California International Marathon 2015

I had never run an open full marathon. CIM 2014 was supposed to be my first one, but I couldn't do it because of a stupid injury; prone to injuries as I am. I was more cautious this year after IM Boulder and Santa Cruz 70.3. I took more time to let my body recover before jumping into serious training. Still, it was mentally tough to get back into the game after a long season. To add to that, the baby - our second one - came on Oct 10 and the whole world turned upside down. I tried to stay true to my running plan as much as I could, while completely skipping the bike and swim workouts. OK, now that all excuses are out of the way, onto the race report. Oh, I forgot one more - I (and the whole fam, except the baby) came down with cold/cough 2 weeks before the race, and I only did a couple of easy runs. So my planned taper was basically ruined, and I was going into the race feeling about 70-80%. Now the race report, I promise :)

I carpooled to Sacramento with a couple of other guys. It was good to have company for the long drive. That reminds me, I still need to do the expenses for the trip :O. Anyways, we reached Sacramento at 3:30 PM on Saturday, Dec 5, and went straight to the expo for packet pickup. Roamed the expo a bit, checked into the hotel, had an early dinner at 5PM at a Thai restaurant and chilled at the hotel for the rest of the evening. I could barely sleep and was up from 1:30AM. The alarm at 3AM was a relief as I had to no longer force myself to sleep. The hotel was partnered with CIM and they had a full continental breakfast 4AM onward! After a light breakfast, I packed up my bag, wore a couple of layers of warm clothes over the race gear and left the hotel to catch the shuttle to the start line. It felt like a long drive and I kept wondering how the heck I was going to run all that distance on the way back. Forecast was for a high chance of rain, which was more worrisome for me due to the possibility of soaked shoes and blisters. We reached the start at 5:40AM and I stayed in the bus for a while as it was too cold outside. I was wearing 5 layers - a thin UnderArmor base layer, a half-sleeve running T-shirt, A full sleeve T-shirt, a wind-blocker cycling jacket and a trash bag. Down below I was wearing the running short and fleece track pants over it. I managed to stay somewhat warm with all that. Between donning all the layers, hitting the port-a-potty, warming up, dropping the morning bag and finding my pace group, it was already race time.

The course is advertised as the fastest marathon in the west with a net downhill. What a bunch of BS! It is a tough course with rollers all the way. I don't care about scenery much, but for those who do, there is NONE! The whole course is through urban neighborhood. The full road (both ways) is dedicated to the race, but for some reason, everyone runs on the right side only. That's bad for me as my legs don't work well with road camber. Worse, the slope was to the right, which aggravates my right IT band. It was no surprise that by mile 16 my IT band started complaining. I was 80% out of gas by mile 13 itself. I was expecting that when I decided to start with the 3:10 pace group - too fast for what I was prepared for. At least the weather gods showed mercy and it didn't rain much. The weather was actually perfect - overcast and cool! The pace group was going by grade adjusted pace (which makes sense), so they were about 5 sec/mi faster than the target pace. I knew before the race that I won't be able to keep up a 7:15 pace for too long, so it was a just a matter of seeing how long. I started slowing down at mile 12 and by mile 16, I was strongly considering dropping out. I saw Anil at this point, which was surprising because he was shooting for a sub-3. He stopped for a potty break and never found the motivation or the pace to carry on. Marathons are TOUGH and everyone has good/bad days. I am sure he will break 3 next time around. We walked a few steps, and then started running together and chit chatting. It was good distraction from the painful IT band and lead-heavy legs.

I decided to keep pushing till mile 18, make it my longest run and then pull out. At mile 18, my pace had reduced to a grinding 8:30 min/mi. I had lost Anil at some point as I was constantly moving to the left edge of the road to avoid the camber. I started walking at an aid station and still fighting my urge to pull out of the race. Somehow I managed to keep going, putting one step in front of the other and now trying to focus on making it across the finish in 3:30 which had been my goal time all along. Why didn't I start with the 3:30 pace group then? You may ask. Well, I don't know. I knew I couldn't pull a 3:10, but I consciously decided to wing it. The result was painful, unenjoyable last miles and maybe a few minutes lost. I ran into Anil again at mile 24 and we ran the last 2 miles together, pushing each other. I was able to dig in and finish "strong" with 7:30 pace for the last half mile for so. I WAS BEAT UP! My Garmin showed 3:28:xx, but my official time was 3:30:30. I ran an additional 0.2 miles trying to avoid the road camber. Anyways, I think I will call the final result a success, but a poorly executed race. Granted I made the choice of going out fast consciously, but it was the wrong choice. I'd take a well-executed race any day over the pain and anguish of the last few miles.

Overall, CIM was not a pleasant experience for many reasons - sick before the race, under trained, bad strategy, unbearable last miles, road camber, rolling course, IT band flare-up. I was more beat up after CIM than I was after IM Boulder and is taking me longer to recover. Marathons are HARD and one cannot just "wing it". I will be well prepared for the next one, whenever that may be. However, it makes me feel better to know that there's not a single person I know who's had a PERFECT first-experience for a marathon. If you are that person, don't tell me about it.