Yakima River Canyon Marathon
March 31st, 2010 | by fredrik.eriksson |Time for a report from our road trip to Yakima now that I’ve had a few days to recover and upload pictures (click here for a direct link to the photo album).
Three adults and two kids left Beaverton last Friday morning for a trip that took us east through the Columbia River Gorge and then north into Washington. Lots of interesting scenery along the way.
Yakima itself is a nice little town but what struck us most was the number of closed shops and empty buildings.
The Yakima River Canyon Marathon is a point-to-point race from Ellensburg, to Selah, just north of Yakima. Xan was kind enough to drive me the nearly 40 miles to the race start on Saturday morning so I didn’t have to take the shuttle, which left Selah at six o’clock. This earned me another hour of sleep.
It was COLD when we left Yakima and even colder when we arrived in Ellensburg – 25 degrees F! I was starting to get seriously worried because I never train in shorts in cold weather like that. It turned out it wasn’t much of a problem. I kept my extra layers on until the last minute and warmed up quickly on the course.
Approximately 530 runners had signed up for the race and it was a mass start with no timing chip. I was somewhere in the middle and a bit surprised at how crowded it felt. There wasn’t enough room to break free without elbowing people so I decided to take it easy and use the first mile as a nice warm-up, figuring I could make up for it later (which never happened).
Not surprisingly, the first mile turned out to be well below my target pace. After the start, Xan headed back to the hotel and brought the rest of the family to the finish line after breakfast.
In the meantime, my long day was just getting started. This was my first marathon and I had a clear strategy in mind. When I made the decision to do this back in December, I bought Tom Holland’s The Marathon Method. I made some slight modifications to his intermediate marathon plan to suit my own needs and have stuck with the plan for sixteen weeks. The only exception was a week lost to travel and sickness.
Holland’s goal (and mine) it to get you to the starting line injury free and properly rested. Check. I felt great.
My time goal was to break 3:20 by pacing myself carefully for the first 20 miles and then crank it up at mile 20 (figuring I would have some juice left by then). Under no circumstances did I want to run a positive split.
As my GPS beeped off the first mile, I slowed down to a walk for ten seconds and sipped some Powerade from my FuelBelt. I continued this practice every mile for the first half of the race. Two of my bottles were pre-mixed with GU gel, and I took in the equivalent of one gel pack every four miles.
Because of the slower pace and cool weather, my fluid intake was a bit on the high side and I was forced to use the restroom at mile 11. I didn’t want to waste the time but had no desire to be uncomfortable for another fifteen miles. It was well worth it and I my bladder said “thank you.”
At mile 18 or so, the first signs of fatigue started to kick in. I had felt great until that point. At mile 20, I decided to push a little harder. Then the final hill began at 21.5 and I was in for a 1.5-mile leg buster. This was tough stuff but I managed to keep my legs moving and passed a few people who either walked or alternated between walking and running.
My plan had been to minimize the time loss going up and turn on the afterburners on the way down. When the road leveled out at the top I realized it wouldn’t turn out that way. I’m not sure why, but my quads were completely cramped up and it felt like someone drove nails into them for every step I took. This was a surprise but I’ve developed a theory: Going up a long hill you work your hamstrings and calves very hard and my thighs were probably idle for too long after having run 20+ miles and got all stiff.
After a mile of funny-looking downhill running the quads started to warm up again. At mile 25 I splashed some cold water in my face and cranked it up for a strong finish. Crossing the goal line was a great feeling and a validation of my training plan. The clock read 3:21:45 and I was 100% OK with that.
Here are some other pictures from the rest of Saturday/Sunday, including a nice wine tasting at Maryhill Winery:
