spin / second sole multisport team

Aaron and Jim near mile 16

Aaron Rood ran a personal best time of 2:52 at the Akron Marathon on September 27th.  This was one of the big races on his calendar this year, and he was pretty excited about his time.  Props have to go to his wife Jocelyn, who ran a 3:04 for fourth place overall.

Apologies to Aaron for the lateness of this post!  Read below for his full race report:

Friends- thank you for all the wisdom and support leading up to and during Akron.  I will come right out and say that I am happy with my 2:52:25, -16th overall –and that I ran a pretty solid race.  My plan had been go out conservative.  I expected to be about 50- 60 seconds off 2:50 pace at 10 miles.  I then intended to rev it up a bit from miles 11- 15.5- which if you know the course is the flat towpath.  Sand run Metro Park is miles 15.5 -18.6.  It is the hilly part of the course.  The strategy for that section was just “survive”.  I was fully prepared and expected to have left enough at that point to run fast (6:20’s) the last 7 or so miles. That of course knowing that the last 4 miles are down hill with at least one of them being STEEP down hill.

Now then- the short summary of what I did (relative to what I planned).  I went out way too slow (at least apparently)—I was 58 seconds off (slow) the goal pace at mile 4. When I passed Jocelyn just past mile 4, I am not sure which one of us was more surprised—but we both thought WTF?  Her first mile had been 6:21 vs. my 6:47!!!  I remained to slow through 10 miles- but I wasn’t panicked- I felt fine and was still “on the plan”.  Across Towpath I started to roll—just as I planned- Jim picked me up just past 12.5 miles – I was thrilled to see him.  At that point I was feeling great, rolling and already cutting into the time I owed Guido. Jim did an awesome job managing me across the towpath.  Through SandRun- a sat on Jim and ran effortlessly.  At the top- I thanked him.  Saying- Jim I am really excited right now- I am exactly where I wanted to be.  Through mile 19 Jim reminded me that I still need to patient.  At mile twenty-(6:26) I was convinced that I would be quickly erasing the time owed to Guido—and still be breaking 2:50.  I still felt pretty good.

Then tide changed a bit- miles 21-22 started to hurt, I had underestimated what that last set of climbs would be like up to mile 22.  And yes the climb into Stan Hewett at 22 was a SOB.  But –as you can see from my splits- still a 6:45.

Coming out of Stan Hewett starts the down hill to the finish—It was really weird- My aerobics and energy felt great.  Jim and I were still having conversations.  My quads had just surrendered.   I tried to push- but it just wasn’t happening.   I hadn’t ever felt like that in a marathon—this was not the “bonk”  I was used to – it was just my quads- telling me that I ran a very aggressive race.  It was only at this point did I realize sub 2:50 was slipping.  I needed like a 39 minute ish 10k to break 2:50—just wasn’t in the cards.

Hind sight- sure didn’t mean to go 1:26 slow of goal pace- BUT- the only part of my plan that I missed was the last 4 miles.  I planned for 6:15-6:20 the last 4 – I ran 6:40-6:50.  I can’t really be upset.

I am happy to take some rest time.

Enjoy these splits- they are far from brilliant- though they work out to be 1:26.10/1:26.10— dead evens

Hammer Down

AR

Filed under: 2008 |