Click this picture to finish pictures.
Silicon Valley Marathon
San Jose California October 27th, 2002
My
goals for this were
a)
finish
b)
injury free (on second thought ... no run preventing injuries)
c)
cross the finish line in a sprint
d)
finish in the top 10 in my age group.
Click this picture to finish pictures.
I
finished in 5:08. My outbound was faster than planned.
I started with 6 x 1 splits, but when mile 1 came at 10:18, I changed to
5.5 x 1.5. This did not slow me
enough. I arrived at the turn
around at 1:13, 10 minutes ahead of schedule.
Then
the hills at the start of the second half took their toll, and the trip back was
much slower. As I told you before I had training runs on good portion of the
trail before. The marathon route
did take a couple of loops off the main trail that I had not taken before.
(Outbound the loops were level though the park and were nice, but the inbound
were out of the park and up to the streets, and I did not really need the ups.)
But I knew where I could refill my water bottle and where I could find a no-line
restroom 10 feet off the trail. I
read your report and had seen those things and smelled those smells that you
described on my training runs, but on the marathon I was focused more like when
I drive the I-5 on the week ends between San Jose and Glendale paying attention
to the traffic and not paying attention to the scenery.
At mile 21 I was 9 minutes ahead of a training run I had taken in
Glendale on October 12th, heretofore my longest run so far this year.
Hit
the wall about mile 24 when I realized that I could walk to the finish and beat
my
Anchorage time (5:29) by 20 minutes and remembered that in 2001 5:21 was good
enough for 3rd place in my age group. As
I approached the next to last turn, a motorcycle officer announced 1100 yards to
go. I knew that was over a half
mile and would take more energy than I had.
Kept walking. Before the last turn another police officer said 700 feet
more. I thought I might be able to
make that and started running slowly. 200
feet further a bystander said "Only 300 more meters".
I stopped running. I knew this was more like 1,000 feet.
I had run 200 feet and was now further than I thought.
Another 100 feet and some one said 25 yards.
I did not believe him either.
So
I walked to Mile 26.1 then found enough energy to sprint to the finish and beat
a guy I thought might be in my age group (he wasn't; he was one group younger
and I beat two guys in that group by less than 30 seconds).
This year 5:08 was good enough for 8th place in the age group.
That is the positive spin, the reality is that were only 9 in this age
group this year (there were 6 last year). The
only guy in my age group that I beat was also from Glendale, and makes me the
top Glendale finisher in the age group. Of
the six from last year, two ran again this year and both were 18 minutes slower
than last year. The overall winners
were about 12 minutes slower than last year. The guy from Glendale was Don
Lang. Later I would meet Don Lang at the Whidbey Island Marathon in April,
2003. Don has run over 300 marathons and became quite the mentor in
running marathons in 2003.
I
forgot sun block and body lubricant, but did not get blisters from either.
Fortunately the trail is partly shaded by big trees.
I forgot to take my medicine (that tends to make one drowsy) before bed
so took it in the morning. Fell
once. Tripped on the base for one
of those post they place to keep vehicles off the trail.
The post had been removed and the base covered with duct tape, but still
enough for a tired (mile 18) runner to trip on.
Three point landing on the concrete skinning both palms and left knee. I
got up and continued.
Met
some interesting people (some would say weird).
Before the start I talked to a woman who was running her 26th marathon.
This year. Fourth this
month. Earlier had run St. George,
Hartford (it rained this year) and Rhode Island.
When running the Pacific Shoreline Marathon in January, 2003, I would meet this
woman again and learn her name is Deborah Gobins. She is a member
of the 50 Marathon States Club (10 states to join) and has run in 37 states. I asked how many marathons she had run. She answered, she did not know, but it was somewhere between
250 and 260. This the second I time
I have heard this "between 250 and 260" answer, and it raises the
question of how many marathons do you have to run to lose track of the number?
Also heard from another source that you can get an invitation to Boston
if you have run more than 300 marathons. Makes
quite a challenge for me. a) take 1
hour 15 minutes off my time, or b) run another 298 marathons.
Charles Sayles
Click here to return Pacific Shoreline Race Report click her to return 2004 Delaware Marathon
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