This is going to be a brief post (in all honesty, this “Boomer” somehow lost 14 paragraphs recapping training, my injuries and Alex’s performance), so I am writing an abbreviated version of the original post.
I was training with Alex Campbell, a 27 year old former college baseball player, who weighed in at over 190 pounds when I met him in August. I am not going to bore you with the breaking down of my 57 year old joints, but I was unable to compete.
When I met Alex, he told me his goal was a sub 3;30 time at the Charlotte Marathon. I told him that I was training to run a sub 3:00 at Jacksonville, so he said, okay, I’ll run a sub 3:00 at Jacksonville. He never questioned one thing that we did or I told him to do. Training was going great and the kid was showing vast improvement and he was looking more and more like a runner ever week (weight loss).
The plan was to run 6:40s for the first half and be just under 1:28:00. Then keep that pace in the second half for as long as possible, knowing that he will have a few minutes “banked” in case of problems later in the race.
Fast forward to the marathon morning. I would be providing hydration for Alex and John Tolerton (running 20 miles as a training run and pacing Alex) by riding my bike near their group. The start combined: 5K, half and the marathon, which ment that there were going to be people running sub 5:00 pace at the start. I explained to Alex that he needed error on the side of caution and run his first 2 to 3 miles too slow as opposed to too fast. I met up with them at 3.5 miles and they were right at the projected pace of 6:40. He looked relaxed and seemed to be enjoying himself, talking and joking with the 4 others in the group he was running with. At one point, about the 9 mile mark, John dropped back from the pack and voiced his concern to me, he said Alex was talking too much and not focused. I told him that we ran Sunday mornings at sub 7:00 pace, joking and laughing, he was fine with what he was doing. They went through 10 miles in 67:01, which is 6:42 pace, right on schedule.
Alex’s childhood friend, Will, who flew down from Boston to surprised him at the hotel the night before, was on the course at 4 or 5 spots between miles 10 and 14. We kept seeing him and wondering how he was getting to everywhere without a car or bike (found out later that he was catching rides with families of runners, Ivy League education in action).
1:27:40 through the half, right on schedule. The kid was looking like he could do this all day! 15 in 1:40:30 (6:42 pace), running smooth and in control, like he has been doing his whole life. I am not going to lie, this is about where I realized that he is going to break 3, no problem. John ran his last mile at 20, Alex went through at 2:13;25 (6:40 pace), which means that he picked it up a little bit in the last 5 miles. Also, the group disbanded, and he was methodically catching and passing runners. At about 24.5, he started complaining, I told him to STFU and run. He kept himself together and closed out the last 1.7 like a champ, crossing the line at 2:55:19 (2:55:15 chip timed), finishing 14th and 2nd in his age group. I was proud as hell when he crossed that finish line.
1:27;40 first half,
1:27:35 second half.
Damn, the kid impressed the shit out of me. Looking forward to our next training cycle.
N of 1 Running 