Bob Mann: 2010 Eugene Marathon

Sun May 2, 2010

On Sun May 2 2010, I ran the Eugene Marathon in Eugene, Oregon. I had been nervous about registering for this race because I had had a string of bad luck with marathons lately. Since completing the New York City Marathon six months ago, I had skipped three marathons that I had been registered for: Outer Banks in November when I had the flu; Phoenix in January when my dad was in the hospital; and Little Rock in March before I got my seizure disorder under control.

In addition, I missed two marathons in 2008 when I broke my ankle. That made five marathons skipped in the last two years. Needless to say, I was feeling somewhat jinxed.

The Eugene Marathon in 2008 was the first one of those five that I skipped. So in a way, that was the start of my string of bad luck. Here in 2010, I decided to register for the race again in the hopes that it would bring me full circle. Or, put another way, that it would end the string of bad luck and perhaps even start a new string of good luck.

I wasn't completely sure what to expect from myself for this race. With all that had been going on with me over the last few months, my training had been somewhat sporadic. However, I had a couple of good runs in some shorter races withing the last few weeks. I set a PR by two seconds in a Half Marathon three weeks prior on a hilly course, and I missed a PR in a 5k by two seconds one week prior. So it seemed as though my short-distance speed was just fine. But I was worried about my endurance since I hadn't done nearly enough long runs lately, and the ones I had done weren't always pretty.

My marathon PR was set more than two years ago, and I knew I wouldn't approach that time. I wasn't even going to attempt that. But I was meeting some members of the Kick Runners running group in Eugene, one of whom would be running at just about the pace I'd want. That would be Joe, known in our running group as Moon. Moon's previous PR was 4:05, and wanted to break four hours here. Since four hours seemed like a reasonable goal for me, we decided to run together and push each other towards a sub-four.

I arrived in Eugene on Friday afternoon and was picked up at the airport by Chris, known to us as Duck. Duck lives in town and had graciously offered Moon and me a place to stay for the weekend. In fact, Duck's house was within 1/2 miles of the start and finish lines, which is amazingly convenient.

I picked up my race packet at the expo on Friday, and we waited for Moon to drive in from California. We also then met up with another Kick Runners member, Jen, and her husband Matt. That evening, we went over to Hayward Field to watch some of the Oregon Relays. Since I was very tired from the day of traveling and the three hour time change, I made sure to call it an early night.

Saturday was a relaxing day where we drove much of the marathon course to see what we were up against. We also went over to Autzen Stadium to see some of the Oregon Ducks' Spring football game. And again it was an early night as we prepared for the race the next day.

Sunday was a perfect day for a marathon. It was cool (47 degrees) and cloudy when we woke up. I certainly wouldn't be able to use the weather as an excuse for a bad race.

We left Duck's house at about 6:40am and arrived outside Hayward Field at the start line with plenty of time before the 7:00am start. Duck didn't run the race, but had decided he would run a few miles with Jen (who is much faster than me or Moon) and then would stop and wait for us to run a few miles with us.

Moon and I had tried to line up near the four hour pace group, but the crowd was very dense and we ended up a bit behind them. Soon after the start of the race, we were about 100 yards behind the pace group. We were fine with that because we wanted to conserve energy and start slow.

Our splits were very consistent, close to 9:00 per mile. Yet we weren't gaining on the four hour pace group. Since four hours works out to an average 9:06 pace, this means that the pace group was going fast and banking some time. And since we were shooting for four hours, so were we.

Around Mile 7 or 8, I noticed that we started to close the gap on the pace group. We had stayed at a very consistent pace, which means they must have been slowing down a little. At Mile 8, we climbed the steepest hill in the course. We managed to keep our pace consistent, and got over it without a problem. After my marathons in South Dakota and Wyoming, this hill really didn't seem so bad to me.

Around Mile 10, Duck was waiting for us and he jumped in along side us. He was still very fresh despite running three speedy miles with Jen and then standing around for 20 minutes. Moon, Duck and I ran together out of Eugene and into Springfield, Oregon, which was the least-attractive part of the course. Springfield was not a very picturesque town.

Right around the halfway point, we passed the four hour pace group. For some reason, the timing mat here was at Mile 13.0, not 13.1, and thus we don't exactly know our Half Marathon splits. But by my watch, we hit the halfway point at about 1:58. So we were just ahead of pace for Moon to get a PR and for us to get in under four hours.

Once we returned to Eugene around Mile 16, Duck said goodbye to us and he made a beeline for the finish line to watch Jen finish the race. Moon and I continued up the path along the Willamette River.

We still held consistent paces of about 9:00 thru the first 20 miles. Up to that point, our slowest miles had been 9:13, and our fastest mile had been 8:51. However, I was now feeling myself beginning to struggle. Miles 21 thru 23 were slightly slower, at 9:09, 9:07 and 9:15 respectively, and I was working much harder to keep that pace. I could see that I was struggling much more than Moon was, and I was just dragging his time down. Once we passed Mile 23 and we both commented that we had just 5k left, I told him to continue on at the pace he wanted and to let me lag behind. After all, he was chasing a PR, not me. I knew I could still finish under four hours even if slowed way down. So I bid him goodbye and I slowed.

I watched Moon pull away from me, and in less than a mile I lost sight of him in the crowd ahead of me. From Mile 10-23 or so, we had been passing many more people than had been passing us. But now the tables were turned on me. I was almost out of gas, and other runners were passing me. My time in the 24th miles dropped to 9:25. My body really wanted to slow to a walk, but I knew that if I did that, I would have a very hard time getting back to running again. So I shuffled along as best I could. I ran Mile 25 in 9:35, which meant I was continuing to get slower. At about this time, I heard the four hour pace group catching up to me, and they soon passed me. I briefly panicked that I would miss the four hour mark, but a quick glance at my watch told me that they were a few minutes ahead of schedule. I still had about 13 minutes to cover the last 1.2 miles in order to break four hours, so I was sure I could shuffle on in in that time.

I ran the 26th mile in 9:49, and arrived back at Hayward Field. The crowd here was very pumped up and it was quite a thrill to run about 1/3 of a lap and cross the finish line on the track. My final time: 3:58:20. So I achieved my time goal, and more importantly I successfully got myself back to marathoning, which meant I got a huge gorilla off my back. I do wish that I could have survived the last three miles at a more consistent pace, but I'll take it. With my sporadic training, I knew this was bound to happen, and I'm happy it didn't occur any sooner.

Moon, however, did manage to keep up the consistent pace and he finished in 3:56:18. Jen had finished eons earlier, in 3:07:43. That was a huge PR for Moon and I couldn't be happier for him.

Later on that day, we all gathered for some beer and greasy food, and enjoyed the rest of the day. I am very glad that I got to spend a great long weekend with some good friends. I greatly appreciate the hospitality shown by Duck and his family by putting me up for a few nights and feeding me. I hope to see these guys at another marathon soon.

Next up for me? Well, I'm registered for the Twin Cities Marathon on October 3. However, that is five months away and I wouldn't mind finding something else between now and then. The Summer is always a difficult time to find something, but I'm sure I can come up with something if I put my mind to it. Hopefully next time I'll be better trained, and better prepared to face the last few miles...

Next up are the pics. Sheesh, I started really sweating early on in this race and look like garbage throughout most of it. Yet somehow, Moon looks great and has a huge smile the whole time

And now the photos. Click any image to enlarge.