My Dreams
I dream of Qualifying The Boston Marathon someday, hopefully at its fastest Qualifying time of 3:05, which is for the age range of 18 to 34years old. I will be 35years old on July 2, 2014 - I need to run 3:05 or better before this date. It will be the most difficult qualifying situation for the Boston, because I will at the oldest of this range, yet the fastest qualifying time. Some would wait till they get older, but I am challenged to stay young - or at least run like a young runner. So can I do it? If not, my next dream is to simply run under 3hours someday - no time pressure here, possibly aging and genetic limits could be my obstacles.
Boston 2013 Qualifying Times (effective September 24, 2011)
| Age Group | Men | Women |
|---|---|---|
| 18-34 | 3hrs 05min 00sec | 3hrs 35min 00sec |
| 35-39 | 3hrs 10min 00sec | 3hrs 40min 00sec |
| 40-44 | 3hrs 15min 00sec | 3hrs 45min 00sec |
| 45-49 | 3hrs 25min 00sec | 3hrs 55min 00sec |
| 50-54 | 3hrs 30min 00sec | 4hrs 00min 00sec |
| 55-59 | 3hrs 40min 00sec | 4hrs 10min 00sec |
| 60-64 | 3hrs 55min 00sec | 4hrs 25min 00sec |
| 65-69 | 4hrs 10min 00sec | 4hrs 40min 00sec |
| 70-74 | 4hrs 25min 00sec | 4hrs 55min 00sec |
| 75-79 | 4hrs 40min 00sec | 5hrs 10min 00sec |
| 80 and over | 4hrs 55min 00sec | 5hrs 25min 00sec |
| Unlike previous years, an additional 59 seconds will NOT be accepted for each age group time standard. | ||
2007 to 2009 - Sub4hours target. Success.
When I first trained for the marathon, I aimed for a Sub-4hour debut marathon, it was hard, but I was proud to have accomplished it. I trained well for it, read a lot of training materials, books, blogs, and listened to a lot of advice from fellow runners. My real-life marathon idols were Rolan Vener and Jay Nacino. At the time, they were both significantly stronger and faster than me and were well below the 4hour marathon. I targeted the 4hour marathon because at the time, it was Milo's Qualifying time. To finish under 4hours, my average pace needed to be 9minutes/mile (5:35/km). I trained by running several 20milers at 9minutes/mile. I felt fine. Strangely, I would hit the wall (glycogen depletion) after 20miles during the race, felt severely fatigued and depressed while running due to low blood sugar, but seeing the finish line with the timer at under 4hours, I sprinted to a 3:57 finish. Immediately after the race, I was in pain, and it even got worse the next day. I walked like a toddler for 2 weeks. After a month, I discovered that the marathon injured me and got the dreaded ITBS (Iliotibial Band Syndrome) on my left leg, and couldn't train heavily for the Milo Finals even though I qualified. I couldn't run like a marathoner for 6months.
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| Marathon Marathon Elims 2009 |
My ITBS injury eventually healed and I was able to run a 21K Condura Marathon 2010 in 1:45. I trained well for the succeeding months, at times trained 20miles at 8mins/mile pace, and my 5K and 10K race times gave me a 3:30 predictions so I got cocky and aimed for a 3:30 in the Milo Elims. Like I said, marathon is strangely cruel, that I hit the wall again, walked a lot, and so I couldn't even finish below 3:45 for the new Milo Qualifying Time. I was humbled and finished at 3:49.
