Little Rock Marathon: From the Couch to A 2:33 Debut Marathon
The pre-race taper was a mental battle. My Garmin insisted I was rested and ready, practically glowing with peak performance predictions. My body, however, had other ideas, presenting a fresh symphony of aches and pains that whispered doubts about even making it to the starting line.
One of the undeniable perks of racing in your hometown is the comfort of your own bed and routine. Plus, having Andy and Steven in town as my personal support crew was a huge comfort. Andy and I had dissected every race detail, down to the minute – where we'd meet, which gels he'd hand off. That meticulous planning brought a much-needed sense of calm amidst the pre-race jitters.
Sleep was a fleeting visitor the night before, entirely predictable. But I woke up on-time and immediately started my day with double shot espresso. When it comes to race fuel, I’m a bit unconventional – I swear by plain white rice. My Leadville training taught me the power of carb-loading with it, supplemented by diligent electrolyte hydration. We arrived at the Garver office (couple blocks from the starting line) on time. Wanted to try and replicate a normal day as much as possible.
SteveO and Andy rented e-bikes to help support and be basically every 5 miles on course. This morning when we got to my office, one of the tires was flat; so we were one man down. But they came up with a game plan as I tried not to stress more than I already was.
I’ll never forgot making my way to the line. I was jogging down the middle of the President Clilton Ave with Steven and Andy escorting me flanked on either side. I had my music bumping I was hyped. I remember a brief facetime call from Jaime who called in from Spain to wish me good luck. I remember doing strides right alongside the starting line. I remeber Eminem bumping so loud on the speakers that the porta-potty was literally shaking. I was ready.
Before the race, I had been worried about temperature. Was more comfortable on the line than I anticipated. So started jersey, warmers, gloves, and beanie. Headphones were off in rear zipper of half tights. I had one gel in hand saving for my 5. (Gel every 30 minutes roughly was the nutrition plan)
On the line, I meet the main person I was worried about, Aaron Soltmann. I found him on Strava a couple weeks prior to race and knew getting the W, wasn’t going to be as easy as I had hoped. But he was a super nice dude. We talked about our goal times, but also acknowledged our strategies to arrive at a similar time could not be more different.
Race started without much drama. But as expected everyone shot off the line fast. Too fast. Even though it felt easy, and I wanted to stay side-by-side with Aaron, I knew I had to backoff. Having Steven and Andy here made me extra accountable to following my race strategy. Therefore, headphones went in 800m in. Caamp radio from Spotify. Super chill, low volume. While I was getting in position, and getting tunes going I realized I was running 5:20. I immediately dropped back off Aaron. For the next 3ish miles, I felt like I was crawling, but just kept looking at watch and shuffling myself back in the pack.
Working strategy with MVA, we decided to target 6:00/mile but absolutely not to exceed 5:50. That was back the f@ck off zone — actually those were Andy’s words. Honestly, I tried soooooo hard to listen. I really did. But surprisingly, the effort at 5:45 felt sustainable, and I was soooo relaxed. I was in total control, just another long run. I do think that was the right pace for me looking back.
I took my first gel a little early because I was worried about timing and potential places to throw trash. I started with two betas which have twice the calories of the normal isotonic ones I like. They sat a little heavy for a minute but didnt have issues. From that point forward I pushed all my gels back .5–1 mile later than forecasted.
The half and full had a weird split (at 6) and then rejoin (at my 7.5) Which was annoying for a lot of reasons, but gave me my first opportunity to see who I was racing. Most of the dudes ahead of me turned to the half, and then it was Aaron way out front. Rodrigo in his bright orange jersey in 2nd, and I was sitting comfortably in fourth place on the tail of a dude in a white jersey . Then, a runner in a grey shirt surged from behind, quickly moving from fifth to third and injecting pace. I think we were averaging around 5:44 through that section, my Garmin auto laps consistently clicking off half miles in the 2:51-2:52 range. Around this time is when I switched to my zone two playlist.
Feeling a bit warm around 8. So at 9 I swapped beanie for hat with Andy.
It stayed super tame and controlled just like that through the half. Me sitting on white jersey dude. With Aaron and Rodrigo way out of sight. Grey shirt visible on long straights but I honestly was focused on my race and not looking.
At the half, I was 1:15 and change. One hundred percent in control. I switched playlist to my upbeat tempo playlist. Thinking sub 2:30 might be in play. Plan at that point, was survive the two major hills upcoming at steady pace in as low HR as possible then really start dropping the hammer at 20. From 13 to 17, I basically ran the whole thing on white jerseys shoes, which was slightly annoying because he had terrible form. Felt great up the hills and through my neighborhood. Took the turn at 17 still with 5:46-7/mile average. He pulled of and took a Daniel in the porta-potty. White jersey was never super close to me again.
Making my way down the hill (17-18) I caught my first glimpse of Rodrigo since the early miles. The sight of him struggling, likely hitting the wall, gave me a surge of energy. But I managed my effort and wanted to relax on downhill, get to Andy at 19 stick to my plan on turning up at 20ish since I was ahead on pace.
This was my “stay tough section” — I focused on it, felt great. Approaching the turnaround near 21. I could see the gaps, Aaron was in another world, 3+ minutes ahead, at least. I was right on the heels of Rodrigo at that point, with grey shirt a ways up the road. Then I hit the turnaround at mile 21, and bam – the headwind. It was brutal. My right hamstring had started tightening around mile 21.5. Around mile 22, I was still holding around 6:00 pace. But by mile 23, I was definitely feeling the tightness affecting my stride and pace. Somewhere in there, I managed to pass Rodrigo, moving into third. My heart rate remained surprisingly low, and I didn't feel particularly fatigued, just increasingly tight. I reached Andy at mile 24. He handed me a gel and looked puzzled when I was talking relatively normally and even wanted to stretch briefly. He also casually mentioned, '2:30s are still in play, maybe mid-30s,' which made me briefly question my math or if I looked worse than I felt.
The next mile was a real slog, probably around 6:30 pace, but my heart rate stayed in the mid-140s. At that point I changed watch face to only see timer and distance, knew I just had to get there. At 25 and 25.5 there are two brutal punchy climbs. Once I crested those, I managed to regain some pace. Also I could see 2nd way up ahead. Andy was telling me I could get him—even though I could tell in his voice he didn’t actually believe it. Made it up the second hill, second was not close — but not far. I took out my headphones and put in rear zipper I looked at my watch saw 25.5ish or similar and said 3 minutes… just took off used the gradual down hill and did what I could with a limited stride.
I was able to pass second place in the closing moments of the race. All in all. My pre-race plan was a 2:33:28 and I actually got a 2:33:47. Kinda got there in a different way, but we got there. I certainly hit a wall - of tightness. But never felt like I got remotely close to my fitness threshold. While I never got to “attack” those closing miles, I’m left feeling like I gave my all I could today, but can absolutely drop that time in the future if I try again.
My takeaways:
Proud of this as my debut marathon.
Strength training is a critical piece to training that I ignored.
Next training block, include more long runs that don’t include a short stretch break.
Andy and Steven worked just as hard as I did today. 💪🏻
Couch to marathon in 5 months is probably never your ideal way to start into marathoning, but all in all, I think the process to get here and the training completed was just as much of a goal achieved as the result. Most of you know I’ve always had a weird love, mostly lots of hate relationship with running, and I can say right now, is probably the first time in my life that I love and enjoy running. It’s weird thing to say and fully articulate, but it just feels special right now.
