Indianapolis Monumental Marathon - RunMarathon

I put myself in a position (pace-wise) to come in under 3:16 by bringing my pace down methodically through the first half of the race. The problem is that it took too much energy to run at that pace. I ran at about 5-7bpm higher than I should have based on training indications and knew I was playing with fire. I was on pace plan but thought I'd be going 7:2x at 159-162 bpm, but my HR was in the 165-168 range (Z4) for the first 15-17 miles... I was racing beyond my ability. No wonder I finished slowly after a 15-mile tempo run...

After running a 7:38 at mile 15, I decided to push some to get back to 7:20's. Looking back this may have been a mistake as there were some good sized hills that made pace look worse than the effort. Even though, I pushed, the next two miles went at 7:32 and 7:31, and they were HARD... Mile 18 forward were a struggle. My legs were dead. I managed to sort of hold on, walked a couple of water stops and just pushed as best I could to finish.

Nutrition:
Breakfast: 1.5 large plain bagels (350kcal) w/3tbs PB (300kcal), 1 large banana (120kcal) plus 2-scoop/24oz infinit mix (292kcal w/ 70g carb & 3g protein). Total of about 1,050kcal between 5:15 and 6:30. Race time was 8:00

Gu (100cal) at ~ 0, 4, 8, 12, 17 and 22 miles (600kcal between 7:55 and 11:00). Used water to wash down everything including 4 Enduralytes when not consuming Gu. 200kcal/hr is about all I can handle while pushing that hard. I was getting one Gu down every 30min/4mi for the first 1.5hr, then went to about a 40-minute cycle as I was getting a little reflux. I'm 168lb. I figured with 2,000-2,200 kcal in the tank then 600kcal on the course, I'd be fine at ~100kcal/hr.

I managed a 22-minute PR. If I raced more conservatively, I probably could have knocked a few more minutes off. But, I choose to take the risk and really don't regret it. I hurt a lot, but learned tons through the pain. Looking back it was a fun day, in a weird sort of way...

Fuel may have been an issue as my heart rate and pace dropped after mile 17. It's tough to tell by feel weather it was fuel or pacing, probably a combination. I knew I was stretching my limits on pace/HR. On the edge, there's just no margin of error for nutrition nor pace miscalculations.

My legs were really unstable at the end. I didn't feel woozy or anything and my wits were fine. The legs were just very shakey and it was tough to stand... I kept upright walking slowly for about 10-15 minutes eating and drinking everything in sight. I downed a large water bottle in about 2 minutes. Then I went grazing... 2 cans of Pepsi, two bagels, another water, 2 bottles of All Sport. Finally I layed down in the sun and massaged my lower legs and feet with ice, took 2 Tylenol and began to feel human again.


Too aggresive pacing for my fitness. I knew it felt too hard for the first half... I decided that anything between 3:16 and 3:30 meant about the same for me. Under 3:16 meant going to Boston in the spring. So, I figured "why not try?" Well, at least I learned something...


This was the first year of the Monumental Marathon (there's another Indianapolis marathon away from the city center). Overall they did a great job with organization. There were ~ 20 aid stations all stocked well and the course was very nice.

No pre-race expo, but I'm perfectly fine with that.