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| The Marathon Wall humbled me and I was forced to walk. |
I wanted to redeem myself by running a 3:30 in the Condura Skyway Marathon. I got tips from a 50year old Raffy Castandeda, a Boston Marathoner with a low 3:30ish PR. He said he noticed that in my blogs, I was training too fast in my long runs. At 5mins/mile pace of long runs, I was basically racing my 20milers, too fast or my own running level. It was like I have already peaked, then ran a race, so I was too tired during the actual Marathon Race. He suggested, that for a 3:30 target, my long runs should only be 9mins/mile pace or a little bit slower. This would allow me to have fresh legs prior to the race. I did follow him a bit, but 9mins/mile felt too slow, so I did 8:30/mile pace in my long runs. During the Condura race, I ran with my Team Power Puff Boys Teammates, one of them Nick, told me we should target 3:20. I said wow, ok. I said to myself if he could do it, I could do it too! So when the gun started, Nick ran too fast, probably at 6mins/mile pace like a rabbit. I was running too fast too, like 7:20/mile pace. Eventually at only 10Kms, I got tired and the Skyway long hills punished me. I got slower and slower but I still caught Nick, he too slowed a lot. At 20miles, I hit the wall again, forget the 3:20 target. Forget the 3:30 target. I just needed to hang on. I remember in 2010Milo Marathon where I walked a lot in the closing miles, this has really slowed down my average pace, so I decided to jog the remaining 10Kms. Jogging is faster than running, I said to myself. I willed myself to finish 3:39, still a new PR. I wasn't impressed with my performance, a little disappointed, but OK.
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| OK lang ;-) |
2012 Cebu Marathon
2.5years after my first marathon, I have finally run under 3:30 in Cebu. Wow, that took a long time, I thought I would improve sooner than that. If history repeats itself, and it does, it will take another 2.5 years for me to break the 3hour marathon. But normally the progress even gets harder as you improve.
Plotting my marathon times and predicting my future performance
In order to get a realistic view of my Marathon Future, I've plotted my times (in blue) and its trend line (in red). Hoping I'm still on my way for a sub3:05 before I turn 35years old.
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| Add caption |
Running to the Limits
Early this week I watched a documentary film about running a marathon, entitled "Running to the Limits", about an ordinary fat British filmmaker Alex Vero with an ambitious goal of qualifying the 2012 Olympic Marathon. This meant that within 2years years he had to train from a Run/Walker to a sub2:20 marathoner. That is elite world class level, the qualifying time for the Olympic marathon. He trained real hard, reaching over 100miles/week(160kms/week) and had good coaches to train him, and eventually he was able to run a 1:13 half-marathon, and a 2:58 full marathon. He had a heat stroke in that marathon, and the succeeding attempts were futile as he was faced with a lot of serious running injuries. Watching the film got me fired-up and motivated that my easy recovery run in the morning turned into a tempo run, even if I was still on my 2nd week of marathon recovery.
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| Alex Vero - Running to the Limits |
There were little information about his physical/athletic background, so it's hard to compare, but his achievements impressed me a lot. At the beginning of the film, the doctors tested him and told him his realistic marathon time for his genetic potential was 2:40 to 2:30. At the end of the film, they said he could well do 2:20. Unfortunately he had a serious Achilles heel injury that he couldn't test his limits at the end.
Conclusion
Historical data does predict I can someday qualify the Boston Marathon in its fastest most difficult age group and at my oldest before I reach 35. Should I relax and let it be? Or should I like Alex Vero strive harder and harder to my physical limits and see how good I could really be? It's really tempting. What I do know is the risk of injury gets higher as I train harder. But I've faced a lot of injuries in the past and never repeated any of them. In fact, I think I encountered all running injuries already. My body's probably more mature now, and I am stronger to face the next hard challenges ahead. On the other hand, one thing I've learned in the Cebu Marathon race is that patience pays a lot. Time will tell.
In fairness, I like the self-reinvention of Alex Vero, lol! Yup, patience pays a lot -- but FORWARD to that Boston dream!
ReplyDeleteWell actually I was also dreaming of the Olympics too, but I have 1hour and 10minutes to improve to that level, so forget it. I'm getting older na :-) Thanks for reading and commenting, Cathletic!
DeleteOnward to that Boston Marathon Dream!
ReplyDeleteKatKat, it took me a while to figure out you're Miss Nicdao. Hehe. Thanks for visiting and promoting my blog, i owe you one :-)
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