Revel Chilliwack 2019 Race Report

My Mom has been trying to qualify for Boston, and I’d always said that if she qualified, I’d register and run with her. Well, at the end of July, she did it! She ran 4:49:54 at Jack and Jill – squeaking in a few seconds underneath the qualification window.

But when she qualified, I realized I didn’t have an eligible qualifying time that would allow me to register in September! I did some research and found the Revel Chilliwack race in mid-August. It was a mere three weeks away, which meant I’d be relying more on the aggressive downhill course than any serious training plan if I were to achieve my goal.

My BQ time is 3:40; the same time I had to run when I first qualified back in 2004. Of course, I was 15 years younger then 🙂 In the few weeks leading up to the race I tried to throw in some marathon-pace miles into my runs, which felt fine, but I was never totally confident I’d be able to pull it off.

I’ve been very fortunate through my running career where I have run pretty well while feeling more or less at ease. I struggle when I have a hard goal ahead of me; it’s definitely fair to say that I’m stronger physically than mentally.

The race profile reminded me a bit of the Colorado Marathon in Ft Collins: an aggressive downhill at the start, flattening out at the end. The race preview description talks about banking a bit of time early on, and being prepared for your legs feeling flat and slow near the end. You won’t find a race report from the Colorado Half Marathon on my blog, because I hated it so much I took off my bib and walked in, without registering a time.

When I ran Duluth just a few months ago, I loved it because I put zero pressure on myself. I ran comfortable, letting my body dictate the pace. I figured this would be a different beast – and unfortunately, it was.

The race was pretty small. We were bussed up to the start and there were a handful of runners hanging out by the 3:40 banner before 6am. Then people started moving – apparently the race had started?

Before the race I’d noticed a couple running together: they had bright flourescent on, so they were easy to spot. I started with them, and almost immediately the guys’ watch buzzed. “That’s going to become pretty annoying pretty quickly.” Said the woman running with him. I asked how much of a window they’d allowed on their pace. When he said 10 seconds, I laughed and said “I’m definitely not going to run near you, then!”.

I kept running, and perhaps a quarter mile or so later, a tall guy in a blue shirt ran up “you’re the 3:40 group? I’m your pacer. I didn’t know the race had started. Oh, and I forgot my flag”.

Things were starting well…?

The course is definitely aggressive from the start, and we hit the first mile at a sub-8 pace. Too fast! I asked the pacer his strategy. He said to bank a few seconds per mile early on. But 20+seconds per mile?

In the second mile I even stopped to tie my shoe, and caught up with my pacer. We pegged another sub-8. Thankfully at mile 3 we got down to 8:10. But still much faster than our target pace. I mentioned the race was small: it was really only me, the pacer and one other guy. We didn’t make much small talk: the pacer asked the other guy if he did a lot of races, the guy said ‘races are expensive’ and the pacer said “yeah they are, that’s why I pace”. Not too much later, the other guy, who had a 3:50 goal, stopped at a bathroom, and then it was just me and the pacer.

Lap 4: 8:10 Lap 5: 8:03

I felt like I was breathing harder than I should be, and told my pacer as much. His response was something like “if you weren’t here, I wouldn’t be running this pace”. I wasn’t sure what he meant. I told him that I’d run sub 3:40 before, but it had been awhile, and I was concerned about banking TOO much time early on. I thought that confiding in him as a pacer would somehow unburden me from my fears, and he’d be able to help guide me a bit better.

Lap 6: 7:58 Lap 7: 8:07 Lap 8: 7:58

I will admit, I was really pleasantly surprised when we hit 8 miles. It had seemed to fly by (perhaps because we were running a lot faster than a 3:40 pace….)

The pacer was weird. He talked about himself a lot, and didn’t give me a lot of confidence. “If you weren’t here, I’d be off running that trail” “I haven’t run this pace for this long in awhile” and “I just want to finish this feeling good for my own races”. What the heck….Sorry to inconvenience you, guy….

Shortly before the halfway mark, there was a screaming downhill, a 13% grade. I let loose and let my legs take me down. I was so thrilled that my knees and hips were playing nice. My pacer told me to let go, and he’d catch up. I felt strong physically, although my stomach felt a tiny bit queasy and I still felt like my breathing was a bit laboured.

I hit the halfway mark at 1:46. For those playing along at home, that’s 4 minutes ahead of pace.

