Sunburst Marathon - RunMarathon

Garmin notes: This was my first marathon with the Garmin, as advice to others I want to point out my two mistakes. First, I left the device on autopause, which resulted in 1:53 in time that isn't allocated to the splits below. I only stopped twice to pee, but autopause kicked in several other times, either because I was going to slow or the GPS was reading too slow. Second, I didn't trust the Garmin, but rather relied on the markers on the course. Big mistake, as you'll see below.(In the tables, Marker=the sign on the course, Distance=the reading according to Garmin)

Miles 1 through 7: First out-and-back was over seven miles, through downtown South Bend then north to a turnaround at Pinhook Park. Course had us do some funky stuff, like go down a dead-end road, then around the perimeter of a parking lot, then back to the primary road again. Twice. Didn't know it then, but this was a taste of more funkiness to come.

My theme to start was to be "if it doesn't feel like you're going too slow, then you're going too fast." After all the pace runs the past few weeks, I still could not judge my pace enough to rein it in during the early miles:

Marker Time Distance
1 08:30.0 1.00
2 09:00.0 1.00
3 09:00.0 1.05
4 08:48.0 1.00
5 09:21.0 1.09 (restroom)
6 08:38.0 1.00
7 08:59.0 1.00

So through the first 7.14 miles, I'm averaging an 8:45 pace, about 15 seconds too fast, even with a restroom break behind a bush during mile five. Shortly after, I saw Angel, who at that point was fronting the sweep car, then had someone shout at me "Hey bear! It's CerveloP3 from BT." Can't go anywhere without being recognized! (Thanks for the shout out, Garron!) Note that miles 3 and 5 are long according to the Garmin, first of several.

Miles 8 through 15: At this point, the course gets hilly, hillier than I expected, and my pace settles down (because of the hills?). Course is supposed to be less hilly than Marine Corps and Nashville, either I forgot how hilly those were or I feel these more because I'm going faster. Beginning mile 7 or 8, my hip starts aching bad as well, worse than it had in training. By Mile 15, it's on fire. Between the hip and the hills, I'm starting to slow down. Still slightly ahead of pace, but losing steam.

Marker Time Distance
8 09:12.0 1.04
9 09:05.0 1.07
10 09:15.0 1.00
11 09:06.0 1.00
12 09:03.0 1.00
13 09:13.0 1.00
14 09:38.0 1.06
15 09:24.0 1.00

By marker 15, the Garmin says we've run 15.30 miles

Miles 16 through 20: Early in Mile 16, I find an empty PortaPotty and use it, losing not quite a minute, I estimate. Then we enter the wonkiest part of the course, five miles through what looks like several parks on both sides of the river, which we cross four times during this stretch. By the time we're through this, I feel like a rat chasing cheese through a maze (see below). Here I see several people take wrong turns/shortcuts; I'm pretty sure some of them were intentional. Get a dirty look when I tell a woman she was supposed to go straight...

We hit Marker 17, push the lap button, then the half-dozen or so runners in my proximity simultaneously look at each other with the biggest WTF looks possible: we just recorded a 6:30 split! Having the benefit of the Garmin, I see that the "mile" we just ran was only seven-tenths, that we just made up for the overages we had run to that point. Garmin says 17.09 total miles, so Mile 19 is only 0.89 miles to even it out. All of the markers after that are EXACTLY one mile apart.

Marker Time Distance
16 10:16.0 1.09 (restroom)
17 06:30.0 0.70
18 08:57.0 1.00
19 08:05.0 0.89
20 10:01.0 1.00

Miles 21 through 26.2: as we escape from the maze, I'm in good shape timewise for my second sub-4 ever, and a possible PR (3:58). After 20 miles, I'm at 3 hours even, and only need to run faster than a one-hour 10K to reach those goals. Problem is, I have no speed, and the temperatures on this clear, sunny day have reached 70 degrees. And we still have to run through those damn hills again. Not to mention that the sadistic RD put in another, tougher hill, hardest one on the course, right in the middle of Mile 25.

Marker Time Distance
21 10:11.0 1.00
22 09:49.0 1.00
23 09:47.0 1.00
24 10:14.0 1.00
25 10:45.0 1.00 (walked up some of the hill)
26 09:59.0 1.00
26.2 02:11.0 0.25

So I finish in the survival mode, down to a fairly constant 10-minute pace and a 1:03 10K. After the Mile 25 Mountain, it was nice to finally see Notre Dame Stadium, where the finish is rumoured to be on the fifty-yard line. Have to run ALL the way around the stadium to the tunnel on the north side, then negotiate through the eight-wide 5K walkers who are suppose to stay to the left and leave us runners a path on the right. With the Notre Dame Fight Song blaring, sprint across half the football field to the finish. No PR, no sub-four, but I end up with my second fastest marathon ever (by a whole nine seconds), and number thirteen (twelve states) in the book.








Look for a flat marathon sooner than June, run it when I'm ten years younger. Oh, and choose better genes.

Walk around, talk with some of the runners with whom I just spent four hours. Plenty of Gatorade, bagels, and fresh fruit available to pass the time until Angel finishes. Decide against going get the car at the start, because I wasn't sure I could get back with all the traffic control in place.


*Probably too fast a pace early in the race.
*More, tougher hills than expected.
*Nice day to start, but too warm in the last crucial hour.
*Advanced age, achy hip.


This is a good marathon for a fifty-stater looking for a scenic, well-organized, well-supported race, but not if you're looking for a PR.

Pros:
*Beautiful course along the St. Joseph River.
*Water stops nearly every mile, most stocked with Gatorade Endurance and Gu.
*Plenty of enthusiastic, helpful volunteers.
*Great sites to start and finish the race.

Cons:
*Ugliest T-shirt I've received at any race: orange, simplistic design, all events listed with nothing to distinguish the marathon finishers from the Family Fun Walk participants.
*Convoluted course, using dead-end streets, parking lots, and the rat maze through the parks at the turnaround.
*Significantly innacurate mile markers on course.
*No monitoring of the course, allowing rampant cheating.
*Minimal crowd support, though the few out there were vocal and supportive.
*Hilly and hot, not excessively so, but less than perfect if you are trying to PR.