Number 30 was the
Hatfield and McCoy Marathon on 9 June 2012. I finished in
3:18.25 after running the first half in
1:32:15 and the second in 1:46:10. I placed first in 50-54
age group, 14:34 ahead of the next finisher, who was in turn 13:11
ahead of the next finisher. 21 people ran in the age group. This
was the first marathon at which I placed in my age group.
This run was the culmination of an unexpected
transformation. As previously mentioned, I
began experimenting with diet in the summer of 2011. After trying
Atkins for a week or two, reading the China Study I tried
veganism. After reading critics of the China Study, I explored
numerous other books, ultimately liking Eat,
Drink and be Healthy the best. In the meantime I saw New
York Times Magazine articles and Sixty Minutes stories on Robert
Lustig's work and watched his lecture Sugar,
the Bitter Truth, on youtube. Rachael and I settled into a
"slow carb" diet, emphasizing fruits and vegetables, snacking
freely on nuts and dried cherries, eating as many greens as
as possible, minimizing but not totally avoiding red meat,
choosing fish more often and totally avoiding bread and potatoes.
Of course, I had given up sugar water and beer years ago.
Strangely, no limits on wine. The upshot was that even though I
already thought I was thin, I lost 20 pounds over 10 months, going
into this race at 153.
I had planned to run a marathon in December 2011,
but pulled a hamstring in late September. This led me to try
barefoot running again. As also previously
discussed, I tried minimalist running after reading Born to
Run to disastrous results. The seeds of the second attempt began
the evening of the Santa Rosa Marathon. I needed to drop off the
rental car in downtown San Francisco that afternoon. Arriving
downtown at 4 pm in flip flops, I realized that it would be more
efficient to stay downtown ahead of a dinner date at 6. I needed
new footwear asap. I saw some good looking shoes in the window of
the Merrill Store at Union Square and went into to say I wanted
some nice causal shoes. The salesman guided me to some clunky
things. "What about the shoes in the window?" I asked. "Those
aren't for you, they are the latest minimal running shoes." was
the answer. "Give me a pair," I replied. Thus began my love affair
with Merrill True Gloves. I began running in them in September. In
late October I bought Vibram Five Fingers and another pair of True
Gloves at the REI store in Mountain View. Starting with 1 mile
runs, building through 3 and finally back to normal, I transformed
my running style over a 6 month project. Successful transformation
is beautiful and unexpected.
Between the weight loss and new stride, I am
suddenly faster than ever. I ran several 19:30-20:00 5K's this
spring.
The Hatfield and McCoy Marathon is in a remote location. The nearest
interstate is over 80 miles away. Even after a 80 or 90 mile
evacuation, one finds oneself in such less than cosmopolitan centers
as Charleston or Bluefield, WV or Summit KY. Rachael and I drove
there through Bluefield, following the Tug River valley along US 52.
The 100 miles from Bluefield takes 2.5 hours. On the way in and on
the way out we repeatedly listened to Patty
Loveless singing "You will never leave Harlan alive." We got
lost a couple of times while in eastern Kentucky and drove
increasingly narrow roads up increasingly dark canyons listening to
Patty cry "where the sun comes up about 10 in the morning and the
sun goes down about 3 in the day." We wondered if we would ever
escape Harlan alive.
Finally arriving at the Belfry High School in Goody, we picked up
our race packet on Friday evening and drove 30 miles to the Holiday
Inn Express in Pikeville, which was the closest hotel we could
arrange (the marathon coincides with other Hatfield and McCoy
Festival events.) Pikeville is Patty Loveless' hometown. She is
literally a coal miners daughter.
Saturday, race day, morning we parked near the finish in downtown
Williamson, WV and caught a convenient shuttle to the start at Food
City in Goody, Ky. Most of the course runs in Kentucky, which
is good because that is the state for which I am counting this run.
My West
Virginia race was in Huntington in 2006. I had previously run
a mile or so in Kentucky during Ohio's
Flying Pig in 2000, so stepping out of state for a mile or so
during the Kentucky run seems quite fair. Unfortunately, I forgot to
change glasses as we left the car in Williamson. I normally run in
sunglasses and had put my restraining strap on them. I complained to
Rachael that I had the wrong glasses as we rode the shuttle, but
thankfully we remembered that there was no problem because the sun
wouldn't come up until about 10 in the day.
I once again used Adidas MiCoach to train. In my lightened state, I
had a disastrous long training run with no nourishment and so for
the first time trained with strong reliance on gel packs. I
experimented on one long run with real food (cookies and chocolate)
but found that I had an immediate gag resistance to eating while
running. I had read other blogs commenting on this effect, sometimes
its good to listen to experience. So packaged cake frosting (gel
packs) had to be used. I had an excellent 22 mile training run 3
weeks before the race with gel every 4-5 miles. I took a gel at
miles 3, 6, 10, 14, 18 and 21 during Hatfield McCoy. I also started
the race with a major training violation as shown here:
88 was the forecast high for Williamson on race day. Worried
about the heat, I entered the race with no time goal and went
shirtless. The temperature at the 7 am start, however, was in
the mid-50's. After the requisite rifle and pistol shots
by impersonators of
Devil Anse Hatfield and Randall McCoy to start the race, I
decided to run as felt natural and easy, which strangely was a
sub-7 minute pace. I basically ran a 7 minute first half and an
8 minute per mile second half, despite a major climb in the
first half, as shown here:
The stops in the 16th mile were restroom breaks. The stop at mile 18
is because I took a fall coming of the 2 mile gravel trail stretch
from miles 16-18 on to a golf course. (Actually the slowing before
the stop is the fall, the dead stop is time at a water station to
wash out the wounds. Water stops came every mile and included ice in
the drinks in the second half.) I was opening a gel pack at the
time, which distracted me enough to scrape me knees and hands. At
the time I was expecting things to fall apart at any moment since I
had gone out so fast. I limped most of the golf course, but
recovered fine and was surprised that things were not falling apart
after all. The main impact of the fall was that I was overwhelmed
with paramedics and helpful bandage volunteers at the finish.
I believe that 1:32:15 is the fastest half I have ever run. I am not
sure why it felt so good. I was flying as we came by the funky half
finish area in Matewan, WV. From miles 7-13 I was, for the first
time in my life, surprised to see mile markers appearing so quickly.
Only at miles 22-26 did I begin to wish for the marker before it
appeared. The first half was by far the fastest I have ever run
during a marathon. In contrast with early disasters such as Minneapolis,
Cinncinatti
and Memphis,
however, I don't think that I made a mistake to go out hard in this
one. The morning was cool and I attracted running buddies. The first
was a half marathoner from Richmond that labored to stay with me
until mile 6. I then passed a marathoner with gray hair (probably my
age group). He worked hard not to let me drop him until shortly
before the half. I thought he would be on me until the end, I am not
quite sure what happened to him. I don't think that he was Kevin
Berger, who did pass me in the second half on his way to winning the
45-49 group, but perhaps I am confused. The mystery runner was from
Philadelphia, Mr. Berger seems to be an accomplished runner from the
middle of Pennsylvania. I think that he was the generous runner that
congratulated me at the finish, where folding chairs are set up in
the shade for recovery (an unimaginable luxury at big city runs).
Given the rising heat (the temperature in Williamson did eventually
climb to 87), I could not have maintained the first half pace in the
second. Juggling paces might have got me another 3-5 minutes, but
3:18 is great and 3:10 was probably not meant for this course on
this day. I ran the entire second half completely alone. This,
combined with the rising heat and the fall at mile 18, explain the
drop in speed. It wouldn't have been easy to go alot faster, but
something more could have been done. I had visions that this race
would lead to a new PR after the half, but I it comes in only as the
second fastest for me. Not bad on a warm day on a challenging
course. The race raises interesting questions about the future of
this project. I have been inclined not to race marathons (i. e. to
run them easy) but, hmmm.....
Devil Anse and Randall hand slapped every finisher, as shown, for
example, here
I looked and felt fantastic at the
finish. Since this year's transformation has been so complete
and unexpected and since, so I have heard, 50 is the acme of
life, I present this image of a happy finisher:
Notice the overwhelming number
of volunteers. This is an incredibly well organized and
friendly race. It is hard to believe that so many turn out
to support it. After climbing over the mountain on rural
roads, the course follows the Tug river closely from mile 11
to the finish. The golf course is generous to allow the run
along the cart paths and over a swinging bridge in the 19th
mile. Just as my transformation was unexpected, I
unexpectedly found Hatfield and McCoy to be among the
favorites
of all the marathons I have done. If I had hit the PR, this
would be run number 1.
It was wonderful that Rachael came along on this trip. She also
trained with MiCoach and took second in her division in the half. We
had an delicious lunch after the race at Key Ingredients restaurant
in Bluefield, had dinner at Chateau Morrisette Winery, stayed in a
B&B just of the Blue Ridge and drove the remaining 120 miles
home at civilized speeds Sunday afternoon. We used to think that the
Blue Ridge was remote, but now we know that it is just the edge of
the wilderness.
