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It’s taken a while to write a Pittsburgh Marathon recap. And it’s been for the best reason…I’ve been more present than ever before. I believe I started the journey to the 2023 Pittsburgh marathon back in 2015 when I raced Pittsburgh for the first time, taking 4th place. It’s been on my mind since then that I could compete and win on a great day. Well, May 7th was a great day. After a disappointing race at the Chicago Marathon where I went out in 1:05 and struggled with a 1:10 second half, I wanted to run a marathon where I was tough and stronger in the second half. I committed to running Pittsburgh early in the winter and put the goal of winning generally out of my mind and focused on the process. It was by far the most challenging winter in the Front Range in a decade, yet it was also one of the most rewarding. I did the vast majority of my workouts solo in the dark on loops around a local high school or on the treadmill. I rarely ran workouts faster than 5:00/mi (my treadmill doesn’t even go faster than that). Yet, I stacked weeks and weeks of B+ workouts together and had entirely A+ races: Pensacola DBR 15k - win in 44:29 USA Half Champs - 7th in 1:02:52 (PR) Cooper River Bridge Run 10k - 5th, 2nd US Horsetooth Half - 2nd in 1:06:40 When I got to Pittsburgh I felt ready to race, and honestly ready for an awesome weekend with the family. 
It was my time to race Sunday morning. I snuck out for breakfast 3 hours before the gun went off…thankfully not waking up the other sleeping three. I ate two bagels and grabbed a cup of coffee to find a quiet corner of the lobby with a chair. I spent the next hour writing down notes about how I learned to be less outcome focused and truly more process focused in the past six months. Time flew by and it was quickly time to get to the start. On the way to the start, I chatted with Jared Ward. Thankful for great guys like him that I’ve met in the sport. Then warmed up mostly with Neely Spence talking about our families and racing. Another reminder of good people met through the sport. Then, it was a quick change of shoes, a few strides and the start of the race followed by fireworks.
The Pittsburgh course goes from rolling hills to a massive climb at mile 11. I naturally found myself in the front as the others who were tough and led early drifted towards the back of the group. I decided about a half mile before the hill that I was going to make the race start when we hit the hill. It didn’t take long before I had the guys strung out once we started climbing. There’s a special feeling when you’re the aggressor and you’re putting your competitors on the ropes. But…there was still more than half marathon to go. After the big hill, I ran close to 450 for the following mile and had it down to just two of us - Kenyan athlete Peter Muhoni and I. For the next 7 miles he sat right behind me. When I motioned for him to take the lead and work together, he refused. Not great sportsmanship from a guy who asked to share my bottle at mile 11 and I gave it to him. This is where I really had to be mentally tough…it’s easy to get emotional and frustrated but I repeated “be here now.” Simply by acknowledging that I was feeling anxious by his presence on my heels made me feel less anxious. I may not be in control of his race strategy, but I can be in control of my ability to be in the present moment and my emotional reactions. At mile 20, on an uphill I started getting a few strides on him, which turned into enough distance that I could not hear his footsteps. This was both a great feeling…and a bit of a scary final 10k. I was at the true halfway point in the marathon..mile 20…and I had just been ripping the last 9 miles. It was taking its toll and I was hurting, but I focused on being as relaxed as possible, getting my bottles and being smooth on the downhills. There were a couple hand cyclists around so it was hard to judge from cheering on how big of a lead I had. I assumed it was big, but when I finally glanced back at mile 24 I saw Muhoni and he was closer than I hoped. It was a solid lead but anything could happen in those two miles, and I was really feeling the effects of my aggressiveness. My legs were struggling to move fast and I could feel my turnover getting slower. But, again I tried to stay present and dole out the little energy I had left. The crowds got pretty big in that last mile back in downtown and finally when I glanced back just before mile 26 I knew I had it. I clenched my fist to a roar of a crowd as I turned to the final straightaway.  That final straightaway was decades of running in the making and it was absolutely amazing. I kissed my wedding band twice, feeling an overwhelming sense of gratitude for my amazingly supportive wife Kristin. I raised my arms in the air and the crowd went bonkers. I was flying downhill and the adrenaline rush was incredible. I raised my arms and broke the finishing tape.  Seconds later P3R CEO Troy put his arms and an American flag around me. I walked a few more steps and Kristin was right there holding Jack and Levi was walking up to me with a bouquet of flowers. I embraced them with the best feeling of exhaustion and exhalation. Kristin especially knew the work and commitment I put in every day, and I can’t express the amount of sacrifice she has to support my goals and dreams…while being an amazing mom to two busy boys. Seeing her and the boys immediately after finishing was by far the greatest joy and I’ll be forever grateful for Ryan Hogan and the P3R staff for making sure my family was there right at the finish.  Typically after a big race I feel traditional post-marathon sadness. Either you’re sad that it’s over after working so hard and accomplishing your goals, or you’re sad that you didn’t achieve your goals and wishing you had another opportunity. I didn’t feel that this time. After doing 20+ marathons in my career, I’ve never felt so continuously in the moment. It was traveling back with the family that afternoon, back to work (in my career job) the next day and spending a little more time with the early waking boys the next few days.
