First Marathon Race Report: The Cumming Marathon

 

The 2021 Cumming Marathon wasn't close to being my first choice for a first marathon. The lack of a big city atmosphere and tradition weren't appealing to me. The overall tools the race put in an athlete's hand wasn't something I was wild about. However, it ended up being exactly what I needed in an entry to marathon racing. A challenging course where I had to adjust on the fly and learn some hard lessons in the process of accomplishing two of my three main goals. 
 
I didn't spend all that much time putting together a goal portfolio for this race. The main goal in racing this was to get an official marathon under my belt. I ran the distance earlier in the year but I wanted an official setting to get a feel for the process.
  • A goal was to simply finish and not have to DNF. ✅ 
  • B goal was to finish under 4:15. ✅ 
  • C goal was to finish under 4:00 🔴
The C goal for this race wasn't all that realistic even if I didn't bonk, which I'll get into later. The hilly nature of the course and my overall fitness at the time wasn't conducive to a sub 4-hour Cumming Marathon.

Training

I followed a version of Hanson's advanced. My main problem was I got into peak marathon shape in late summer, so by the time this marathon came around I was kind of stagnant. Looking back, I should have just restarted the plan and peaked on time. First-timer mistakes. 

I came into the race a few pounds heavier than I would have liked given some strength training blocks I'm in the middle of. Again, speed wasn't the first goal for this race so I wasn't concerned about carrying a few extra pounds. I was also much stronger in my legs after strength training my legs for a couple of months, so it was a bit of give and take. 

Overall, it's never a bad thing to be a short twig when racing, something I'm just not gifted with.

Pre-race

Carbed up the day before with honestly far too much spaghetti. I ate it for lunch and dinner and I couldn't have been happier with the results on race day. I had oatmeal and PB2 for breakfast 24 hours before the race and that tasted like cheeks. Should've just gone with the three-peat spaghetti day. 

Ate a nice PB/Banana toast combo on race day morning with some coffee to take care of the number two. Hydrated well and overall I'm very happy with pre-race nutrition. Plenty of mostly clean carbs and salt. Felt great.

Gear

In terms of shoes, I went with the HOKA Carbon X2s. This was the first time I rocked carbon shoes in a race and I gotta say I didn't notice a huge difference in terms of speed. Granted, this wasn't the race to find that out, but still something of note. I just missed wearing them in the 10-miler I raced three weeks ago as a tune-up. In that race, I wore the HOKA Mach 4's. 
 
The Carbon's rode great and I gotta say I found no reason not to wear them, so I'll probably wear them at my Thanksgiving Half. 
 
Gloves and arm sleeves are not preferable, but I'm really glad I rocked them.  I was still freezing for an hour and they did their jobs. The Flip belt was great and the Balega no blister socks served me well yet again.

My carried nutrition consisted of Chocolate Outrage GU's and SaltStick Fastchews. Loved both of them.

Race

The start of the race went pretty poorly. My heart rate was an average of 150 for the first mile which was a disaster for my race plan. I can usually run a similarly hilly course at a flat nine-minute pace with an average HR of 153ish for 7-8 miles in warm weather. 

Given that it was 35 degrees, this development of a fast spiking heart rate took me off guard and I became consumed and downtrodden with that reality. Couldn't stop looking at my watch to see the heart rate and just wasn't vibing with any podcast or music. No groove for the first hour. 

Luckily, I randomly struck up a conversation with a guy named Nate around mile 8 and it saved my mojo. We ran the majority of the remaining race together and it was fantastic. Simply having a conversation the whole time was far better than obsessing over heart rate data or pace. Saved my sanity.

In terms of goals, I was within range of my C goal of sub 4 hours till about mile 18, that's when the quad and calf locking up came into play. I believe this was due to dehydration. I had plenty of salt/electrolyte tabs and had taken a good amount of gels.

