Mike's Marathon Blog

5:13:48.

Not the exact time I had envisioned. Even with a bad back and limited training, I still never thought I would ever run that slow. I’ve never run that slow in my life! I know I’m not Ryan Hall, but I know I’m not Al Roker either. It just doesn’t make any sense……..or does it?

When my friend Miriam and I first started training together, we obviously talked about whether we would run together on race day, what pace we would train at, what kind of time were we shooting for, etc. She had run the San Diego Marathon a few years ago and didn’t exactly have a dream run. I was coming off a 6-month training program, suffering from a herniated disc and just finished one of the toughest marathons in the world. Trust me, I was not setting my NYC goals too high.

We decided to run a steady, fun (well, as much fun as you can possibly have running 26.2 miles) and stress-free race, stay together and pace ourselves at 10-minute miles.

During our long-runs on Saturdays, Miriam would wear her Nike distance monitor and I always had my stop-watch. She would tell me what mile we were at and I would keep our pace. These were slow runs meant to condition our legs for mileage and not time. We talked, took our time and tried to enjoy the many hours of pavement pounding as much as possible. During the runs, I would always keep us within 9 to 10-minute miles. I don’t ever recall going under 9 or over 10. Even our 18, 19, 20 and 22-mile runs were in the 9-minute per mile range.

After weeks and weeks of training, we knew we would finish NYC between 4:15 and 4:30. This was pretty much the same range I had for Boston. Even assuming a slower pace towards the end, it still gives you some room to play with. This was not a ‘goal range.’ This was THE range. This was our running pace. If we went for a run right now, we would run around a 10-minute per mile pace. We would not be running slower or faster during the race. 10-minute miles times 26.2 miles is 4:22.

Did we run on a route with the same degree of difficulty as the NYC route? We trained on the hardest section of arguably the hardest marathon in the country. The route wasn’t the problem.

Did my back cause the difference? No. My back did not hurt until the very end. At that point, we were way past our goal-time.

We were actually discussing this throughout the race. Mainly because we could never set a pace. I remember being really strict with time for the first few miles. This is when many runners let their adrenaline take over and run twice the speed they want for the first half of the race, only to realize at mile 20 that they can’t stand any longer.

After mile 1, we were around 11:45. I thought, ‘OK, it was a slow start and we really didn’t even start running until we were 50-feet past the starting line.’ I let it pass. Mile 2, we were still at the same pace, around 24 minutes. This is when I started thinking something was strange. Then Miriam’s distance monitor was acting-up. After we passed mile 3, I asked her what her monitor read. She said ‘4.25.’ OK. This isn’t good.

After mile 7 or 8, I decided to reset my watch for 1 mile, hoping it would be around 10 minutes and we could set a pace from there. After the mile, I looked down to see something like 11:50. How is this possible!? We were running the same speed we always had, maybe even faster!

We were somewhat aggravated, not only with our trouble pacing, but with the insane number of runners we were dodging almost every 10 feet. It felt like we were cars weaving in and out of traffic. It was very frustrating and unfortunately continued the entire race. The worst part about it was that we couldn’t avoid it. People would just stop running right in front of you. Your only choice was to swerve around them. We never really thought about how it would affect our legs towards the end of the race or how it added to the outrageous distance we were already running. How much more distance could it possibly tack on?

At the halfway point, we were around 2:30. We couldn’t figure it out and decided to just let it go. Talking about it any more was simply useless. We were a little upset, but mainly confused.

I stopped my watch, but come to find out later, Miriam never stopped her distance monitor. We never spoke of mileage after 13.1, so I assumed she turned it off as I did. After we crossed the finish line and walked for what it seemed like 10 miles to the exit, Miriam told me her monitor said we ran 31.25 miles. I laughed. At that point, I was really focusing on not puking, not collapsing to the ground and not having a heart attack. She could have said we ran 45 miles and that there was a unicorn jogging next to us and it really wouldn’t have registered.

Miriam texted me our time when I was driving home from Logan. I knew it was somewhere around 5 hours, so I wasn’t too surprised. I wasn’t mad, but I still couldn’t understand how we ran that slow. How did weeks of running 10-minute miles all of a sudden turn into 12-minute miles?

It took me a few days, but I finally remembered the distance Miriam told me we ran after the race. I know those monitors are never 100% accurate, but they’re usually within a mile or 1/2 mile. How was hers off 5 miles? Our 5:13 time comes out to 12-minute miles for 26.2 miles. But what does 5:13 come out to for 31.25 miles?

I punched a few numbers and couldn’t believe what I saw. I texted Miriam immediately! Maybe dodging all those people really did add on to our mileage!?

A marathon route is measured in a straight line. I remember our Boston coaches telling us not to run on the outside of the road because you will absolutely run more distance than you have to. Some times miles more! And that is still running straight! What happens when you’re running from one side of the road to the other?!

Could it be possible that we ran over 31 miles?

We thought we were running 10-minute miles throughout the entire race. BUT, if we were running extra distance within each mile during the race, our time would be skewed. Skewed enough for a 12-minute per mile pace?

5 hours and 13 minutes divided by 26.2 miles comes out to a 12-minute per mile pace. BUT, 5 hours and 13 minutes divided by 31.25 miles comes out to exactly a 10-minute per mile pace! EXACTLY! The same pace we thought we were running the entire time!

Marathon finishers? Please! We are ULTRAmarathon finishers!