| This was going to be the race where the monkey comes down with, as John Stewart would say, monkey pox. I was ready to be free of the three hour monkey. We’ve had an interesting journey over the last several years. For most of my marathons he hasn’t even bothered to show up as he didn’t see the point. He and I both knew there wasn’t anyway in hell I was breaking three hours. I started my journey to Sub-three 6 years ago at the Motorola Marathon. Since then I’ve run 59 marathons and 6 ultra-marathons and in the majority of them it wasn’t even close. But last year at Austin, the monkey got worried. I am a better hill runner than I am a flat runner, I like marathons with rolling hills so you can make up some time and recover on the down-hills. The monkey knew this but he still wasn’t worried. My previous PR was a 3:07, still a lot to chop off. I managed to avoid the monkey for the first 20 miles last year and then he found me; and I tried poking him in the eye, choking him, but come up the 38th street hill he poured some cement down my back and it made its way to my shoes and I blew up, and the monkey won again. I finished with a 3:02 and now I knew I could do it, just needed to take a man pill. I spent most of 2007 running cool races and not really going for sub-three (we did Boston, Big Sur, Grandmas, Grandfathers among others) but when my brother-in-law and I met up with Al at the Richmond marathon I decided to give it a go; but in the end the monkey punked me the last 3 miles and I finished in a 3:00:49. The monkey was seriously scared now. I gave it another shot at Rock N Roll in January but had left too much on the ski slopes coming in at 3:01:30. But after that race I knew the monkey was going down in Austin. I had a really good 3M and using the rough calculation of 2x + 15 minutes I would be around a 2:59, which was exactly where I wanted to be. Negative splits are for sissies (or for people who can actually do that), for me my goal was a 1:27 first half, and then a 1:32 and change second half. If I could get to the half at 1:27 I knew I’d have a shot. After a fantastic pre-race dinner Friday night at the Burrus’s house and committing to Coach Al that I was going under three hours I spent Saturday mostly relaxing. I knew to go under three I needed to be less of a wuss and focus more. So, I went back to marathon 101, I set out all of my gear the night before, made sure I had my number and gels, etc. Set out what I was going to eat for breakfast the night before. Lately I really haven’t paid much attention to that stuff, I just go run, but Sunday I wanted to take no chances. I started up near the front and passed the final pre-race minutes chatting up sub-three veterans Scott Birk, John Ferguson, and Nick Kerrigan and again came out and said 3:00 was going down today. So now I was committed. I was hoping to run low 6:30-6:40s for the first half but I knew a couple of the hills would probably give me 6:50s-7:00s but there were some down-hills to get the time back. The gun went off and so did I. I settled into a comfortable 6:30-6:35 pace for the first three miles absorbing some of the hills without too much effort. At mile three I looked up and saw that Scott Birk wasn’t very far ahead of me, this seemed weird, but I was feeling good so I went with it. Mile four was a sweet downhill and I dropped a 6:02 mile and then a 6:11 and now I was right behind Scott. I started to feel a tear in the fabric of the universe. 0-1 6:35 1-2 6:35 2-3 6:29 3-4 6:02 4-5 6:11 Mile 6 as we came up 1st street I somehow passed Scott, and I know he was thinking one of two things (1. what the F*#@ is he doing, or 2. he is going to blow up and I’ll catch him), probably both. The 6:30s were soon a thing of the past and the 6:50s were now coming. About mile 8, Birk passed me back for good and the universe breathed a sign of relief. From mile 7 to about 18 we had slightly uphill miles and I slowed a little but I still felt really good. I passed thru the 10k mark under 40 minutes (which I’ve never done in an actual 10k race, so that was cool). 5-6 6:27 6-7 6:25 7-8 6:49 8-9 6:49 9-10 6:55 10-11 6:53 I had seen Al and Sandy a couple times and as I approached the half way point my simple caveman math led me to believe that I was right on track. 11-12 7:06 12-13 6:57 I passed thru the halfway point at exactly 1:27, and now the monkey started sweating. I ran past Fireman Jim and he asked how I was doing, and I told him right at 1:27 for the half. He yelled to go get it and probably something about not being a sissy. He also kicked the monkey in the shins for me. The next few miles I just concentrated on making sure I was eating my gels and staying even. I was feeling really good at this point and the next several miles flew by. 13-14 6:41 14-15 6:56 15-16 7:07 16-17 6:49 17-18 7:02 18-19 6:49 19-20 6:54 I hit mile 20 around 2:14 and change, so I knew all I had to do was run a 45 minute 10k and the monkey was gone. My legs were getting tired, but I knew I could still knock out a 45 minute 10k. The biggest benefit of the 40 minute first 10k is that I’d only need a 45 minute last 10k. I knew that Paul Williams and Nancy Dasso would have been capable of running the last 10k faster than the first 10k, but alas they aren’t human and I was going to be happy with sub 45 mins. 20-21 6:50 21-22 7:10 22-23 7:09 I pass the Hill Country Trail runners booth and Gabe grabbed the monkey’s tail and Diana and Robert poured sat tablets in his eyes and then he fell off my back. My caveman math was telling me I could run slower than 7:30 and still break three hours. Someone offered me a beer and if it would have been in a cup ready for me to grab on the go I would have gladly taken it, but I was afraid to slow down and let the monkey jump back on. At some point around here I saw Fast Jeff and he told me today was the day and to go get it. And probably more things about taking a man pill and not being a sissy. Fast Jeff dropped a big elbow from the top row on the Monkey and he was down and dazed. In my mind I see the end of Rocky II when Rocky and Apollo fall down and everyone is yelling at Rocky to “get up my man”, but today I would be Rocky and the Monkey would be Apollo. 23-24 7:15 24-25 6:46 The last hill up San Jacinto was coming and my left calf was feeling a little tight, but I knew I was coming in under. I decided not to all out sprint but to savor the moment. I turned down Congress (curious as to where the finish actually was going to be; I hadn’t paid attention in the morning) and knew my family was on the balcony cheering. I saw the clock and knew I could moonwalk from there and make it under and a stupid grin broke out on my face. 25-26.2 8:25 =========== 2:58:15 Yo, Adrian! I did it. Three hour monkey, you are dead to me. I’m glad to have finally defeated this beast and to have done it on my home course. The week leading up to and afterwards were as much of a media circus as I’ve been apart of, or probably will be again (until I go on my bank robbing spree that I’ve been planning for decades); I had video coverage on the statesman online (www.statesman.com/news/mplayer/sports/65386) ,and then had a nice article written (www.austin360.com/recreation/content/recreation/stories/2008/02/0226hoban.html) by Brom Hoban that had the added benefit of dropping 30 minutes off my PR. I plan to submit the article unchanged and look for sponsorship. As long as no one checks the actual results, I think I’m good. And my new favorite picture: livaudais.net/img/run/fcl_attpr_sm.jpg |