Skagit Flats Marathon Review and Results

Let's start it off right. Those six fine folks above all qualified for the Boston Marathon at the Skagit Flats Marathon on Sunday. So it was possible! Check them out on the Skagit Flats Facebook page here - nice photo by Ashley Degen.

If you're just looking for results of the race:
-here are the marathon results.
-and here are the half marathon results.

Also, if you're looking for photos from the race, the link at the Skagit Flats Marathon page is incorrect. Here is the correct Jon Brunk link. It doesn't look like the photos are up yet, but I did see at least one guy out there taking shots, so I assume they'll be up soon.

Now to the gory details...

My Skagit Flats Marathon Experience!

Due to some bad luck and timing issues with family and work, I headed up to the race on Saturday. It was about a six hour drive and I was on my own. Not a great way to prep for a marathon, but you do what you have to do. I picked up my number, chip and shirt at about five, had some dinner and then headed back to Seattle to stay the night at my brother's place.

Woke up early Sunday morning and headed back up to Burlington. The weather looked just about perfect: fog and/or low clouds seemed to be the order of the day.



Of course, with that kind of weather, you also usually get some high humidity. My Garmin said it was right at 100%. So, yeah, that's pretty high. It felt good standing around, but once we got going, the sweat came out pretty fast.



I went to hit the Honey Buckets about 30 minutes before the start, then remembered that they were going to open up the high school locker rooms for showers after...might they be open before for bathroom use? Yes, they were! So I walked in to the locker room and just off the entrance door, there was the toilet. No, I mean it was right there. It had a wall around it...about 3 feet tall. And there was a guy sitting on it. I sort of nodded at him...I'm not sure what the correct greeting was for saying "hello" to a guy on a wide-open toilet in the middle of a locker room, but I really didn't want to get into a full-blown conversation. Then I quickly decided that I was going to have to put up with the Honey Bucket after all. Anyhoo...

So the Full and the Half started off at the same time, which wasn't a big deal as there were only about 700-800 runners total, so it wasn't crowded at all. We took off right beside Burlington-Edison High School and meandered north and west toward Padilla Bay on the lonely farm roads that run around the town.



A couple of notes about the course. As the name of the race suggests, this is a flat course. It doesn't go up much and it doesn't go down much. It's just flat. And frankly a little boring. This is farm country and you're pretty much stuck looking at fields and cows and dirt and road. Once in a while, at the few road intersections, where people could find parking, you would have a few people cheering on the side of the road. But if you're looking for crowds and/or interesting sights alongside the course...nope, this isn't it. This is where to come if you want to try to run fast on a flat course. Period.

Here's the elevation profile from my Garmin:



Because of a strained and sore quad muscle in my right leg, I hadn't really run in about a week before the race. It felt OK during warmup and really, during the first 10 miles of the race, it felt pretty much fine. So that was not an issue. Well...the not running may have been an issue, but the muscle was fine.

I fell in with the 3:45 pace group, thinking I could hold that pace. Maybe a mistake, but I had done the first three months of my training program working on a 7:50 pace, so I didn't think an 8:30 pace would be a killer. I was wrong. I only made it about 8 miles before my pace started to fall off. At first I thought I was just sort of tired and would come back around with a second wind, as I sometimes do in training runs. Instead, between miles 8 and 12, my legs tightened up horribly and I slowed and slowed. I tried slowing the pace, stretching a bit, and finally walking breaks, but by mile 16, I was getting cramps in my quads and in my calves. I was even getting cramping in my toes! By mile 18, my legs felt like boards and I was having a lot of trouble running at all. Of course, that's about the time that the fog and clouds lifted and all of the sudden it was HOT and I was looking at trying to finish the last eight miles without being able to do much more than walk and shuffle/jog once in a while.

Check the mile by mile carnage here:



Why the cramping? At first I wanted to blame the humidity, but I was taking in water and sport drink pretty well and I had four GU gels during the race. Besides, newer research says that heat and humidity are not usually to blame for cramps. The more likely reason: my last month of poor training (vacation time plus injury time) left me undertrained to even go out at an 8:30 pace. I really didn't think I'd lose that much fitness that fast, but it's the most likely cause.

If you want to see what it looks like to walk a good part of a marathon, here you go:



So I struggled, STRUGGLED, in to the finish line with a 5:04:13. My slowest marathon ever. Wow.