When you enjoy the journey, the destination doesn’t become the only thing. It was a beautiful moment, but I felt there were beautiful moments after knocking out 15 milers on the treadmill before Levi woke up, or managing a solid, solo workout of 5min repeats despite it being 15F and dark outside with a headlamp on. Steve Magness’s book described this as harmonious passion and I feel like I am as close as I’ve ever been to this.
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Not all personal best races are those where you feel effortless and you cross the finish with a big runner’s high and wonder how it felt so easy. Racing at the USA Half Marathon Championships at the Cowtown Half Marathon was one of those experiences where it was far from effortless. This was a different build-up than many others for a half-marathon. I strung together really good consistency - 12 weeks between 90-100 miles, but, the weather in Fort Collins has been anything but conducive to quality workouts. Trying to get most of my runs done before 7am left it mostly dark and almost always cold. We’ve had numerous snowstorms so approximately half of my runs and workouts were on the treadmill and the other half was with a headlamp dodging icy patches. The number of repeats where I ran faster than 4:50/mi pace I could count on one hand.
Earlier in the week the weather forecast looked like it might be warm and humid, but the forecast trended cooler and race day was a superb 48F and slightly foggy…a great morning for racing. The competition was very deep for a USA Championship event, especially since it was only announced about a month before the race. It was a great opportunity and to be honest I felt the nervousness before the start line. It had been since the Chicago Marathon that I was in a big event and it was easy to feel anxious.
Somewhere between 3-4 miles Jacob Thompson surged hard and the pack picked up the pace in response. I remember seeing some splits in the high 440s and I was barely hanging on to the back of the pack that was now closer to 15 guys. There were a few stretches where I was off the back by a few strides but I stayed in contact. As I got to mile 6 I started to get some confidence that I was still with the main pack as we were nearing halfway. Through the stockyards and around mile 7 we caught up to Jacob Thompson and we were rolling. Splits of around 4:37 and 4:42 on miles 7 and 8 and I was still just grinding it out to stay on the back of the pack. I repeated to myself multiple times - “you ran 4:46 pace for 15k just three weeks ago, you can run this pace” - really highlighting the importance of a good quality tune-up race. At one point I was feeling so rough and hurting pretty bad that I even had the thought that I wished a second group would break off from this pack as I thought it was too fast. I mentally acknowledged that was not the right competitive mindset, so at this point I knew I needed to better engage in the race. It’s hard to balance your mental energy when you’re just watching guys in front of you. When I saw a few guys around me starting to fade off the back after those faster miles, I moved to the outside of the pack and slowly moved up to the front. After a minute or two, I was in the lead right at the start of the steep climb leading into old town Fort Worth. I pushed the pace up the hill and for a while following it. That gave me a strong surge of confidence that I was now not just in the pack, but I was leading the US Champs and pushing the pace. However, there were still about 4 miles to go and I did not want to get too excited so I was saying to myself to be calm and relaxed. I did what I knew I had to - engage more in the race - however it was still too early in the race to get too excited. Then, Brian Shrader took over the lead and really put the hammer down. After a low 4:50 uphill mile, we started rolling 4:40 and a 4:35 mile 12. But I continued to just simply hang on. I was in the back of the pack with Scott Fauble and we kept covering the small surges in that lead group that was now 7 (including us). I never felt that great effortless feeling, but now we were running so fast so late in the race it made sense to simply be hurting deeply. With the mile to go mark, the official split later showed me 2s behind the leader but really was just a stride or two off of the back of a strung out group of 7 guys. That 13th mile starts with about a third of a mile downhill and then ⅔ of a mile steep uphill before the turn into the finish. It’s a tough way to finish the race. I had no idea what splits we were or had been running since I was focused on competing, but those fast miles ultimately did get to me and I slightly dropped off the pack with Fauble, who eventually also put a few strides on me. With that significant net uphill last mile I still ran 4:46 according to the official splits…but the winner, Thompson, put an additional 12 seconds on me in that mile. I crossed the finish in 7th place, 14s off from 1st, and truly in the race until the last ½ mile or so. The time was 1:02:52, a new personal best by 2 seconds on a much more challenging course than the net downhill one in perfect weather that I ran last year.  This was probably the top race in my career that I performed the best while feeling and hurting the worst. It’s a good reminder that you do not need to have one of those effortless, magical days to achieve your best result. It’s also a good reminder that in an hour and two minutes of hard running it’s not like I was perfect with my mental game. I had lapses where I as not as focused, or focused on the negative, or wanting the pace to slow. But I acknowledged those thoughts and shifted back to a positive race mindset and being in the present moment. I had a very simple strategy to stay with the main pack and be confident in myself that I could compete with anyone in that field.
