Yesterday I ran (swam) the California International Marathon, a race from Folsom to Sacramento. It was my tenth completed marathon since I ran my first marathon in July of 2009.
I had gone to great lengths to prepare for this marathon. Since the middle of summer, I upped my training to run more weekly miles, and run longer long runs. I have been working with a cross-fit trainer to develop my lower body and core strength, all in order to run better, faster, achieve a new PR at this marathon. So it was just a little disconcerting to find out that the weather report for this marathon was quite bleak: Heavy rains and strong winds.
To prepare for this marathon, I went back and read my marathon ninja friend Heather’s race report for the 2011 Los Angeles Marathon, one in which she had to run through a torrential downpour. Heather also gave me some good rain-running advice. (Yes, Body Glide does wash off!) Then I remembered how rain had been predicted for the Oakland Marathon last March, and all we got was a light sprinkling at the start. Maybe the dire weather predictions were overstated or possibly wrong.
Nope.
Before the race it seemed at times that the warming tent might collapse due to the high winds. It was shaking the tent like crazy, and it wasn’t very warm, being as the wind kept kicking up the flaps. It did keep us dry though.
I did wear one of the many trash bags that were handed out before the race to wait for the starting signal, but I took it off right before the start. Maybe that wasn’t such a good idea. The rain was so heavy I was soaked to the skin after a mere half-a-mile. The wind was so strong that it was raining sideways.
I started off strong despite the rain. Keeping track of my pace with my Garmin, I tried to keep myself under ten minutes per mile, but I noticed I was hitting 9 and even 8:30 miles. I tried to slow my pace so I wouldn’t burn out too quickly, but my momentum kept me going forward.
The rain didn’t let up, and even got heavier at times. By mile four I was so done with the rain, but it wasn’t done with us. The weather turned the course into an obstacle course, with loose and slippery trash bags lying on the course, and a higher number than usual of dropped objects were present: More clothes, hats, water bottles, and other running gear. I also got buffeted by the winds so badly at one point and was shoved into another runner. I also got bumped into or cut off by runners trying to avoid obstacles, jumping over small rivulets, and also getting shoved by the wind.
The rain also created some more hazardous conditions: Some gutters turned into rushing streams, sometimes washing away fleets of drinking cups at the water stations. On several occasions we had to run off course to circumvent flooded streets, and occasionally police or fire fighters would block off flooded sections of the course. It was real rain, not the light sprinkly stuff. On more than a few occasions I squeezed my wicking running shirt to get some of the water out, and my feet were heavy from my soaked shoes and socks.
By mile nine the rain had still not let up at all, and had even come down harder at times. It was around this point when I realized what an effect the weather was having on me. I was soaked to the skin, everywhere, and the obstacle dodging, heavy winds, and just being weighted down by the constant water made me wonder if this was going to turn into a “just finish” marathon, rather than the PR attempt I had been training so hard for.
And it wasn’t just me. It was obvious that the weather was effecting the other runners quite a bit, and to differing degrees. I was pacing or passing other runners that I knew I had no right keeping up with, runners who would obviously be a lot faster than me under normal conditions. We were all getting beaten down by the storm.
Just before the halfway point, I realized I was running a 4:20 pace, but I was getting so beaten down I had done something I swear I wasn’t going to do for this race: Take a walking break. It was only a minute, but I was just getting so discouraged. We were still being doused, and I realized that the weather, rather than my fast start, was beating me down.
It was at this time I found out that my waterproof iPod holder that I purchased at the running expo was actually waterproof, just like the guy said it would be! I hit myself with my tunes sooner than expected. I was going to wait until mile 18 before firing up the iPod, and normally I would not listen to my tunes in bad weather conditions, but I just told myself damn the torpedoes, I was going to try for a PR if it killed me.
I maintained a decent-to-slow-then-decent-again pace up until mile 20 when a miracle happened: It stopped raining! Yes, we were doused for the first twenty miles of this marathon, and even though I was soaking wet and my Body Glide had definitely deactivated, I picked up my pace and pushed myself as hard as I could for the last 6.2. By mile 23 I realized I could just barely get a new PR if I pushed myself, but not by much. It would be close.
(I also saw the weather’s affect on my performance later. Out of four splits, my second-best split was the last one, the one without the rain!)
I never came close to hitting the wall in the last six-mile stretch. I beat my PR by 3 minutes and 36 seconds. Yeah, a new marathon best for me, but not by much.
Even so, I managed a PR in the absolutely worst running conditions I have ever endured for a race. I know the monsoon like conditions slowed me down, and I wonder what my time would’ve been if it had been nice and calm and dry like last year. I imagine I would have done at least fifteen minutes better otherwise!
Things here and there:
Despite the deluge, there were a fair amount of spectators and lots of raincoat wearing volunteers. Awesome! We had plenty of allies in our wet 26.2 journey.
Asking a fellow runner if we should start swimming. She asked “Can we be DQ’d if we use a boat?” I pointed out to her that the rules made no mention of using boats!
Sign held by a spectator: “Watching you run is making me wet.” 🙂
