Race Report: Lincoln National Guard Marathon (5/4/14)

My Day at the Lincoln National Guard Marathon

I had the race day kit all laid out. I had my banana and baggie of Kix on the nightstand so I didn't wake the family to get breakfast. Alarm set for 4:40AM. Socks, shoes, warmup pants, everything decided in advance.

I went out Saturday night and hid 3 water bottles along the course at miles 5, 11, and 17.5 so I could drink my own special sauce on the course. The forecast called for 50 as a low temp, highs in the 70's and windy conditions. This would be my do-over debut marathon after my 20 mile hamstring burnout at Quad Cities Marathon last fall, and I wasn't leaving anything to chance.

Race day gear laid out the night before.

I didn't sleep well the night before the race, but who does? I went over everything in my head way too many times. What if I get out too fast? too slow? How fit am I right now? How fast is Ryan or Pete or Ivan or Nate going to run? How many elite guys will swoop in from out of state for some prize money? The weather, the wind...? blah, blah, blah.

Just get me to the starting line.

Starting line about 6:20AM. 

I left my house in Lincoln at 5am for the 7am start time. I only live about 15 minutes away. But what am I going to do at home except agonize over which socks to wear. So I was there by 5:20 looking for a good parking spot. I got myself over to the Coliseum and just soaked up the excitement at last minute packet pickup for about 30 minutes or so. Something oddly comforting about listening to other people talk about their upcoming race and how they hadn't trained properly.

I'm normally a loner before a big race. This day was no different. I had about 15 Lincoln Running Company teammates running either the full or half marathon and doing a team warmup. Thanks but I need my space before a big one.
I ran just over a mile for a warmup. I normally do two miles or more. But this was my deliberate attempt not to feel too warm or too "ready" when the race started. That can lead to getting out too hard and racing right from the gun. I wanted to just settle in the first few miles and make sure I didn't blow myself up.

It seemed to work. I lined up for the race in about the 4th row of runners. I let the Kenyan marathoners (several guys from Minneapolis) and the fast half-marathoners get away from me so I didn't feel the urge to go with them. I started the race at a very easy pace (6:22 first mile) and talked with teammates Ryan Regnier and then Hayley Sutter during the first couple miles.
Looking up the road, I could see the race working out in front of me. Nate Stack was out very strong with his Team Nebraska teammates, but they were running the half-marathon.

Also in front of me were Ivan Marsh and my teammate Brian Wandzilak. I caught up to them around mile 2 and ran with them for a few miles as we passed through some historic neighborhoods and had some great crowd support along Sheridan Boulevard. Brian announced that it was his 'hood. And I guess I can't argue, he really does live a block or so off the marathon course.

Myself, Wandzilak and Marsh around mile marker 4.

I had run 6:22, 6:10, 6:10, 6:09 for the first 4 miles and I felt like I had the brakes on, so I started to press just a bit during mile 5 and left Wandzi and Marsh behind. I climbed the hill at 48th and Calvert (probably the first real hill of the day), grabbed my first water bottle from under a nearby tree, turned onto 48th street and hit mile 5 (6:09). There's a long downhill here for nearly a mile. I sucked on my water bottle during that mile and was running with Jerrod Anzalone from team Nebraska Run Guru Elite (NRGE). We passed several guys during this downhill mile. I went 5:48 for mile 6 and was feeling good.

Miles 7 and 8 were along the Highway 2 trail. I left Anzalone behind and caught up to Pete Kostelnick from team NRGE during this time and we ticked off a 5:53 and 5:57 together. Somewhere in here I had a GU. Then Anzalone caught us again as we climbed "The Hill" on 20th street together. There were some good groups of spectators along the way. But I called out a couple of quiet groups and said, "It's not a funeral YET, you can make some noise!"

View from the bottom of "The Hill."

View halfway up where "The Hill" levels off before rising again. 

"The Hill" is a moderate climb of about half a mile and it really wasn't too bad. It's definitely the longest hill on this marathon course. But the thing about this course is that it never stops rolling. Even the "flat" parts along Highway 2 have just enough elevation change to mess with you. (If you think that Highway 2 trail is flat, think about the climb up to the Arby's/Rock Island Trail interchange coming from east to west.)

I split 6:10 for miles 9, 10, and 11. Or at least I split 18:30 for those 3 miles---I forgot to hit my watch during those miles because I was talking with Kostelnick and Anzelone and trying to pay attention to the turns we had to make. At this point it was myself and Anzalone working together and Kostelnick was starting to fade. I had another GU and grabbed my next water bottle at mile 11 (sitting beside a telephone pole only a foot off the road) and sucked on that for a mile or so heading up 10th street toward downtown. I was feeling pretty good, feeding off the crowds, and passing more half marathoners during miles 12 and 13. I left Anzalone behind as we approached downtown. I went 5:54 for mile 12 and 5:55 for 13.

This is where the half marathoners turn into the stadium to finish and you can get a sense of where you stand in the marathon field. Up to this point, when you passed another runner it was common to ask "you in the half or full?" and maybe say a few words of encouragement as you pass. But now with the half marathoners gone there was no more mystery, and it felt lonely pretty quickly. I split right around 1:19:40 for the half marathon (the timing mat missed this one somehow). I would have preferred to be more like 1:18 at the half marathon mark, but I was trying to stay relaxed and not burn myself out too early so 1:19:40 was fine.

I could see Nate Stack in his red Team Nebraska singlet and also a National Guard runner maybe 30 seconds ahead of me as we headed from the half marathon point onto the lonely Antelope Creek Trail.
The wind, which I hadn't really noticed during the first half marathon, was now smacking me in the face as we headed east and south. Miles 14, 15 and 16 were just me slowly reeling in Stack and the National Guard runner. Stack even gestured to me a few times to get up there and help cut the wind. I felt decent on miles 14, 15 and 16 and had splits of 6:02, 6:07, and 6:08. I caught them somewhere around the 16 mile mark.

I downed another GU and settled in with the two guys I had been working to catch. Unfortunately, the spectator support was really lacking on this stretch compared to the first 13 miles. And the wind seemed to get increasingly worse as we ran miles 17 and 18. We were all suffering. Just before I grabbed my final stashed water bottle at mile 17.5, I remember thinking it wasn't just the wind that sucked, but it was getting hot outside too.

I took a couple drinks from my bottle in the next block or so and then tossed it. I felt like the bottle was slowing me down as I tried to keep pace with the other two guys. After less than a mile I knew dropping that bottle was a bad idea. I had a drink called Tailwind in there, which is similar to Gatorade but with a higher salt content. I had split 6:10 for mile 17 and was still with the pack. But during mile 18 I started to see spots and lose my vision.

I backed off late in mile 18 on the steep climb up to Holmes Lake and lost touch with Nate Stack and the other runner. I knew I needed some salt but I had thought the Tailwind would be enough so I didn't have any salt pills on me. I started to wonder if I could finish this race at all.
My legs, and especially my calves, were starting to feel like stone at this point. I wasn't sure if I had perhaps gone too minimal on my shoe choice or if the little rolling hills had taken a bigger toll on my legs than I thought. Probably both.
The Skecher's GoMeb Speed 2 is a light shoe and felt great on my foot the entire race. Meb swears by it, but I'm 6-4 and 160 pounds.....he's not. I'll explore this more in another post......

Skecher's GoMeb Speed 2 in action.

Luckily, I was able to get Gatorade at an aid station at mile marker 19. I knew that I would get to pass that same aid station again at mile 20---after the turnaround loop on 70th street. So the thought of more Gatorade carried me through mile 19, even though my vision wasn't the best. I ran exactly 6:24 for miles 18, 19, and 20. The wheels were coming off for sure and I was suffering. But these were also rather hilly miles and I literally couldn't even see straight.

The good news was that I had made the turnaround at 19.5 miles so I got a look at who was chasing me. I had been counting runners and I was in tenth place. Everyone behind me looked like they were suffering too. My teammate Ryan Regnier was the only one within a minute of me at the turnaround and he looked strong. I got my vision back at that mile mark 20 aid station and I was determined to hold my teammate off as long as I could. We had expected to see each other somewhere around mile 20 or 22. I knew going in that his strategy over the first 10k was even more conservative than mine. This is a guy that I meet at 5am twice a week to run with, we weren't being secretive about our race day strategy. He truly likes to build up his pace, stay comfortable, and come from behind in the marathon. I'm just not that patient.

I ran mile 21 and mile 22 in 6:20 and 6:12, respectively. But still I could feel Ryan Regnier getting closer and closer behind me. I passed my wife and kids for the last time at mile 22 and my wife gave me a cold towel, which was great. My boys were handing out fruit snacks to the runners too.