The worst part, for me, is not the bad experience or the bad result - it's just one more race, after all, there will be plenty of others - but the fact that I wasted four months trying to gauge the effectiveness of the Hansons Marathon Method and pretty much didn't learn anything about it. So does the Hansons Marathon Method work for the Average Joe? Will it get you to Boston? Probably, I don't know, maybe. And I'd love to be able to say, "let's try it again!" But that just isn't going to happen anytime soon. I'm thinking I'll concentrate on some shorter races for a while and have a little fun before heading back to the marathon.

The shirt is nice, you don't see a lot of green shirts except for St. Patrick's Day races, so that's cool. The fit is a little small and the neck hole is tiny, but I've said many times before, the sizing on different brands of tech shirts are an absolute mystery. You get what you get. This one may end up with Payton as I'm not sure I'm fitting into it.



Decent medal. Nothing too exciting, but it fits the race. And I'm not saying that in a bad way. I think this is the perfect marathon for one thing: running fast. It's small, it's low-key, it's flat, and judging from the results, most people had a pretty decent race here. Unfortunately, not all of us, but I may return at some point to try to fix that.



So that's that. We're just not going to think about Boston for a while. Not going to think about marathons for a while. I think I'll let the desire come back on its own well and good time. For now, I'll just concentrate on the shorter races that are in front of me. Moving on!

Next up: McDonald Forest Trail 15k on October 27th.

Hansons's Marathon Method - Review in Progress - The End Days!

And here we are. Are you ready? Am I ready? Well...

No, I'm still not running. But I will be on Sunday, I can assure you of that.

So, if you're still following along:

Thursday: 6 miles easy

Friday: 6 miles easy

Saturday: 3 miles easy

Sunday: Skagit Flats Marathon

Mentally, I'm feeling good. Physically? We'll see. But I'm excited to run. I can't wait until Sunday.

Let's go.

Hansons Marathon Method - Review in Progress - Day 117 of 123

And we're less than a week away from the Skagit Flats Marathon. Yikes.

I skipped Monday's workout today as well, which means I have not run since Friday. My leg feels better, but I can tell just from walking around that it is not right yet. So...I'll wait.

The new goals for Skagit Flats are as follows:

-try to enjoy the race

-run consistently; start at a smart pace and follow through with a good pace in the second half of the race

-Run a new marathon PR

The Boston goal will have to wait for another time. I'm a patient guy. I'll get there.

Monday's workout, for those still following along with the plan, was 6 miles easy. Tomorrow, Tuesday, will be 5 miles easy. I doubt I'll run it, but I have not decided for sure.

Go buy the book:

Hansons Marathon Method - Review in Progress - Day 113 and 114 of 123

Well, now I've got a bit of a quandary. I did my workout yesterday - 7 miles easy, if you're interested - and actually ran fairly well. Here are my pace numbers:



My leg did not feel great during the run though and this morning, it feels worse.

So...

Do I shut it down for a number of days and try to get it healed up somewhat? We're about 8 days away from the race. How much fitness would I really lose? Probably not too much. I'm pretty sure I'm going to end the race with a sore, injured leg, one way or the other, but I'd rather not have to start the race with a sore leg.

I think I'll probably take a couple days off, maybe more, and see how it feels.

Sigh...again.

If you're wondering about the workouts:

-Saturday: 8 miles easy
-Sunday: 8 miles easy

Hansons Marathon Method - Review in Progress - Day 112 of 123

OK, today was your last official tempo workout of the program. It should have looked something like this:

-warmup
-10 miles at marathon goal pace
-cooldown

My workout did not quite look like that. Although my leg felt better than Monday, I'd only say it was about 70%. So I cut the run off at about 7 miles and just tried to keep my pace under 9:00. It was a success in that my leg didn't hurt terribly at the end of the run like it did on Monday, so I'm hoping it will keep improving.

See you tomorrow.

Go buy the book:

Hansons Marathon Method - Review in Progress - Day 110 of 123

If you're the teacher's pet that you should be, than today's workout consisted of:

-warmup
-6 x 1m at goal pace - 10 seconds
-6 x .25m recovery in between
-cooldown

If you're the kid in the back row carving "Just Do It" into the desk with a pocket knife, then you took today off to rest your touchy leg.

No need to remind me which kid I am.

