Chad's Holy Grail

Inaugural Eugene Marathon
Eugene, OR
Overall Time: 3:07:57
Placement: 95/1497 Overall, 79/835 Male, 23/117 Male 30-34

Beep Beep Beep. 4 AM already. Oh well, it's not like I slept much anyway. Between nerves and a mattress that formed a true V-shape when occupied, I tossed and turned most of the night. I quickly dressed and headed out into the pre-dawn for an easy 10 minute jog to the starting line and back. Fully awake now, I stopped in the hotel lobby for two cups of coffee and headed back to the room to eat my pre-race meal and chill out for a couple hours until I needed to head to the start.

We lined up about 6:45 for the 7 AM gun. I found the 3:10 pace group near the front of the pack and the magnitude of what I was about to attempt finally struck me. Here, in a pack of about 3500 marathoners and half marathoners, I was standing only about 10 feet behind the 40 elite runners who were looking to qualify for the US Olympic Trials. Behind me was about 2 city blocks worth of runners. Could I really do this? The National Anthem was sung by John Keston, an 82 year old marathoner who was running today aiming for a new world record for his age group (he got it finishing in 4:27). Then Jarrod, the guy from the Subway commercials, fired the starting gun and we were off.

The start was fast and without any problems for our group. As we passed the first mile marker, we were about 15 seconds faster than the 7:17 per mile pace needed to run a 3 hour 10 minute marathon and qualify for Boston. I had read many warnings about going out too fast and crashing in the late stages, but I felt good and decided to stay with the pace group for a few miles to see if we could get our pace back closer to the target. Mile 2 featured a small climb and descent. We crossed mile 2 at 30 seconds ahead of pace. This would be a trend that would continue through most of the race. Our pacer was consistently 5-10 seconds per mile faster than goal, but I was feeling good and decided to go with it.

As we crossed mile 4, I finally got a chance to take care of my bladder since long lines before the start kept me from going before. This stop along with the largest climb of the day resulted in my slowest mile of the day, 7:45. I was still 15 seconds ahead of my goal pace as I caught back up with the group about a quarter mile past the 5 mile marker. The harder pace that I had to run in order to catch the 3:10 group had me breathing a little harder than I would have liked, but now i could settle back into a more comfortable pace. I only hoped I hadn't expended too much energy that last mile. The next few miles were non eventful as we settled into a pace only around 7:05 per mile. At mile 10, I needed to make one more quick pit stop for my bladder and made a mental note to skip every third water stop from here on unless the sun came out in full force. This time, since I was still about 30 seconds ahead of my goal, I decided not to push as hard in catching the pace group and simply set a goal to keep the pacer in sight. I knew that as long as I could see him, I was still in good shape.

At mile 12, I first started feeling the effects of the race. My bowels complained a little (maybe I should have left the pepperoni off of last night's pizza) and my legs started the first signs of little nagging pain. I knew that I had a perfect day to race and was still running my fastest half marathon ever so I forced myself to focus on running the next two miles strong and then assess how I was feeling again. It only took about 2 minutes for me to start feeling strong again and passed the halfway mark in 1:34:16, a new personal best by almost 3 minutes. Miles 14-16 felt good and the course flattened out as we ran along the bike paths next to the Willamette River.

I started feeling the doubts again about whether I could hold the pace the rest of the way. This was about the place where my pace had dropped off in the Portland Marathon last October. I focused on maintaining my running form, figuring that if I stayed relaxed and kept my steps going at a consistent rate, I'd stay close to my current pace. I just kept focusing on one mile at a time. As I passed the 19 mile marker, I started to gain confidence. I knew that I had almost a 10 minute cushion with only 7.2 miles to go. I could run the rest of the race at my easiest training pace and still qualify for Boston. Then, near disaster, I rounded the corner expecting to see the 20 mile marker and instead saw “Mile 19”. I had misread the previous marker. NOW I had 7.2 miles to go and only a 2 minute cushion. Fortunately, I was still feeling strong and running my miles ahead of goal pace. About mile 22, I was starting to really feel the affects of 2 and a half hours of hard running. I was still putting in a pace ahead of my goal, but I wasn't sure if I could do that the rest of the way. I had spent the past few miles doing mental arithmetic to determine how much I could slow and still finish under 3:10. I just kept talking myself into running ONE more mile with good form and then I could slow that much more at the end. I also told myself not to worry about passing anyone else the rest of the way. Just stay focused on my own running. It must have worked, because I ran my fastest mile of the day 6:56. I also started passing people again, and not just those that were forced to walk.

By the time I reached mile 25, I knew that I had my 3:10 locked up. I could jog the rest of the way and still make it. With the pressure off, and crowds cheering, I managed to run a 7:07 the last full mile and pushed hard to the finish to try to beat the 3:08 mark. I did it finishing in 3:07:57. I raised my arms in victory as I crossed the finish and realized that I AM GOING TO BOSTON.

For a runner who can never hope to qualify for the Olympics, qualifying for Boston is my Olympics. Boston is the only marathon in the US, outside of the Olympics and National Championships, that requires its competitors to meet a qualifying standard in order to run. Beating the 3:10 standard by more than 2 minutes surpassed my best hopes. Before the race, I felt like I could run a 3:08, based on my training and 10K performances, by I also felt like running a 3:07 pace might put me in serious danger of bonking out in the late stages and missing my 3:10 goal. Overall it was a great day and one I won't soon forget.