Next up is a 5k here in Fort Collins followed by the Cooper River Bridge Run, a 10k race that I haven’t competed in since 2011. Looking forward to these next opportunities to test myself over some shorter distances! You’ve probably been there before. You’re running fast and yet you feel like you’re floating. You try to push faster and you have another gear that you didn’t know you have. You cross the finish line absolutely stoked with your finishing time, place and result. Those are the days you train for and dream about and, when they happen, it is such a special moment. But there are times where that’s just not how it goes. You have to put in, seemingly, extra effort for every second faster per mile you’re trying to go. The group you’re running with just seems a touch too fast but you hope it’ll smooth out and you’ll start feeling better soon…because it’s the marathon and sometimes it literally takes time to warm up and start feeling good. The 2022 Bank of America Chicago Marathon was the latter. I had an incredible opportunity to be in the elite field and have a chance to run with some of the best guys in the US. There was a pace group set to run 1:05:00 through halfway and that was going to be the biggest pack of American guys. And good weather was in the forecast. It was a terrific opportunity.  However, the race started and at times the pace felt fast. I was trying to be patient and stick with the tail end of that group, but in those early miles, it felt like it was a harder effort than marathon pace should have felt. The decision was simple - go with the pack and risk the pace never getting that comfortable, or slow down and run solo for over 20 miles. Never hesitating or questioning during the race, I simply went with the group but tried to conserve as much energy as possible by staying towards the back of that group. My elite fluid bottle was on the 9th of 10 tables. At each fluid station, I would have to slow down as other people in the group grabbed bottles in front of me, which cost me getting 5 seconds behind the field. This was a tactical error I made - I should have pushed towards the front of the group to be out of the way and then I would have had a clear line to my table, rather than having to play catch-up afterwards. These surges off an already borderline fast pace probably put me over the edge…something that’s tough to do in the marathon.  After going through halfway in 1:05:08 (the fastest I’ve gone out in a marathon), the pace of the group picked up and I slightly slowed down. By mile 14-15 I was running alone and still had almost an hour of running ahead of me. This is where I dug into the mental training that I’ve been doing. I focused on running the mile that I was in, staying in the moment and not writing the story of how the rest of the race was going to unfold. As I got closer to mile 20, my pace drifted slower and slower and it was physically getting really hard. When you’re in the trenches of trying to “explore your own human potential” (quoting Michael Gervais), sometimes it is simply a tough fight for every inch or every second.
While I’m not writing a blog post about how the result was the best of my career and I finally took down a marathon PR, I am writing about maybe something even more meaningful - finding out who I can be when it gets tough. Altogether this was the best marathon training cycle in both physical preparation and learning the process of mastery of craft, I feel I truly am exploring the edges of my own potential. While I may have gone over the edge in the first half, I would not change how I executed my race plan given how it played out. In one of Brad Stuhlberg’s Practice of Groundedness principles, it is important to "accept where you are." In Chicago I was not able to negative split and run 2:09 like three guys in that pack, but I’ll keep taking the swings and staying present in the approach to see how fast I can move my body over 26.2 miles. In Steve Magness’s book “Do Hard Things” he writes about “raising the floor” of your performance and looking at results compared to averages. Well, I’ve done 4 marathons in the past 10 months and while none of them broke my 2:12:28 PR, they are consolidating my efforts just above that level. 10/9/2022 - Chicago Marathon - 2:15:50 - 29th Place 5/15/2022 - Denver Colfax Marathon - 2:21:08 - 1st Place, Course Record 3/20/2022 - LA Marathon - 2:15:18, 4th Place, 1st USA 12/4/2021 - California International Marathon - 2:14:10 - 6th Place Sometimes the consolidation of efforts happens right before a breakthrough…
After the LA Marathon, I recovered much quicker than I have in past marathons and with a baby due in about two months, I wanted to get in some races.
Both of us ran considerably faster than the previous course record on a windy day that made the first half very slow, and the second half very fast. It was a blast competing in Fort Collins in one of my favorite races and a big confidence boost that I had recovered well and was going to be ready for another race before baby boy. So, I decided to give another marathon a shot. The Colfax Marathon in Denver on May 15th is the largest marathon in Colorado. The race had a bonus for breaking the event record of 2:24:35 and another bonus for breaking the state record of 2:18:06. The state record was set back in 1984 on a downhill course, which was certainly aiding a fast time. I knew the Colfax Marathon course profile was fairly hilly after racing the Marathon Relay several years ago as part of the Newton Running Elite team. I wanted to give the state record a shot if the weather was favorable. As I wrote about in recent blogs and on Instagram, I’ve been trying to practice being more grounded, while finding harmonious passion. Colfax Marathon was exciting and motivating because it provided a hard challenge for something I’m passionate about - the marathon. I had never raced a marathon at altitude and in a race without professional bottles, which would both be great ways to challenge myself. During the five weeks between Horsetooth and Colfax, I built the mileage back up to a peak of 120 miles a week. It was a short build-up but I was already coming off outstanding fitness from the LA Marathon training block, so I just wanted to get the volume back up for a brief couple of weeks. I tapered the mileage and intensity the last ten days and the weather forecast for race day was cool at the start but sunny and getting into the 60s by the end of the race with 10mph winds. My game plan was to go out slightly slower than the state record since it was net uphill the first half and give myself an opportunity to negative split the second half if I felt great.