Samson, 5, and Gavin, 9, eating donuts and waiting for me to run by.

Ryan Regnier passed me just after mile marker 22 and I tried to go with him but my legs just wouldn't respond. I hung close to him for mile 23 but only ran a 6:28. I knew it was a mental game from here on in. 3 miles to go. I was convincing myself to push to the next block, then one more.
I was also passing many marathoners now (face to face) who were still on their way out to Holmes Lake and some offered encouragement. (The second half of the marathon is out and back.)

It wasn't pretty, but I went 6:33 for mile 24, 6:43 for mile 25 and 8:06 for the final 1.2 miles into Memorial Stadium. The finish at the Lincoln Marathon is on the 50-yard line right on the "Big Red" letter N. Pretty cool, especially for Nebraska fans. By the way, it was nice to have an entirely separate full marathon chute leading into the stadium because so many half marathoners were finishing at the same time as me.

I finished in 11th place in 2:43:03. I was about 75 seconds behind my teammate Regnier. And one spot out of the prize money! On the bright side, as bad as I felt, nobody else passed me or was even near me those last few miles. See Results Here.

My race didn't go perfectly, but I rolled with the punches and was able to finish my first full marathon with a respectable time. If I had a mulligan, I may have pushed a bit harder in the first half and definitely would have taken in more salt and fluid the whole way. I had 3.5 GU's/Gels during the race and probably only about 30 ounces of water and sport drink. Despite having my own fluids at my disposal, I just hadn't trained properly on taking in large amounts of fluid while running fast.

Special thanks to my sports chiro dude Dr. Rob Lane in Lincoln for keeping me healthy enough to run a March 1st 50k and then a May 4th marathon on a hammy that is still a work in progress!

Race Organization and Goodies: 

After I finished, things were a bit of a cluster. But with 12,000+ entrants this year (up from 10,000 last year) you have to expect some congestion. Tons of half marathoners were finishing when I was and we were all being herded off the football field and into the ground floor of the stadium where they had drinks and snacks available. But you had to grab it fast as you were being pushed down the hallway. It was just too many people at once and my legs were rubbery. I congratulated Regnier and Stack, then I grabbed a Gatorade and headed straight to the massage area and got worked on. They gave priority to marathoners (over half-marathoners) and they got me right in!

Kudos to Lincoln Track Club on a great race. The event was organized very well from packet pickup to pre-race emails to bike marshals on the course. Having the National Guard there in uniform, and seeing them working a water stop and the finish line, was awesome too.
More spectators on the second half of the course would be great, but you can't have it all.

Finisher medal, age group award, and salt-crusted hat.

Lincoln Track Club has done a really nice job growing this race over the last several years. I see why it sells out so quickly each year and why all 50 states are represented. But it's definitely time to stop and evaluate that growth/entrants allowed. The awards ceremony (with free lunch) was a great time to catch up with rivals and teammates. The awards themselves are nicely done and they offer awards deep into each age group. The finisher medals are substantial and handsome.

The race shirt looks more like a 4th of July theme, but this is the Lincoln National Guard Marathon and apparently serves as a championship race for that branch of the military. And the Guard did have some tough competitors out there. I know at least one Guardsman beat me to the finish line.

The Bottom Line: 
This is a hometown race with heart. Even if Lincoln isn't your hometown.


My splits are listed below:
Mile 1: 6:22
Mile 2: 6:10
Mile 3: 6:10
5k: 19:25
Mile 4: 6:09
Mile 5: 6:09
Mile 6: 5:48
10k: 38:06
Mile 7: 5:53
Mile 8: 5:57
Mile 9: 6:10 estimated
15k: 56:54
Mile 10: 6:10 estimated
Mile 11: 6:10 estimated
Mile 12: 5:54
Mile 13: 5:55
Half Marathon: 1:19:40 estimated
Mile 14: 6:02
Mile 15: 6:07
25k: 1:34:27
Mile 16: 6:08
Mile 17: 6:10
Mile 18: 6:24
Mile 19: 6:24
Mile 20: 6:24 and 2:02:44
Mile 21: 6:20
Mile 22: 6:12
Mile 23: 6:28
Mile 24: 6:33
Mile 25: 6:43
Mile 26.2: 8:06 and 2:43:03 total time