Road Warrior Blog

14 May 2008

1:43:47

Posted by Mike Dopke under: Mike Dopke (Coach) .

Well another Riverbank has come and gone and I am happy to say that this year was a record year for me. I ended up running a 1:43:47, which was 4 minutes faster than last year. I attribute my success to group running and more speed work this training cycle.

I awoke Saturday at 5:00 a.m. in order to have time to eat a decent breakfast and be able to relax a little bit before meeting the Road Warriors at 7:00. I was very excited and a little nervous as well. So the breakfast didn’t really happen, unless you consider 1 bite of peanut butter toast breakfast. This is an error I make time and time again. I know I need to eat, but I am just not hungry before a race. It is usually OK before shorter distances but always comes back to bite me in a long run. I did force myself to eat a banana upon arriving at our suite, which may have saved me.

The first half of the race was very relaxed for me. I started out with my friend CJ who is a little bit faster than I am. I had anticipated running 1:45:00, and wanted to keep on a 6:45 pace per mile all the way through. As always, the first mile was faster than I planned on. It ended up being 6:30 on the button and the pace felt very good. CJ was looking to run 6:30s all the way through and I made the decision to stick with him for a couple more miles to bank a little time. I did not intend to run them for as long as I did.

I ran 6:30 splits for the first 10 miles or so and felt very good. My breathing was near normal and I even chatted with people as I ran. Even the first couple hills were easy. Then came the lack of breakfast. Right before the 11-mile mark I started to get light headed. I slowed to about a 7:00 pace and it briefly got better. Then I started seeing little blue lines in the pavement that I’m quite sure were not there. I even looked back a couple times to double check, no blue lines. I was bonking. 

Luckily for me I was running up on an aid station. I slowed and took and orange slice and then the fullest cup of Gatorade I could see. I usually run full speed and drink, but I slowed to a walk while I drank this one. I started to feel better and resumed running after about 10 seconds. A half mile later I came upon GU station and made sure I got every drop of that as well. I was still feeling a little strange but was getting better. I took Gatorade at every station after that, and stayed between 6:45 and 7:00 miles.

I love that last little hill as you are about a coming up to the finish. I always surge right there. I passed about 5 people running in a pack that had passed me while I was bonking. I was happy to be done as I came across the finish line flapping my arms like a bird. I had run fast, but could have been faster had I eaten breakfast.

I stood at the finish line and cheered as the Road Warriors and several of my RunGazelle friends came across. Then a weird thing happened after about a half hour, I started getting queasy. My stomach was nauseous and I was getting hot. I also attribute this to a lack of proper fueling before the race, but I have heard similar stories from other people getting woozy after finishing. It could have been the weather I guess, but I don’t think it was too hot. I was so sick that I had to leave the post race party, which sucked because the Road Warriors were there and this was our last time together for a while. Sorry everyone. I went home and laid down for a couple hours and still felt terrible. It wasn’t until about 6:00 p.m. that I started for feel better.     

I would like to publicly thank Kristen Aidif and Brooke Messing for the opportunity to coach this year’s Road Warrior Team. I have had so much fun and will always remember this experience fondly. Thanks to you too Road Warriors for putting forth the effort that you all did in training. You have all improved dramatically since November and I am proud of everyone! I know some of you are not fully satisfied with your times, but bad days happen to us all. There’s always next year right?     

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