At mile 6 I got water for the first time but failed to get more than a swallow of water from the plastic cup. I carried 3 Maurten Gels in my rabbit FKT shorts so I was able to get a gel in me but lacked having enough water to really wash it down.
I slowed with a couple splits closer to 5:30, which was probably very close to even pacing given the uphill. After mile 16, I knew I needed to pick up the pace on the downhill coming back Colfax to have a chance at the Colorado record. I did a little better at getting water from aid stations but was still probably only consuming about 8oz of water total by that point. The next four miles were fun and I was flying - 5:05-5:09/mi feeling quite good and enjoying seeing the runners who were headed out on the course. At mile 20 you go back through Empower Field and there are a lot of turns, there is more uphill and then you get on a bike path headed back towards City Park and eventually merge with the half marathoners. At this point, the combination of running hard for 20 miles, not getting enough to drink, the rising temperatures and the challenging course started to wear on me and I slowed. I knew I was well ahead of 2nd place and well ahead of the event record, but the state record was out of reach. I tried to enjoy being in each mile even though it was getting progressively more difficult and challenging.
The Colfax Marathon did a great job putting on a world class event weekend in Denver, and it was an incredibly rewarding experience to break the tape at the finish line and I’m so glad I made the choice to race again before we had our second baby.
Thanks for reading and supporting the journey. After some time off, I’ll be building up to a fall marathon with a focus on getting an opportunity to go after a marathon PR - hope you’ll continue to follow along!
One of the key lessons learned was that I needed to use goals as a destination, but then instead of dreaming about the goals, just focus on enjoying the process, being in the present moment, and building deep connection with those around you. To me, that sentence is incredibly and deeply powerful. As Steve Magness puts it in The Passion Paradox it is about "finding a harmonious passion and loving the process of trying to master a craft." After CIM I was left with this feeling of being so close. A few slow miles at the end and I went from fighting for 2nd place and a big PR to 6th and 90s slower than my best time. I met with my coach of nearly a decade, Steve Jones, and we made some adjustments to get my legs under me in that last 5-10k of the marathon. I upped my mileage to hitting 120 miles per week several times, I pushed the long run from typically 20 miles to 22 miles every Sunday, and I made Wednesday’s medium distance run longer so that I was doing 16-17 miles most Wednesday mornings. It took really a decade of training under Jonesy to be able to handle that volume and those incremental increases in training.
it was often in the dark starting sometime in the 5am hour. For the first time I started to enjoy aspects of running in the dark. I saw shooting stars and owls, finishing with fantastic sunrises. By being more intentional and process-focused, I came to enjoy training even more than I have in the past. The first race I did in this block was the Pensacola Double Bridge Run 15K in early February, one of my favorites each year. The first 5K of the race was into a pretty good headwind and I looked down at my watch after 3 miles and mentally tossed out that I had any chance of a PR. Then, I turned onto the 3 mile bridge with a bit of a tailwind and I just focused on running hard. When I got to 10K, I realized it felt hard because I was pushing so hard that I was actually moving pretty fast. Instead of thinking about the result as I would have in the past, I just ran really hard in the mile that I was in. I ended up crossing the finish in 44:12, a massive 49 second PR over 15k. I actually ran the last 10k in 28:48, faster than my track 10K PR! 
That helped me stay present and focused. With a mile to go I realized I had a shot to not only break my 7 year old half marathon PR, but also the 1:03 barrier. I hammered home that last mile, flying around the final few turns and I was stoked to run 1:02:54! The final race of the training segment was the LA Marathon - the goal race I had done my best to put out of mind until it was time to race. The field was surprisingly competitive, and the organizers added in a $10,000 bonus to the first man or woman to cross the finish with a 16min head start for the women. I thought this may make the pace a little faster but I didn’t expect the pace to go out at world record pace (leaders went out the first two miles in 4:31/mi and they’re actually quite hilly). Jonesy does a great job coaching us to trust our instincts and I had the confidence to run strategic and smart, rather than brashly going with the lead group. I settled into low 5min pace with a headwind that was relentless. There was a wind advisory for 15-25mph winds gusting to 45mph, and unfortunately with a point to point course it turned out to be a headwind. How tough was that wind? Well, on two separate occasions the road barriers blew over due to wind gusts. At around mile 6, Kevin Lewis and I were together and quickly chatted to trade off leading into the wind every couple miles. We couldn’t even see the lead group so we worked together for five miles until I started to get a bit of a lead before mile 12. At that point, I knew it was going to be a, literally and figuratively, tough road ahead - headwind, challenging hills, and solo for the final 14+ miles. Those middle miles were tough but I kept repeating mantras in my head of “grounded” and “trust.”  At mile 22, there was a u-turn and I tried to count the numbers of guys ahead. I passed two guys and started to pass some women. I guessed I was around 4th or 5th place but I wasn’t confident. During mile 23, a spectator yelled “go get him, he’s not that far ahead” although I could only see women ahead of me. I rolled the next two miles close to 5:00/mi. Finally I saw the guy ahead, and after looking at my watch when he crossed mile 25 and then when I crossed mile 25, I calculated he had 40 seconds on me. I pressed that last mile only once thinking that I had the 2024 Olympic Trials Qualifier in the bag and instead simply trying to fight for every second that I could. Rounding the final turn I knew I was close and I was moving fast that last quarter mile but I finished just 8 seconds back of 3rd place and the final podium spot. Final result: 4th place. 1st American. 2:15:16. 2024 Olympic Marathon Trials Qualifying time. That was likely the best marathon I’ve run. When I ran 2:12:28 it was on a fast course (CIM), perfect weather, and I had a pack of 12 guys I was running with through mile 20 and competing for the win through the final miles (I finished 2nd). This course was much more difficult, weather not conducive to running fast, and I did much of the work alone. It took the best mental game I’ve ever had in combination with the best physical preparation. Simply an incredible first three months of 2022. Not only in the race results, but most importantly in how much I enjoyed the process. I felt I had won before the race started - it honestly was a fun journey even in those 120 mile weeks! I’m beyond grateful to all the support from coach Jonesy and the Boulder Harriers, the Fort Collins Running Club, rabbit, family, friends and especially my incredibly supportive wife Kristin. There was NOTHING I wanted more than to see Kristin and Levi immediately after crossing the finish line and having them in LA was the best. I feel truly grounded by having the most loving wife, family and friends around me.  To close out this lengthy post, I really felt like I personally grew in positive ways these last few months by focusing on process over results. By focusing on cultivating deep roots with an incredible support system. And by being as present as possible in races I’ve competed in to the best of my abilities…and getting closer to that feeling of personally mastering the craft of what I’m passionate about (in this case, distance running). Whatever you’re passionate about - work to find that harmonious passion, surround yourself with the best people and have fun enjoying the process.
After a tough 2020 without many racing opportunities, at the start of 2021, I would have never thought I would be able to race 16 times this year. For someone who loves competition, it was amazing to be back at the starting line of major races again. I wanted to recap the year from my perspective and take a retrospective look on the year for what went well and what I could learn from. First, a couple of key highlights:
What were some surprises of the year? First, running 13:48 on the track for 5,000m well surpassed my expectations. I had run a PR of 14:02 at the rabbit track classic in 2018. But in April of this year, I was just starting to really get fit again and during the Trials of Miles KC Qualifier, I pretty much PR’d in every split leading up to the 5k and had an amazing last lap to get 4th place. Second, after a somewhat disappointing track 10,000m in May, I made a decision to have fun and race the Vail GoPro Games 5k and 10k - a mountain/trail race at high altitude. I knew my fitness and speed were awesome, but I had not been running any hills. I wanted to do it for fun and enjoy the weekend with the family in Vail and just test myself in something that wasn’t too calculated. I ended up winning the 5k and coming in 2nd in the 10k to Joe Gray, which was a pretty great result. It inspired me to do a few more mountain races including a win at the Rendezvous Mountain Hillclimb later in August. Third surprise was definitely the USA Club Cross Country Championships just 6 days after the marathon. The Fort Collins Running Club put together a team and it was a blast to race as a team and come away with a 14th place finish. I couldn’t run for a few days following the marathon and then ran in the final few days before the race. XC races always start so fast, but I did a nice job putting myself in the race but not at the front. I started in 81st place at the 1k and moved up throughout the whole race, passing between 4-9 people every kilometer and ended up in a very respectable 24th place - way better than I had expected to finish. What were the downsides of the year? Overall, it was a terrific year but there were certainly some bumps along the way. While 28:50 was a 10,000m PR on the track, I also knew I was in shape to run significantly faster. At the Portland Track Festival in May, I went through 5k in 14:06, and faded over the second half. So while you can’t really be upset with a PR, I certainly didn’t hit that one out of the park. Entering the year I thought it would be less likely to have track races cancelled due to COVID, so I set a stretch goal of making the Olympic Track Trials, which I thought would take around 28:20 (it ended up taking closer to 28:01). I didn’t get that close to achieving that goal, but I’m proud I took a crack at it and still came home with a new PR. Then, at the USA Mountain Running Championships in August, Joe Gray and I were side-by-side in the lead at almost 3 miles (nearing the highest point) in the 6 mile race, but I faded and made a small wrong turn on the downhill that added a bit of time and ultimately finished 10th place. In hindsight, I simply got too aggressive and too excited on the uphill, had a breathing issue and paid the price for poor race execution. In the race following, I DNF’d at the USA 10 Mile Championships on the road - my body telling me I needed to hit the reset button. Finally, the California International Marathon was both a great race and a disappointing race. I knew where my fitness was, and it was well ahead of when I ran 2:12:28 in 2017. As described in this blog - http://www.tylermccandless.us/blog/cim-recap, the race didn’t play out ideally like it did in my PR, and I just didn’t have the legs in the last four miles. My split at mile 20 was a minute faster than my split when I ran 2:12:28, and I was still on 2:11 pace at 22 miles…but that’s how hard the marathon is to nail, as I toughed it out across the line in just over 2:14. Ultimately, the 10,000m on the track, the USA Mountain Running Champs and CIM were three of my top goal races and I didn’t achieve my stretch goals, but also still ran pretty well. Having your best performance in your most important races of the year is challenging and it’s something I look to be working on accomplishing in 2022.
