Training for a June marathon, I needed to do some long runs in April and May. Since the catalyst for my recent move to Kansas was my experience at the Eisenhower Marathon 14 years ago, I could not resist going back to Abilene and using it as my long run. But since it was a training run and not the actual race, I set one ground rule for myself - take it slow; nothing but 8+ minute miles.
The course was a bit different than the one from 2009, and I studied it as best as I could. It was a lot of loops and out-and-backs. First, it was a mile loop around the block with the plaza with the Eisenhower resting place, statue and library, at a 7:56 pace.
OK, too fast. Broke the rule already. Slow down.
But it was a chilly morning and I was wearing shorts and a lightweight long-sleeve shirt, so maybe I was chasing warmth. South on Buckeye Avenue for two miles...8:00 and 7:52. Slow. Down.
A turn onto 2000 Avenue and then Hawk Road before turning into Brown Memorial Park, my biggest hope was that there would be enough volunteers and signs in the park to point the way through the twists and turns of the path. Thankfully, there were plenty of both, so all I had to do was focus on the run, with a 7:53 fourth mile and, after a turnaround in the park, an 8:04 fifth mile (finally!).
Out of the park and back onto Hawk, heading south, with an 8:01 sixth mile, there was a turn onto 1900 Avenue and a turnaround at mile seven (7:58). Approaching the turnarounds, I kept seeing the 3:30 pacer and I had to resist the urge to catch up and join him and the group of people around him.
This is NOT that kind of race. It's not even a race - it's a training run.
So I backed off a bit and hit an 8:03 for the eighth mile going back north up Hawk. Then it was into the park again for another loop, and a 7:49 and 8:00 ninth and 10th mile. Out of the park and north again on Hawk and onto 2000 and Buckeye toward town, I started thinking about how almost all of my training runs have been negative splits.
Maybe, if I slow the next two miles down even more, that will give me a cushion to make this marathon training run a negative split. So it's not really racing, right?
I felt great about the 8:10 and 8:14 splits in miles 11 and 12, and at the 13 mile mark, approaching the halfway point, I hit a 7:53. Elapsed time at the half was around 105 minutes. To negative split it, my end result would have to be under 3:30.
Alright, then. It's go time.
I had to run the exact route again...and faster. A 7:25 14th mile had me feeling like it was do-able but the sun was out now, and it was starting to get warm, so I needed to be a little more measured in these early miles of the second half. I did so, with a 7:57 and 8:05 in the 15th and 16th miles.
For the 17th and 18th, I hit a 7:38 and a 7:44. At the park turnaround, I noticed that the group of people around the 3:30 pacer, who was still ahead of me but with a smaller gap, had dropped off. A 7:57 for mile 19 and an 8:12 for mile 20 had me rethinking if the 3:30 was still possible. With an elapsed time of around two hours and 39 minutes, it was still feasible to do the final 10K in 51 minutes. I had built up enough of a cushion that if I kept the pace in the low 8s, I would have it made. At the turnaround on 1900 Avenue, I told the pacer, "I'm going to catch up to you!"
Into the park one last time after mile 21 (7:44) and passing a few people, I managed to do just that. We talked for a bit as I did an 8:00 22nd mile and learned that his name is Matt O'Reilly from Lawrence and that he had just the previous week run the new marathon in Jersey City, N.J.! But talking took a little bit out of me and I fell behind him with an 8:25 for mile 23.
The elapsed time was around three hours and three minutes - I needed to do the last 5K in less than 27 minutes. I knew I only needed sub-9s to make it under 3:30 but I pushed to catch up to Matt again before turning onto Hawk Road, with an 8:10 24th mile. He asked me if I wanted to get in under 3:30 and of course I said yes, and all he did for the next 17 minutes was give me encouragement.
Matt rallied me, coached me, and kept my mind strong even as my body was telling me that this was not what I had come here to do. Yet there I was, doing it anyway, with an 8:15 on Buckeye Avenue and the finish line within reach. I dug deep...8:04 for mile 26.
Turning the corner toward the train station and the Old Town area where the finish line was, Gloria was there cheering for me as Matt let me cross the line ahead of him for a 10th place overall finish and a final result of 3:28:53. A 7:58 total pace, a negative split, a second-place age group win, my fastest marathon since 2018 (when I almost beat the personal record that I had set at this race in 2009).
So much for a training run. This was the marathon I had been hoping to run for the past five years. Whatever happens at Marathon XXX in June will merely be the icing on the cake.
(Click here for a video of my finish!)
