads. (This was my 19th marathon start and 18th finish). But I didn't really know what to expect from the off road sections of the course. I'd heard the course was flat, but how was the footing on the off road sections? Would they be super soft or muddy since it had rained the previous day? I wore the Nike Vaporfly Next%2, hoping that they would work well enough on the off road sections, since they're my current choice for road races.
The first 4 miles or so of the course are on roads and boardwalk. I felt good and ended up running these miles around 7:05 pace, faster than planned, but I was comfortable. I then eased back to around my planned 7:15 pace for the rest of the first half. My watch said 1:35:32 at halfway, but that includes around a minute spent standing still in mile 8 trying to get a rock out of my shoe.
The first off road section was around miles 5-8. The surface was pretty hard packed and didn't have any larger rocks or mud. There were also some extended sections of boardwalk. So the footing wasn't bad, but what surprised me about this section was that it was not totally flat. Much of it was rolling. The rolling terrain and softer surfaces took much more out of me than the asphalt sections before and after it. I was running around 10 seconds per mile slower than I had been on asphalt in the first four miles, but I was working harder. Then, running the same pace on asphalt in miles 8-13 or so was considerably easier.
The second off road section is around miles 14-17. It's actually the same as the first off road section but run in the opposite direction. Here I slowed down into the 7:20s and started feeling like I didn't know whether I could even maintain that pace all the way to the end. Again it was the rolling terrain more than the soft surfaces that I think slowed me down.
Miles 18-20 or so are back on the road, and then there's a different off road section in miles 21-25. This off road section is less rolling (but still slightly so) but was both rockier and muddier. It's also more crowded, or was for me, because marathoners and half marathoners share this part of the course. So, I was running more or less the same pace as some marathoners, as before, and we were continually passing slower half marathoners. It's an out and back section too, so both sets of runners are going both directions on a relatively narrow trail. I really did not like this part of the course. I gradually slowed down through the 7:30s and eventually struggled to run no slower than 7:40. For probably the last 3 miles my hamstring started sending me occasional warning signals, probably because my lower back had tightened up and forced me into anterior pelvic tilt, which lengthens the hamstrings. So, by that point I just wanted to finish without hurting anything.
I was able to speed back up a bit to 7:27 pace for mile 26 on the road, and then a little more for the last bit before the finish. I was trying to speed up just enough to sneak under 3:15 while aggravating my hamstring as little as possible, but I ended up missing it by a couple seconds. I didn't care, though, since I'm happy to have run faster than my previous marathon. I don't think I was wrong about being somewhere around 3:10 shape on a flat, road course in the same weather. Maybe 3:12 or 3:13 at the slowest. By the way, the temperature was in the upper 50s. It was humid and cloudy. There was some wind but not too much and it didn't bother me. It was a bit warmer and more humid than ideal, but in comparison to all my other marathons I'd classify this as closer to good weather than bad.
So, I think I ran well enough and I'm happy with how my race went given the course and where I'm at right now. But frankly I wasn't a fan of the course. I don't understand why people I've talked to describe Rehoboth as a fast course. It's not the slowest marathon course out there, but it's definitely not a fast course. And the off road sections make it quite unique - to my taste, not in a good way. The other thing people always say about Rehoboth is that the after party is great. You get free food and three free beers, although there isn't room for everyone to sit down. I was amazed to see runners lined up to get into the after party immediately after crossing the finish line. Later I saw videos on social media of people at the after party doing the limbo to loud music with medals around their necks. To each his or her own, but that's about as far away as possible from what I want to be doing immediately after running a marathon, and I certainly didn't want to stand in a long line waiting to get into that sort of scene. (I skipped the after party). So, I'm glad I ran Rehoboth and enjoyed many aspects of it, but it isn't really my cup of tea and I don't plan to go back.
Next up for me is an extended trip to Greece for the first half of 2024. I plan to run a Spring marathon in Europe, but right now that's TBD. Who knows, maybe I'll post running updates here? I'll return to the US in midsummer, and I've registered for the Richmond Marathon next Fall. At the moment I'm thinking of giving Boston another try in 2025. (I was registered but had to miss it this year because of my hamstring injury). By then I'll be 50, so the qualifying times get easier and even my Rehoboth time should easily get me in. As usual, though, all such plans depend on staying healthy.