After the halfway point, the course leveled out and things became “less easy”, as anticipated. I held it together for a few more miles, but by mile 17 things got real. That’s the point where I should have laid on the gas a little, having cruised for the first half of the course. But I hadn’t exactly cruised; I’d been working. A glance at my heart rate through the early miles is evidence of that:

I still had a course-specific pace band in my pocket, and it recommended an 8:48 pace for mile 17. So when I ran an 8:50, it was still an “on-pace” mile. PLUS I had minutes in the bank! But it felt like failure.

I bounced back the next mile, with an 8:01.

Then the 8:36 at mile 19 was “too slow”.

This is the mental game, and I’m not good at it, I had minutes in the bank, but it just wasn’t easy. I wanted it to be easy. I tried to reason with myself: this was for my Mom. This was bigger than me. But that actually made me feel worse: I’d stop running because I felt so emotionally depleted.

And so within that last 10K, I lost my minutes of buffer, and many minutes more.

M20: 9:19

At some point I was walking up the street when my pacer ran by me. He said something over his shoulder that I didn’t hear – but he was on his own and he didn’t stop. I’m pretty sure 3:40 was still doable, so I’m not sure why he didn’t try to keep his “group” motivated and on track.

M21: 9:24 M22: 9:35

At some point, I texted my Mom and Sara and said “I’m sorry, I can’t do it”. Then I put my phone on “do not disturb” so as not to get their responses. I hoped this would be an psychological trick on myself: that it’d give me a kick in the pants to motivate me and try to ‘prove myself wrong’. It didn’t work.

M23: 9:53 M24: 10:45

This must have been the point where I just decided I’d walk it in. If I wasn’t gonig to run Boston with my Mom, I really didn’t care how I did. I saw a runner clutching her leg on the side of the road, with some medical assistance helping her. I heard them saying “get her some water”. I stopped to talk with someone “if she’s cramping, I have salt tabs”. The person said I could go ahead and keep doing my race, but I said it didn’t matter. I fished out some salt tabs from my pack. About 10 min later, an ambulance came roaring up the road. If it was for that runner, I hope she’s ok.

M25: 10:00 M26: 10:39

Officially, I still came in at 3:48:10, which is the fastest marathon I’ve completed this year. And I did that after completely giving up. But that old rule of thumb, that for every minute you’re ahead at the half, you give up double on the second half? It held true. 4 minutes ahead at the half, and I missed my goal by 8 minutes.

Looking back, I’m disappointed in myself for a few reasons. Giving up, for sure. That’s my typical MO when I have a target time goal. I buckle under the pressure.

But more than that, I’m disappointed with what I did during the first half of the race. I KNOW BETTER. I knew I wasn’t in 3:30 shape, there was zero reason for me to be banking that much time. I blindly listened to a pacer (who, honestly, was kinda a jerk and obviously not pacing for the right reasons). I know myself, and honestly I’ve probably run more marathons than a lot of people out there. Yet because he’s ‘the pacer’, I blindly followed his guidance rather than listening to my body and my own plan.

I really think I blew it. Obviously I can’t tell for sure, but I suspect that if I’d been a bit more conservative earlier on, I wouldn’t have felt so emotionally depleted nearer the end. And now I don’t get to run with my Mom in Boston in 2020 🙁

But – it is what it is. I knew it was a bit of a long shot to qualify without actually TRAINING for it. I’ve been really fortunate for my running career that I have been able to qualify for and run Boston so many times. This was a nice reminder that qualifying for Boston is a BIG DEAL. You’re not supposed to be able to ‘cram’ for it like a test and do it. It makes my Mom’s accomplishment even more special! So, provided she does register, I’ll get to play spectator for my Mom and cheer her on. It’ll be her special day 🙂

Afterwards, Sara asked me how I was feeling about running. Honestly, I felt more bad about the fact we spent a lot of money (and precious vacation days) flying across the country for this exploit. But the following day we went up to Squamish, went for a run and saw some of the Squamish 50K finishers, and had a wonderful day. More than the marathon barreling down the highway, that day filled me with love for running and sense of gratitude. The day in Squamish made the trip worthwhile, in my mind. Although I still have my “50 marathons in 50 states” goal, and I know I obviously still have things to learn when it comes to race execution, it was good reminder of the majesty of trail running. We decided we definitely want to come back to Squamish, and try to spend more time out in nature on the trails. Run to be one with nature, not to try to beat a clock.

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Oh, that pacer – did I mention that he finished in 3:36?? That’s right. When he blew by me and didn’t pause to gather his flock, it wasn’t because I wasn’t able to hold onto a 3:40 finish. He was still going too fast, and so he didn’t pace anyone. He finished by himself – hope he enjoyed his free race. Revel – I really recommend you don’t accept pacers who aren’t in it to encourage others and help them get to the finish.