COURSING: October 2015

Another long over due marathon report.... What can I say, sometimes life gets in the way. In this case, work has been challenging and distracting to say the least, coupled with a few personal events and random running. I'll address those in other posts soon enough. In the meantime, here's my brief review of the Moscow Marathon and photo blast from the trip.

I boarded my flight for Moscow all hopped up, and thinking that I should be able gun for a PR. My training had been solid. I certainly had the endurance. I was hitting good speed workouts. And I was totally healthy without any lingering aches or pains.

All those things suggested that I should go for it.

Unfortunately, we can't always control everything, and when traveling internationally there will always be additional elements that stack up against us.

In the end, I didn't get a PR in Moscow simply because it just wasn't meant to be on that course and on that day. I pushed hard through 35K, and then didn't have enough in me to get aggressive at the end. I still ran a 2:39:12. About three minutes off from my PR.

Although the race was a disappointing from my original goals, I'm perfectly OK with how it went. I gave it a shot. I still ran well, and I left more in the tank for another day. It took me all of about five minutes after crossing the finish line to accept that.

This trip to Russia was about much more than just a race. The race was just a small part of a 2-1/2 week adventure to a new world for me. Hell, the race was a glorified tour of Moscow, which turns out is a beautiful and impressive city!

More importantly, I traveled with someone that I'm absolutely head over heels for, and together we explored places that I might not have gone otherwise. I was able to see where Sasha was from, learn more about the culture she grew up with, and met some of the people that are most dear to her. We had a blast!

So where to go with this marathon recap? There were some things that certainly effected my race and they're worth highlighting. I don't think any one singlehandedly was terrible, but all of them combined made the day more difficult than expected.

For starters, Moscow's not cold. Don't be fooled!! They have hot summers and their winters are warmer than Chicago's. In September, it generally starts to cool off but inconveniently they were in the midst of an Indian-Summer. Race day was easily 75 degrees, and very sunny. And since the course was on some extremely wide streets, the sun was soaked up by the blacktop and only made things seem much hotter. Luckily wind wasn't a factor.

Given the heat, hydration should've been key. Unfortunately, I went into the race already somewhat depleted. Reason being: on the flight over, I had some sort of freak migraine and massive kankle swelling... worse than anything I've experienced before. It took a few days to resolve this as my body literally wound up flushing itself. I also "broke my fever" in the two nights that lead up to the race (aka waking up in disgusting pools of sweat). By marathon morning, my hydration was already blown. It was frustrating and upsetting. To add insult to injury on a hot day, I didn't get any water or powerade until the 10K mark! Ugh.

The course itself made for some beautiful, scenic views. It was fun to start from the 1980 Olympic Village, which screamed a Soviet Era mini-city. I couldn't help but think about the 1980 USA team that was forced to boycott. The first 5K was along the Moscow River, then through Moscow City... which is an uber-modern business district with some wild architecture. A similar idea to La Defense in Paris, only bigger, Moscow City is growing rapidly and would put any American downtown to shame. After 10K, we snaked our way along several boulevards, ring-roads, the river, and old neighborhoods that lead to the Red Square. (Unfortunately, we didn't run through the Red Square - that would've been really impressive!) The final 10K passed the Bolshoi Theatre, former KGB headquarters and other old CCCP buildings, along the Kremlin wall, and then the river back to the Olympic Village.

Again, a very impressive tour of the city! After the weekend, I came away with a new found respect for Moscow. Unfortunately, it clearly doesn't receive enough much deserving, positive attention from the western world.

Moscow Marathon Course Map:

SO, a few other things about the course: Moscow's not flat. There were a series of hills from 9-11K, 22-26K, and 30-31K. It seemed like steps leading up to the Red Square, then 33-34K was a very fast downhill back to the river. The first uphill was over a couple K and Boston worthy, or worse. The 20-25KM stretch had a nasty bridge followed by a steady rise over a longer distance. By then, I was starting to push the pace. So if I averaged about 6:01/mi in there, then it was more like 5:50 effort.

The extremely wide streets made tangents difficult, especially when hydration was located on the outer edges of 6 to 10 lanes. Think trying to run on a Lake Shore Drive without any medians! There were four x 180 degree turns, of which the last was at 35K and appeared to be incorrectly marked. From that point on, those final 7-8K markers were very inaccurate and basically useless. I had no idea what pace I was actually running in there.

In summary, my sob story goes as follows: Hydration depleted from the get go, then it was hot, not enough water, somewhat hilly, and screwed up markers towards the end. Like I said, nothing singlehandedly was horrible... but collectively this became too much for my 2:36 expectation.

OK, all that said... Here are a few thoughts about my race itself.

Collectively, there was a marathon + a 10K race. I think both had about 12-15,000 runners. Maybe 5,000 were marathoners. The 10K hung with us through about 4K, then split and reconnected briefly at our 12K.

It seemed like a big field initially, but after the 10K race split off things got lonely. Fortunately, I was working with a guy early on, and we were very steady together... consistently hitting 3:43-46/K or ~6:00/mi, with the exception of the hill at the 10K mark. Things felt extremely smooth, and the only hiccup was missing that first water/powerade station at 5K.

I eventually dropped this other runner around the half way point. By then, we had already passed a most of the field in front of us. It became a solo effort from there. More often than not, I couldn't see anyone ahead. There were a few runners to chase down, but none willing to hang with me.