What’s Next?
You’ll have to read the next blog! There are a lot of words that can be used to describe a marathon - humbling, awesome, inspiring, heartbreaking, painful, glorious, etc. I’ve been running 1-3 marathons every year since my first CIM in 2010, and each one I learn a lot of valuable lessons from. There’s no other race quite like it because it is so hard to perfectly execute and it’s difficult to race more than 3 in a given year, so there aren’t many opportunities to get it right. Below is a little bit about the minor differences that can make or break a marathon race. As described in my last blog, my training had been pretty great and my build-up races were excellent leading up to this year’s race. The taper had gone well and the travel was easy. When the race started, I knew I had done everything I could to be as prepared as possible. But let’s first flash back to 2017 CIM when I ran my personal best, 2:12:28. That year, CIM was the host of the 2017 USA National Championships for the marathon - adding an additional layer of excitement. The weather was perfect and the competition was deep with a lot of guys at a similar level as me. When that race started, Parker Stinson jumped to an early lead but the rest of us 10-20 contenders put themselves in a big pack. I spent the first 19.5 miles doing no work and just being relaxed and focused on getting my bottles. At 19.5 miles, I made a big move and pushed hard, running sub 5 minute miles and breaking away with Kiya Dandena. I briefly had the lead at mile 23 before Tim Ritchie slowly pulled away to earn the victory and I took 2nd in a small negative split (1:06:20 first half, 1:06:08 second half). Essentially, the pace of the main pack was perfectly aligned with my fitness and then I raced the last 10k and was on the verge of winning that national title.  In 2021, we also had nearly perfect weather. The race organizers also put a little extra incentive to break the course record and got a pacemaker lined up to take us through halfway in 1:05:00-1:05:20. My race plan was to go with the pacer and the lead group as I felt that 1:05 was a reasonable first half for my fitness. However, once the race started it felt like we were going a bit too quick early on.  Photo cred: The Sacramento Bee During mile 2, I let the lead group pull a little ahead. When I went through mile 4, I was in a bit of no-man’s land with a split of 20:01 - the lead group had already put about 15 seconds on me. From miles 4-14, I focused on keeping a strong pace, focusing on being relaxed and as controlled as I could be. All of my splits were in the 4:57-5:07 range with a 5:02 average going through halfway in 1:05:56. The leaders were 1:04:50 and I was closing in on Milton Rotich. I caught Milton around mile 14 and we briefly chatted. He said there were 3 guys in the lead pack, I replied let’s be patient and work together and he agreed. We ran side-by-side through mile 20 (which was a sub 5 minute mile) but may have got a little too aggressive in pace when we were catching and passing CJ Albertson and Shadrack Biwott. Both Milton and I started to slow during mile 21 - 22. Sometime around mile 23 he had pulled away from me and I was struggling - my body was shutting down…the fairly typical marathon bonk. I had split almost exactly a minute faster through 20 miles than I did when I ran 2:12:28, but instead of running close to 5:00, I was running in the 5:30s those last few miles.    Those last 3 miles felt like an eternity and I tried simply to run as fast as I could while I was slowing down. I faded back to 7th place by mile 25, but then ran really hard the last quarter mile to take back 6th place. I was a little bummed to have faded back to 2:14:10, but also proud that I never gave up when things got really hard.