I had prepared to take on course hydration but was not prepared for the bottles on course to be the tiny baby bottles. That sucked and was a massive mistake on my part. I didn't start grabbing two of them till around mile 18 and by then it was too late. I was able to stretch it out and recover from the locking up with a ton of water late, but the initial locking up was brutally painful and I felt it the remainder of the race.  

Stats 

  • Chip time: 4:12:45
  • Total Ascent: 1,947 feet
  • Calories burned: 3,386  
  • Est. Sweat Loss: 1839 ml
  • Temperature 35 ℉
  • Humidity 80%

Splits and Heart rate data

Mile Pace GAP Pace Elevation AVG Heart Rate
1    9:25 /mi 9:16 /mi 5 ft 150
2    9:30 /mi 8:59 /mi 76 ft 157
3    9:14 /mi 9:12 /mi -13 ft 158
4    9:21 /mi 9:13 /mi 0 ft 159
5    9:07 /mi 8:58 /mi 5 ft 159
6    9:10 /mi 8:44 /mi 22 ft 162
7    8:57 /mi 8:53 /mi -45 ft 159
8    9:11 /mi 9:24 /mi -73 ft 155
9    8:56 /mi 8:59 /mi -35 ft 157
10    9:02 /mi 8:40 /mi 40 ft 163
11    9:18 /mi 8:53 /mi 68 ft 163
12    9:02 /mi 8:49 /mi -13 ft 164
13    9:06 /mi 9:04 /mi -36 ft 169
14    9:06 /mi 8:42 /mi 53 ft 172
15    8:55 /mi 9:08 /mi -83 ft 175
16    9:17 /mi 9:02 /mi -30 ft 169
17    9:14 /mi 8:51 /mi 52 ft 171
18    9:06 /mi 9:16 /mi -96 ft 167
19    10:04 /mi 10:04 /mi -9 ft 165
20    10:15 /mi 10:15 /mi -4 ft 166
21    10:08 /mi 10:03 /mi 12 ft 163
22    10:11 /mi 9:44 /mi 43 ft 163
23    10:45 /mi 10:21 /mi 35 ft 163
24    11:45 /mi 10:58 /mi 81 ft 157
25    11:10 /mi 10:46 /mi -11 ft 155
26    10:33 /mi 10:39 /mi -52 ft 160
0.26   14:34 /mi 14:23 /mi8 ft165

By the end of the race, I was covered in salt and my legs were dead from the dehydration taking its toll. I finished a bit slower than I wanted on the hills but it is what it is. Happy with the time for this given course. The marathon and dehydration wall hit me hard, and I pushed through it like an idiot.

Post-race

Took a nice ice bath about two hours after the race. Hopped on the bike for about 10 minutes in the afternoon. Then took a warm Epsom salt bath in the evening. Overall, my knees were the only thing killing me. Part of it is the tightness in my hammys, part of it is was just soreness. 

The next couple of days were full of mostly short bike rides and attempted walks. Going up the stairs on all fours and stretching even though it sucked. As of now, about 55 hours post-race, I feel about 70%. I'm still really sore but walking isn't a challenge and I can bend over to pick something up without grimacing.

My next race is the Atlanta Thanksgiving Half-Marathon in a couple of weeks. There are no goals or even plans to make it an actual race. Running with the fellow I record the podcast with for his first half and honestly wanted an excuse to eat stuffing without feeling guilty. This will be my fifth race of the year and I wouldn't have it any other way. Love racing.

I'm consumed post-race with getting better at marathon running. It's a different beast compared to short-distance racing and ultras. I still plan on hitting up a 50k shortly but the balance of racing and distance in the marathon is intoxicating. There's so much planning in terms of training your body, mind, and nutrition for that distance, and you can't ever master it, unless you're Kipchoge or Seidel.
I wanna run Berlin, Boston, New York, Paris, and London. The only way to do that is to learn from race successes and failures. So that's what I gotta do, but for today I celebrate. A year ago, I hadn't run over eight miles, and today I'm a marathoner. Pretty happy with that.