Cape Cod Marathon Race(walk) Report

If you haven't read Keith Shields interview with us, click here. It is very funny. Below is a somewhat whiny race report so if you've read enough of those, do as I do and just look at the pretty pictures.

Smiling because I know I will be done soon

This past weekend I missed the Blizzard of October by being down in the rather balmy(by comparison only) Cape Cod. I went down with my friend, fellow race director and teammate Rich Lavers on Saturday with his wife and son. We spent the day hanging out with his family who lives down in Falmouth, going to the expo and driving the course. Did I mention the torrential downpour? How about the 30-40 mile an hour wind? Hydroplaning a dozen times in as many miles? Locusts? Okay well no locusts, but you get the idea. The weather was miserable. Two weeks before, Rich had been swimming here and now the temperature was hovering right above freezing. Tree branches were down everywhere.

Note: That is an aR singlet but I was racing for GCS. No singlet yet for them.

I had been training for Cape Cod Marathon for probably the longest of any of my marathons hoping to not only help my team, the Gate City Striders, but also set a new PR. I even held off running any races the day before on Michael Wade's recommendation that it may hinder my marathon performance. The only thing that hindered my marathon performance was my performance. I fell off pace a bit the second ten miles dropping from 6:20 pace to 6:40 but could have still finished fairly well. However, I started thinking(which is never a good thing for me to do) and soon I felt some cramping come on. Was it really cramping or was it all in my head? I'm not sure but all I had to do was run under 25 minutes for the last 5k to break 3 hours but I didn't having to walk miles 24 and 26. Not too impressive.

I can talk about the strong wind gusts, the dehydration from unmanned water stops and lack of long-run training, but that would entirely be ridiculous. I have run faster in strong winds, further with less water and NEVER train with long runs so I cannot blame my performance on any of those things. Additionally, I had my parents pop up at multiple spots along the course in addition to Rich's so I probably had more motivation to keep me going. But for whatever reason I didn't. But luckily they say that gold fish have no memories so their minds are much like mine as this little thing called running is a surprise every time. Best thing to do when you have a lousy(compared to your expectations)race? Train More? No way! Sign up for another race. Hopefully a destination far far away.

Quick Aside: Typically I just throw up pictures on this blog that were shared with me or taken by someone I know. If you notice, a lot of them have a similar name at the bottom: Scott Mason. Scott Mason is an amazing photographer and I am glad to be able to call him a friend. I am always a little disappointed to see him on the sidelines as he is also a great runner but I know that at least I will be getting great photos taken. Check out his website for some amazing pictures.

 

 This was the second marathon this year that I also did my first year(2007) of running. While I improved my Hyannis marathon time by almost two hours, I only improved by Cape Cod time by 16 minutes. Darn.

 

 Danny's 24 Marathons to Date:

1. 10/30/11 Cape Cod Marathon 3:04:54 ---->; BOSTON QUALIFIER
2. 9/25/11 Adirondack Marathon 3:10:00
3. 5/7/11 Ironman St. George 3:56:43
4. 4/16/11 Gansett Marathon 2:52:46---->; BOSTON QUALIFIER
5. 2/27/11   Hyannis Marathon  2:49:02---->; BOSTON QUALIFIER
6. 11/6/10 Manchester Marathon 3:33:02(PACER)
7. 10/31/10 Marine Corps Marathon 2:52:57 --->; BOSTON QUALIFIER
8. 5/2/10 Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon 3:02:21 --->; BOSTON QUALIFIER
9. 4/17/10 Gansett Marathon(Exeter) 2:47:45 ---> BOSTON QUALIFIER
10. 2/28/10 New Orleans Mardi Gras Marathon 2:51:44 ---> BOSTON QUALIFIER
11. 11/1/09 Manchester City Marathon 3:33:18
12. 10/18/09 Bay State Marathon 3:21:23
13. 3/29/09 Ocean Drive Marathon 3:01:41 --->; BOSTON QUALIFIER
14. 3/07/09 Peak Snowshoe Marathon 6:29:10
15. 12/13/08 Roxbury Marathon 4:33:23 
16. 11/2/08 Manchester City Marathon 3:08:41 --->; BOSTON QUALIFIER
17. 10/18/08 Breakers Marathon 3:25:30
18. 10/5/08 Maine Marathon 3:19:24 
19. 5/25/08 Vermont City Marathon 3:26:05 
20. 4/21/08 Boston Marathon 3:34:44 
21. 1/13/08 Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Marathon 3:21:34 
22. 10/28/07 Cape Cod Marathon 3:20:48 
23. 9/22/07 Odyssey Trail Marathon 6:08:11 
24. 2/25/07 Hyannis Marathon 4:44:46

 Up Next: Amber Ironman Arizona; Danny- Yoga, rest and relaxation