Hansons Marathon Method - Review in Progress - Day 109 of 123

It doesn't seem quite right that I could make it through more than 100 days of the Hansons Program just fine and then get an injury two weeks away from the race...but there you go.

I was supposed to do 8 miles easy today, but my leg was really hurting. I did about 6 and a half, and probably shouldn't have done that. I think I'll skip tomorrow's speed workout - there's no way I'm doing speed work on a very sore leg - then I have my regular day off on Wednesday. With luck, the leg will feel a little better on Thursday.

Sigh...

Hansons Marathon Method - Review in Progress - Day 107 and 108 of 123

I'm liking this slightly cooler weather. It definitely makes the running a touch easier. Especially since Dixon is still closed for another week, so I can't get to an indoor treadmill even if I wanted to.

I don't like that my right leg is still very touchy. I don't like that at all.

Saturday:

-10 miles easy

Just trying to keep it between 8:30 and 9:00. Except for the soreness in the right quad area, I didn't feel too bad during this one. Here are my pace numbers.



Sunday:

-10 miles easy



Leg still sore. Ran this one mostly on the trails at Willamette Park. The Western Oregon University cross country team also seemed to be working out there today. They made me feel old, fat and slow...but that really isn't too hard to do. Here are the numbers for today.



A little slower than yesterday, but I was on trails for a good part of the run, so it was expected.

We won't have anything longer than 10 miles until race day now. Hopefully, that will help my leg heal up.

Two weeks out.

Go buy the book:

Hansons Marathon Method - Review in Progress - Day 106 of 123

All right, Friday's workout...which is the Hanson's Thursday workout that I swapped to Friday.

It was the tempo workout for the week. Ten miles at marathon goal pace. Which for me, these days, is pretty much up in the air. I've also got an ouchie quad, which is my first injury of any kind since I started the program and has got me in quite a grumpy mood.

Anyway, I was just trying to keep my pace under 8:30. I also cut the entire thing a little short because of life (my ride was ready to go before I was done). You, however, are a superstar and will run the entire workout because that's just how you roll.

Here is a look at my pace.



Not bad, not great.

Remember to throw in a short warmup and cooldown. The total workout should be around 11-13 miles.

Hansons Marathon Method - Review in Progress - Day 105 of 123

Well, I've progressed a bit these days. It used to be that I'd do my fast workouts too slowly. Now, I'm doing my slow workouts too fast!

OK, first, let's remember that I'm not on the exact Hansons schedule today or tomorrow. That is, I am on the exact schedule, only reversed. Clear? Good.

So today I ran the Friday workout of 6 miles easy. Tomorrow I'll run the Thursday tempo workout of 10 miles at race pace.

So today...

What can I say? I had complete cloud cover and temps in the mid-70's. It was the best running weather I've had in literally two months. So did I go a little faster than I should have?

Yes. Yes, I did.

I did a route with a bit of uphill on the first three miles, then turned around and came back home, getting the downhill on the second half. Here are my splits.



Yes, those splits on miles four, five and six are way, way too fast for an "easy" day. But I never felt like I was pushing it too hard. I felt pretty easy the whole way, so I just kept going.

Of course, the issue may come tomorrow. Hopefully, I didn't waste my legs today for no good reason when I'm trying to run 10 straight miles at tempo pace tomorrow.

We'll see.

Go buy the book:

Hansons Marathon Method - Review in Progress - Day 103 of 123

OK, today was a "strength" training day. In other words, the speed/strength sections of the workout should be done at 10 seconds faster than your goal pace. For my Boston pace of 7:50, that means I should have run 7:40's. Of course, now that I'm doubting that I'll run Boston pace, I was thinking I might try to do today's strength segments around 8:15 or 8:20.

...and, of course, as soon as I thought that, I actually had a decent workout and did all the strength segments right around 8:00.

Yes, I have no idea what I'm going to do in three weeks. None.

Tuesday:

-1 mile warmup
-4 x 1.5 miles at goal marathon pace minus 10 seconds
-4 x .5 miles recovery in between
-2 miles cooldown (I had to run home, so it turned out to be two miles)

It was a hot one today, so as you can see from the map, I found a fairly shaded loop and ran it four times, then ran home. Well, the first mile of the loop was shaded, then the last .5 mile, I just ran around the rubberized square "track" at OSU Legacy Park. Absolutely no shade on that section, but at least it's nice and flat.