After the race, I have never been so wrecked. At the post-race brunch I spent an hour just sipping hot chocolate, then managed to get a big plate of food…that sat in front of me, untouched, while I managed to eat only one grape. As my wife Kristin said, I went to a really dark place those last few miles and my body was pretty wrecked from it. Altogether, it was my 2nd fastest marathon, but not quite the final result I was looking for. The biggest positive takeaway was that I did exactly what my goal was: I stayed grounded and present during the race. I kept repeating, “What time is it? Now. Where am I? Here.” and the mantras of “Be Present” and “Be Grounded.” Ultimately some small differences in those first 20 miles likely made a big difference in those last 4 miles. I really only ran in a group behind people for about the first 2 miles. Other than that I was either pushing the pace solo or side-by-side with Milton. There’s definitely energy savings when you’re tucked in with a group. And I may have worked just a little too hard to 1.) catch Milton and 2.) catch CJ/Shadrack. In the miles from 13-20, I was 35 seconds faster than the 2017 year. Averaging 5s/mi faster in those miles may have been just a little too much for me. Now that the 2024 Olympic Marathon Trials window is opening at the start of the new year, I’m already thinking and dreaming of the next (spring?) marathon to do. Thanks for following the journey to CIM 2021 and hope you’ll enjoy following the next season of training and racing! Training and racing in 2021 through early September had been going so well. I was rocking workouts and had some really good race results. I was excited for the opportunity to compete at the US 10 Mile Championships in Washington DC at the Cherry Blossom Road Race. On Sept 12th, I eagerly lined up at the start line and the gun went off. But, just over a mile into the race my body just shut down and I dropped out of the race a couple miles later. Unfortunately, I knew my body was telling me I needed to rest a little more significantly. When you’re training at a high level, it’s hard to know your limit until you hit it. Sometimes you can over-do it in training, racing, and/or life. I may have been burning the candle at too many ends and not resting enough while having too much coffee to compensate for it. So, I took a rest with basically an entire week off of exercise and then started building mileage back and workouts back a couple of weeks later. Those initial workouts were hard and I was running 15-20 seconds per mile slower than what I was doing in August and early September. This is honestly one of the most challenging parts of the training process - when you’re getting back into shape after a break and you feel like you have so far to go until you’re back to where you were just before the break. I tried to stay positive and focused on the fact that my fitness was awesome and those fitness gains are still there, but I needed the rest to allow my body to be able to race to the level of my fitness. Weeks of mileage and workouts chipped away and gradually I got up to as much as 111 miles in a week. I remember a conversation with my wife Kristin where I was describing how training/fitness seemed to have all of a sudden clicked, and my workouts were back to similar paces and efforts as when I was in my best shape. While mileage increases may have been linear, the ability to gain fitness and run faster is certainly not linear. As a first test of that racing fitness, I did the USATF Colorado XC Championships in early November. At the end of a 101 mile week, I raced really well and was competitive at the front, ultimately finishing 2nd place in 17:55 for 6k and was just 3 seconds off the lead. One race and I felt like the confidence in my fitness was back. It’s hard to race well off a 100mi week, yet I ran fast over a short distance on grass and felt strong. Eight days later was the Horsetooth half-marathon, which served as the USATF Colorado championship as well. The elite field was strong, with a lot of tough competitors racing (https://www.coloradoan.com/story/sports/running/2021/11/09/horsetooth-half-marathon-what-you-need-know-2021-race/6353966001/). I had run the race twice, once taking 2nd and another time finishing 6th. Both times I was the fastest person up ‘Monster Mountain’ (the first 1.8 miles climbs about 500ft) but faded in the second half. My best time on the course was 1:09:20 from 2017, the year I ran my marathon PR at California International Marathon (CIM).  When the race started this year, I didn’t go screaming to the front of the race or crush the competition up monster mountain. No...I hung in the pack and let someone else be aggressive and earn the title of ‘King of the Mountain.’ In fact, I was over 25s slower than my 1.8 mile split from one of those previous years. As we started downhill the initial pack of 15 at the mile had become closer to 5. By the time we started hitting more uphills around mile 6.5 and 7-8, it was down to David Goodman (one of the top US guys in the steeplechase) and I. I pushed a little bit on the final uphill and had about a 3 second lead by the time we got on the Poudre River Trail around mile 8.5. From there on, I ran super consistent with mile splits from 4:59-5:05 into a pretty strong headwind. I kept focusing on keeping calm and sticking with the mantras Kristin helped me with: “Be Present” and “Be Grounded.” I never looked back from mile 8.5-13 and ended up winning by about 90s and running 1:07:52, which was the 3rd fastest time ever run on that course (it was the 49th edition of the race too!). While there were portions that were more difficult than others with the hills and headwind, I felt quite strong throughout. Considering I had only cut back to a ~90 mile week, I was pretty happy with that effort. I spent a lot of time reading/audiobooks and listening to podcasts to try and improve my mental performance skills, and I felt like I did a great job putting those principles into practice on the race course … which is something I might be most proud of from the race.  Now, we’re about two weeks out from CIM. I had expected a different build-up - one where I set a PR at Cherry Blossom and then finished on the podium at the USA 25K Championships. But, instead of that I DNF’d at Cherry Blossom and scratched from racing the USA 25K Champs because I wasn’t mentally or physically ready. With some rest, better sleep, mental training and preparation, I’m now feeling in the best shape of my life and ready to compete at CIM. Each marathon build-up you learn something from, and while this one didn’t go how I expected in the summer, I couldn’t imagine being in a better position two weeks out from a marathon!
