Charlottesville Marathon - Oh Technology!

I can now add Marathon finisher to the list of endurance races I've completed! On Saturday I completed the Charlottesville Marathon in 4 hours and 26 minutes; 26 minutes off my goal time but over an hour faster than my Ironman Run time and at a faster pace than during Mooseman last year. So the good news, I'm showing progress in my training and ability, the bad news - a ton of stuff still went wrong and I failed to reach my goal. As I continue my evolution to becoming an endurance athlete I await the day that everything comes together and I perform the way I know I can perform.

Two major issues occurred during the marathon, both of which I should have been able to correct on the fly. In each case I continued to trust technology which ultimately cost me a good bit of performance on race day. The first major issue that occurred and will be of greater relevance to readers of this blog was the unbelievable inaccuracy of my Abbot Freestyle Navigator.

This was the first competition I was utilizing my Freestyle Navigator for, during training runs the accuracy of the CGM wasn't spot on but was close enough for me to have confidence in my nutrition plan. I started the race with a blood sugar of about 220 - right where I wanted to be; through mile 5 my blood sugar was in the mid 180s according to the CGM and I felt as if I was going to have a great day.

My blood sugar dropped about 10 points per mile over the next 3 miles on the Navigator. Instead of testing manually I trusted technology and took in about 1/2 a fuel belt bottle of nutrition (that equates to 55 to 60 grams of carbohydrates). My blood sugar continued to drop on the Navigator and like an idiot I didn't manually test and took Gatorade from a water station. My blood sugar stagnated in the mid 130s but I began to feel very sick during the run. At mile 14 I finally decided to slow down to test - my blood sugar was above 400!!!!!!!!!!

How can a CGM be considered even marginally useful if there is a discrepancy of over 250 points of glucose!? This is dangerous and points to a huge quality issue which makes the device nearly useless. Should I have tested manually at some point earlier in the race? Absolutely! But there is also no excuse for the device to have performed this poorly.

At this point in the race I took in .3 units of insulin and knew I would no longer be able to take in nutrition for the rest of the race. For the next 12 miles I only had water as I tried to fight off the effects of my very high blood sugar.

The other technological snafu I had was my Polar RS800 was off by .06 miles per mile. At the end of the race my running computer indicated I ran 28.4 miles at a 9:38 pace - when in actuality I had run 26.2 miles at a 10:11 pace. This means that all my training runs were off pace and that when I started the race at my goal pace I was actually running slower than indicated. I should have calibrated my foot pod prior to the race but neglected to and that cost me dearly.

So in the end I'm happy to have finished a very hard marathon (see profile below) in a pretty decent time. Only 4 runners broker the 3 hour mark, and I finished right in the middle of the pack. I continue to show improvement and continue to learn how to manage my blood sugar on the fly during these events. I just hope everything comes together someday soon!

Time To Run.....

The Charlottesville Marathon is finally just over 12 hours away and I can't wait to start this race! I'm really excited to race with some of my Darden friends who are doing the half, and to have some awesome support from classmates who plan to run part of the race with me. Kim, my Mom, my Dad and of course Moose are all here to cheer me on - unlike the anxiety inducing lead up to the Ironman, this has been alot of fun. I'm confident my blood sugar management will go well, confident in my overall nutrition plan and confident in my training - so really the only thing left to focus on is having a smile on my face mile after mile (yeah right - like its possible to smile running up the hill known Free Union Rd.!)

After the race I'm having a big BBQ at my apartment where my classmates will get to hang out with my girlfriend, me and my dog - should be a blast and I'll get to reap the rewards of training and racing by dominating triple cheese burgers! I'd really like to break 4 hours tomorrow, but if I don't that's ok too, the motto of 2009 is to apply the lessons learned in 2008, perform on race day and most importantly have fun. The Charlottesville Marathon presents a really difficult running course, but what fun would it be if my legs aren't burning for 26.2!

Time To Taper

All the training has been completed so now I'm firmly in my taper for the 2009 Charlottesville Marathon. I'm shocked at how different my mindset is going into this marathon versus my mindset prior to IMLP. I guess after you complete a full Ironman in the pouring rain while over coming a blood sugar that dropped into the 30s you realize no matter how painful the race is, you can gut it out.

I reached all my pacing and blood sugar goals during training, so I have more confidence in my endurance knowledge versus IMLP. The big question that remains is how my knees and hamstrings will hold up on the hills in Charlottesville. If there are no major snafus breaking 4 hours is a reasonable goal, if my body breaks down or if the blood sugar demons attack, 4 hours and 15 minutes is a reasonable goal.

I'll be wearing my Freestyle Navigator during the race which should also give me some better indication of how to manage my blood sugars. Additionally, I think I finally dialed in the amount of sodium I need during a race - I really would like NOT to visit a port-a-john on Saturday! I turn 30 and run a marathon all in the same week, should be fun.

Here We Go Again!

Last week I signed up for the Charlottesville Marathon which will be held the same weekend as my 30th birthday in April. With Darden's first quarter under my belt I couldn't help but scratch that athletic itch again. Having gained about 9 lbs since Ironman Lake Placid it was time to lace up the sneakers, place an order with PBN and get my butt back into shape. To make it even better my amazing girlfriend and some of my Darden classmates will be running the race with me.

One of my biggest disappointments from the 2008 season was having to pull out of the Shamrock Marathon. I have yet to run a stand alone Marathon and really want to push myself to run my best in it. With my Abbott Freestyle Navigator in hand (if I ever get it), solid nutrition plan and dedication to training I think a sub 4 hour marathon is very possible. Plus with all my training buddies here at Darden - the training should be fun!

I unfortunately had to tell Triabetes I will not be able to compete at IMAZ with them in 2009. The Darden schedule is just too demanding to train for 20 hours a week and I did not want to race an IM unprepared. I hope that my schedule will allow for about 10 hours a week of marathon training - I'm energized and ready to go!