I felt pretty good during the strength sections. Better than I had felt since we got back from vacation. But man, were my legs dead on the two miles home. Oof.

Day off tomorrow.

Go buy the book:

Hansons Marathon Method - Review in Progress - Day 102 of 123

And we're over 100 days into the program. Three weeks to go until the Skagit Flats Marathon.

Before we get to today's workout, let me say a quick word about the last two weeks of my Hansons plan...

It was hard.

Fitting training into vacation is always tricky, but also trying to do it in Florida...in August...is just plain tough. The heat, the humidity...the running around and around on a big ship...hey, I'm not going to complain about being on vacation, but those workouts were brutal.

Back to today:

Monday:
-6 miles easy

My legs still have not recovered from my late, late night getting home on Saturday night/Sunday morning, then running a 16 miler yesterday. I did not have a great time out there today.

Onward!

Go buy the book:

Hansons Marathon Method Workouts - Days 88-101 of 123

Updates might be shaky for a bit, so let's take a look at the next two weeks of workouts.

Monday, Day 88:
-Easy 6 miles

Tuesday, Day 89
-warmup
-2 x 3mi at race pace - 10 seconds (7:40 for me)
-1m recovery runs between the strength runs
-cooldown

Wednesday, Day 90
-Off

Thursday, Day 91
-warmup
-9 miles at race pace (7:50)
-cooldown

Friday, Day 92
-Easy 6 miles

Saturday, Day 93
-Easy 10 miles

Sunday, Day 94
-Easy 10 miles

Monday, Day 95
-Easy 8 miles

Tuesday, Day 96
-warmup
-3 x 2 mi at race pace - 10 seconds (7:40 for me)
-.5m recovery runs between the strength runs
-cooldown

Wednesday, Day 97
-Off

Thursday, Day 98
-warmup
-10 miles at race pace (7:50)
-cooldown

Friday, Day 99
-Easy 7 miles

Saturday, Day 100
-Easy 8 miles

Sunday, Day 101
-Long 16 miles

There you have it. Wish me luck.

Go buy the book:

Hansons Marathon Method - Review in Progress - Day 87 of 123

Yep, it was the long one today. My second attempt at 16 miles, the longest the Hansons ask for in their program. And I've got to say, this one went MUCH better than my try at 16 miles two weeks ago in Ellensburg. It's good to be home.



Pretty steady pace for a 16 miler. Again, pay attention to the "Avg Moving Pace" as that removes the stop lights from the equation. The only outlier is the 9:40 on the 14th mile, and that one had the biggest climb of the day, as you can see here.



I was also helped greatly by leaving at 6:15am, when the sun was just thinking about coming up. As I sit here now, at 3:15pm, and it's 90 degrees outside, I just thank god I ran early. I had mostly shade for the first hour, then just light sun, but still cool temps for the rest of the run. It made a huge difference.

Go buy the book:

Hansons Marathon Method - Review in Progress - Day 85 and 86 of 123

OK, let's catch up.

Day 85 - Friday
-Remember, this was actually Thursday's tempo workout that I moved a day later.
-This one should have gone like this:
--1m warmup
--9m at 7:50 pace
--1m cooldown

In reality, I cut it a bit short at the end. Real-life stuff getting in the way. I just didn't have enough time. I almost got it done though.

--1m warmup
--6m at pace, or close to it



--2m inside on the treadmill at about 8:45
--no cooldown

Some good and bad here. I was happy to finally just get outside for a tempo workout. I was pretty happy with my pace for the six miles outside. It was hot and I wasn't exactly always on a great surface, but I felt like I was getting at or near my pace without too much effort. On the other hand, I was supposed to do 9 miles of tempo, and I didn't do it, and I'm not sure I could have done it.

Hmmm...

Day 86 - Saturday
-8 miles easy

Tired, hot, dead legs, stomach ache...brutal. Good thing Carson was on her bike keeping me company or I may have just turned around early on this one.

Long one tomorrow.

Hansons Marathon Method - Review in Progress - Day 84 of 123

OK, once again, I'm switching up the Thursday and Friday workouts this week. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. The Hansons have their tempo days on Thursday, but my legs, for whatever reason, are at their absolute worst on Thursdays. They feel as bad as any day of the week, which is pretty odd since it's the day after a rest day, but there you go. So remember, this is not the recommended schedule.