Each race provides an opportunity to learn and grow, regardless if the race goes as well as you had visualized. In my last couple of races, I learned some valuable lessons about pre-race preparation and the mental game leading up to and during the race. I hope you’ll find something you can learn about finding optimal pre-race preparation from these experiences. In August, I competed in two trail races – the Rendezvous Mountain Hillclimb in Jackson, Wyoming and the USA Mountain Running Championships at the Gnar Gnar Race in Portland Oregon. The Rendezvous Mountain Hillclimb was an ideal tune-up for the US Mountain Running Championships that followed 8 days later. The course starts at the base on a gondola, runs up from an elevation of 6500ft to almost 10,000ft before descending back down in a screaming fast 2 miles…with a final short incline to the top of the gondola.
I had no time to think about the race, little time to hydrate and a concern that if the smoke didn’t improve it wouldn’t be safe to race. Fortunately, after 6 hours of rough sleep, the smoke had subsided enough that I felt safe enough to race.
The next weekend at the US Mountain Running Championships everything leading up to the race went smooth...the complete opposite of Jackson. I got 9 hours of sleep on Friday night after easy travel, a 90-minute nap on Saturday, and a solid 8+ hours on Saturday night – I probably haven’t been this rested in over 2 years. My flight arrived so early that I even got to see part of the course on Friday night. Ultimately, I had what I thought was the perfect pre-race prep.  A little before halfway into the US Mountain Running Championships, Joe Gray and I had pulled away and we built a pretty big lead as we pushed uphill. In that moment I likely got a burst of adrenaline and then I felt a breathing issue happen, something that’s happened only a handful of times before. It’s complex, but I’m learning there’s a strong correlation with races where I have big expectations, things are going well and then I have an issue that is similar to an asthma attack. The nearly “perfect” pre-race prep likely just added to my level of excitement and expectation that contributed to the issue on the mountain. I ended up fading to a 10th place finish.
I’ve learned that sometimes I can over-prepare and be too focused in the days and hours lead-up to a race. In Jackson, I just ran – I couldn’t even think about what to expect other than I knew I was running hard up a mountain. In Portland, I had time to over-prepare. While everyone needs to get in a competitive mindset, I’m learning that for me to have optimal performance, I need to actually “tone it down.” There’s an appropriate balance, and these races were insightful for what I should do to find my optimal competitive mindset. One of the beautiful things about this sport is there’s always an opportunity to learn. And that can change with each season of the sport. While it’s disappointing to not reach what I was shooting for at the US Mountain Running Champs, I’m confident that it was ultimately a blessing in disguise that will better prepare me for the next big competition.  There’s no doubt that consistency is key to long term success in anything. If you’ve read Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers, he describes "the 10,000-hour rule" as a necessary requirement to become an expert is to put in 10,000 hours of deliberate practice. 10,000 hours is a long time (approximately 5 years of full time work). While being consistent in the process to those 10,000 hours is important, so is having fun! After the last few track races, I didn’t want consistency to become staleness. So, I decided to race the GoPro Mountain Games Apres 5k and Spring Runoff 10k. The 5k and 10k started going straight uphill and ran on the side of the mountain on forest service roads and trails. But I thought, why not...let’s have some fun...this will definitely be a challenge. The 5k was on Friday night and the 10k was on Sunday morning. In the 5k, it was about 85F in Vail at over 8,000ft and still very sunny at 5pm. The race started out on a steep uphill for the first mile to mile and a half. I went out pretty aggressively with the leader on the uphill, pulled away by a few seconds towards the top of the climb and then slightly extended the lead on the downhill to get the win. It was so fun and just a completely different type of race than a specifically paced track race. And, the competitors were great guys and the spirit of the event was absolutely so fun and awesome. After that race I was pretty wrecked, from not only running so hard at high elevation in the heat, but also from the hills. I thought how good it was that I had a full day recovery, until I woke up on Sunday morning and was even more sore than Saturday. Sunday’s 10k was pretty similar except the trails were a little more technical in the middle section, and then was a lung-busting, uber steep climb around mile 4 or 5. It didn’t matter if I was sore or not, I was going to get after it and do the best I could. By mile 1, I was in 2nd behind Joe Gray and although I reeled him in a little on the downhill 2nd mile, he slowly pulled away and won by 30s. I came in 2nd place, which for me was a big victory given how sore my legs were. Another good reminder that you can still race really well even if you physically have your B or C game, as long as you bring your mental A game (our sport psychologist at Penn State told me that back in 2006 and it’s something I reflect back on quite often).
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