Looking back, I would say that my race went extremely well through the 34K mark. At 34K I was on pace for 2:37:40. There was a little volatility in my splits, but my effort was always constant or pressing. At times, I had to force myself to hold back. At 30K, I saw Sasha and her dad cheering for me. That sparked me to start pushing. It was hot, but I knew if I was going to run something solid, that's were it needed to happen. I wound up having some of my fastest splits from 31 to 34K, which averaged 3:40's. 34 was downhill and I blazed a 3:28 or 5:35/mi pace. It felt fantastic too!

I remember thinking that if I could hold 3:40's, then I come close to breaking 2:37. I already knew it was likely too hot for a PR, but up until I still thought I had a chance to go sub-6 min for the whole thing. I reached the river and Kremlin, and I had 8K to go.

That's all ironic because after that uber-fast 34th K, things got shitty quickly! The 35th K had a 180 turn that seemed too long. I split 4:13. 36K was 4:52. I remember thinking, "What the fuck!?" I was running way too fast for those splits, and I was trusting what I ran in 34 given my effort on that downhill. Then a 2:33 at 37... I was starting to get frustrated, but the course seemed to be correcting itself. Then 3:58 at 38 (another WTF?), and finally back at 3:43 in 39. That's a huge variance in pace that I knew wasn't happeneing, so I had absolutely no clue what I was running! As far as I was concerned, I was still holding a decent effort and the 3:43 confirmed it at 39K... only praying that the final 3K would correct the error.

Then I hit the wall. The dehydration and frustration slammed into me. I started to mentally give up. No matter what the splits said, I knew I was slowing in this last 3.2K. I made it 24 miles deep and there wasn't anything I could do about it. My legs went into slow motion. I didn't completely cave, but I stopped fighting. Ironically I was still passing a couple dying runners. The end merely became a self-battle of attrition.

It turns out that the final 7.2K were about 3:53/KM or 6:15 pace. Was that actually the pace? Was the distance correct? I don't know. It's hard to say since the markers were so far off. I've tried to use Google Maps to study the course. As far as I can tell, through 34K looks accurate... then it gets dicey due to that 180 turn. Regardless of the overall distance that I ran... I know I slowed towards the end... and that makes a huge difference from what I ran last year in Berlin. I finished Moscow in 2:39:12. placed 21st OA, 18th male, 4th AG. The nearest person was a minute and a half in front of me.

So that's it. That's the race. Not quite the work of art I was originally expecting, but given my laundry list above, I was actually OK with it. It was what it was, and I readily accepted that soon after crossing the finish line. Honestly, after seeing Sasha and her dad at the finish made everything so much better. Yet another sub-2:40 to put in the spreadsheet.

International marathons are awesome trips, and I've done plenty at this point. Each time I go, I recognize the risks of not running good races. It's tough because you get your hopes up for them. Sometimes you get lucky and things fall into place. I PR'd at Rotterdam and twice in Berlin. Moscow just wasn't my day. Regardless, it was an amazing run and effort, and I'd recommend it to anyone. The race is still an infant compared to the majors, but with some time it'll grow into a fantastic event.

Split Recap:

K----- Time ----- Lap ---- /KM ---- /Mi

5K -- 0:18:39 -- 18:39 -- 3:43.8 -- 6:00.2 (Missed water at 5K)

10 -- 0:37:42 -- 19:03 -- 3:48.6 -- 6:07.9 (Included big hill!)

15 -- 0:56:17 -- 18:35 -- 3:43.0 -- 5:58.9 (Let it fly)

21.1 -- 1:18:59 -- 22:42 -- 3:43.4 -- 5:59.5 (Let it fly)

25 -- 1:33:35 -- 14:36 -- 3:44.5 -- 6:01.3 (All uphill)

30 -- 1:52:24 -- 18:49 -- 3:45.8 -- 6:03.4 (More hill)

35 -- 2:11:16 -- 18:52 -- 3:46.4 -- 6:04.4 (Avg'd 3:40s except 35K)

42.2 -- 2:39:12 -- 27:56 -- 3:52.9 -- 6:14.9 (This was all FUBAR)

Overall: 2:39:12 / 1:18:59 out, 1:20:13 back

The funny thing is, the course was covered with paparazzi! I swear, I've never been photographed so much while running. Those Russians really love their cameras!! Anyway, I scalped a few random ones that I found online, along with some of the fancy official race shots.

12K, with the only person willing to hang with me:

15K and passing these fools like they were standing still:

25K:

27K and melting in the sun:

Near 32K:

Blazing it near 34K, and completely alone:

No man's land, near 39K:

Sasha and I at the finish:

With Sasha and her dad at the finish:

Probably one of my favorite photo bombs ever!!!

Some of the media pics...

Start:

First 5K:

Moscow City, 8K:

One of the "Seven Sisters" buildings, 12K:

Hills, 20-something-K:

Red Square, 32-33K:

Kremlin, 36K:

Of course, the trip that followed the marathon is really why we were there! Sasha and I left Moscow the following day. We then went to St Petersburg for several days and toured many historical museums, palaces, and cathedrals. We then went to Voronezh to see her family and friends, and wrapped up on the Mediterranean coast in Antalya, Turkey. All in all, an amazing experience. Here are a few of the nearly 1,000 photos that we took:

Aleksander Sad, Moscow: