Race Preview: Spinx Run Fest Marathon 2012
This quote hung as a poster on the wall of my 11th grade U.S. History class and has stuck with me ever since. Unfortunately, that is about all I remember from that class. I guess I’m no good at remembering my marathon past, either, especially how much the last few miles hurt. As a result of this memory loss/denial, this weekend on October 27th, I’ll run my 4th marathon, the Spinx Runfest, in Greenville, South Carolina.
Earlier this summer, I planned to run Kiawah Island as my next marathon. Plans changed, and I had to switch to Greenville. The early bird low price made it a good choice, too. Unfortunately, the race is six weeks sooner than Kiawah, so my training cycle was a little shorter. That’s OK. I was tired of the long Saturday runs.
Switching to Greenville is going to have one disadvantage to Kiawah, though – the hills. The race starts in downtown Greenville and make its way up the Swamp Rabbit Trail (a reclaimed railway path), over to Furman University, and then on to the town of Travelers Rest. There, we’ll turn around and pretty much reverse the route back to the finish in the Greenville Drive’s stadium. So, generally the first half is uphill and the second half is downhill. Sounds like the perfect time for a negative split. Here’s the elevevation map, courtesy of the Runfest web site & MapMyRun.com:
Spinx Runfest Marathon Elevation Map
Back to history. Since this will be my fourth marathon, I suppose I should look back on the first three to identify some big mistakes and try not to repeat them. Here are the biggest mistakes from each of my first three.
1. Kiawah Island, December 2009. Mistimed my final pre-race trip to the port-a-johns and the lines were too long. Not wanting to mis the race start, I decided to wait until I really had to go on the course. This occurred about mile 15. Unfortunately, my legs thought this 2 minute break was for good and really balked about restarting.
Kiawah Lesson: If you cannot take a last restroom break immediately before the race, at least stop in the first few miles.
Likelihood of remembering this on Saturday: Excellent.
2. Myrtle Beach, February 2011. After training all winter in cold weather, the race day starting temperature was a balmy 55 degrees. This was great running weather for a while. As the sun climbed, though, so did the temperature. By about mile 18, it was around 70 degrees and sunny, much hotter than anything I’d trained in for months. Since the first part of the race felt so good, I did not do a good job of taking in fluids, and I was about to pay the price. The last two miles were a big struggle as I was severely dehydrated.
Myrtle Beach lesson: Take in fluids early, even if you don’t feel like it you need it.
Likelihood of remembering this on Saturday: Very Good. Weather forecast very similar to that day in Myrtle Beach.
3. Columbia, SC, March 2012. Around mile 16, I was running all alone and my focus was starting to drift. Then, the 3:45 pace group passed me. I hadn’t been too concerned with pace up to this point and was just enjoying the day. As they passed, though, I had the crazy thought of ‘Hey, I’m feeling OK. If I can keep up with these guys, I’ll set a PR on my toughest marathon course yet.’ That went well for about 6 miles. I then crashed and burned on the Trenholm Road hill, watching the pacer pull away.
Columbia Lesson: Don’t make unrealistic pace decisions during the race.
Likelihood of remembering this on Saturday: Hmmm. Still pondering!
POFIFOTO!
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