Thursday:
-7 miles easy

My legs were sooooo stiff on this one. I didn't have to worry about keeping the pace easy - that took care of itself. Strangely enough though, the sore legs made my pace very even:



There's a stoplight in there, but other than that...that's a pretty smooth pace.

So, Friday will be the tempo day. Let's hope the clouds hold and my legs come back a little bit. I could use a good one.

Hansons Marathon Method - Review in Progress - Days 81 and 82 of 123

Monday's Workout:
-8 miles easy

I did the first six miles outside. My legs were really tired and it was pretty warm to boot. I went inside Dixon, under a Big Ass Fan, to do the last two miles. The cooler air kept me upright for two more miles...barely. That was not a fun workout.

Tuesday's Workout:
-1 mile warmup
-3 x 2 mile at 7:40 pace
-3 x .5 mile at 9:40 pace, in between as recovery
-.5 mile cooldown

For a total of nine miles. I somehow did this workout on three different treadmills. I did my warmup and first segment on a treadmill by the basketball courts at Dixon. I jumped off, for what was literally less than 10 seconds, to get a drink from the fountain, and some girl jumped on while my back was turned! Well hell.

So I headed to a different treadmill in the main cardio room. I ran about a mile of my second 2 mile repeat and the treadmill was rocking and rolling so bad I could barely keep my balance! They must have had it on an uneven piece of floor or they had the feet at different heights. Whatever.

So I headed to my third treadmill! Got a winner finally and finished up my second repeat and ran the third. I actually had a guy get on the treadmill next to me and start running at a 6:40 pace. Balls. It was sort of inspiring though - felt like we were racing, even though he was running about a minute faster than me. You don't get a lot of really fast people on the treadmills at Dixon, so it's fun when you do.

Tough workout. Ready for my day off tomorrow.

Go buy the book:

Hansons Marathon Method - Review in Progress - Day 80 of 123

And here we go.

The Sunday workout - the last day of week 12 - was an easy 10 miles. My third 10 mile day in a row, as a matter of fact. My legs were tired but felt a little better than yesterday.

Here's the pace, in graph form:



It's been a while since I've had a nice consistent run. This one was pretty good. The little up spikes are glitches. The big down spikes are stoplights. So now you know why I need to use the average pace from the Garmin instead of the overall pace. Just in a short 10 mile run, I ended up waiting at 8 stoplights. A few are hard to see, but there are actually four lights in four blocks right around the 41:00 minute mark. I can usually only hit one for sure and have to wait for at least two and often three.

Here are all the stats, including the average pace:



Started out nicely, then hit a little lull mentally, but that happens on a 10 miler all by yourself. I was happy that I rallied on mile 10 for a solid 8:36 mile. I felt pretty good overall.

It also didn't hurt any that it was around 10-15 degrees cooler today than the last few days.

Go buy the book:

Hansons Marathon Method -Review in Progress - Days 78 and 79 of 123

OK, results!

You may recall, I switched up the Thursday and Friday workouts this week to try to give my legs an extra "easy" day, so I could perform a little better on the weekly tempo workout. To the chalkboard for science!

Or not. It did go well, I just don't have any good numbery, Garmin proof, since Friday was another mid-90s day and I didn't dare try to run a long tempo outside. So I headed over to Dixon and jumped on a treadmill. My legs did feel fresher right off the bat, there was no doubt. I blasted through the first 4.5 miles without any issue (the treadmills automatically turn off after 35 minutes, so that's about how far I can go before I have to start the whole thing over again). The second 35 minutes went pretty well. I made it to about 7 miles before I started having trouble keeping the pace. I was supposed to do 9 miles at race/tempo pace this week. The last two miles were a little over - more like 8:00-8:10 pace.

So the workout went something like this:

-.5m warmup
-9m at 7:50 (almost!)
-.5m cooldown

For a total of 10 miles.

I don't know...are the tempo's supposed to be easy to do? Should I be blasting through these? Because they're not easy for me - they're hard as hell. If you're wondering how I plan to run 26.2 miles at that pace...well, I'm wondering too. A little over five weeks left. Time to get into a little better shape, but I'm starting to worry a bit.

Today's workout for Day 79 was 10 miles easy. It was hot and my legs were pretty shot, so I didn't expect too much, but I got through it OK.



Back at it tomorrow with another 10 miler. That will make three 10 mile days in a row. See you then.

Go buy the book: