Race Report - 01/19/2014 - Arizona Rock 'n' Roll Marathon

Location: Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe AZ
Race Type: Run
Participants: 2878
Overall Place: 640th
Age Group Place: 91st
Time: 3:51:18

Pace: 8:50/mile

This was my 2nd year participating in the Arizona Rock n Roll Marathon. The 1st time, last year, was also my first endurance event. Since then I believe that I have come a long way in my training. Having said that, my race result doesn't reflect it at all. 

I have been fighting a chest cold for the last eight days. I thought that I'd kicked it mid-week but it flared up again on Thursday and came back in full force Saturday. This made me hesitant/nervous to do the race but I didn't want a cold to stop me from getting the 3:23 PR that I'd trained for. Just three weeks prior I'd completed a 3:31 marathon during a training run without much difficulty so I knew that I was capable. More on this later...

The morning started at 5:15 followed by a friend picking me up at 6:00 am. The four of us headed to the light rail station and caught the beginning of the line. This was the first time that I'd taken the light rail but my more experienced friends were wise to the idea of catching the rail at the beginning of the line instead of the second stop that was slightly closer to our house. As you can see, they knew what they were doing.

1st Stop (empty)

 2nd Stop (full)

Upon arrival at the start line we immediately headed to the long line of people waiting at the bathrooms. We'd arrived 30 minutes prior to the start but used up 25 minutes of it waiting in line. 

With five minutes before the start I was off to the 1st corral while stripping my cold weather clothes. Having left my clothing donation on the corral fence, I still had a minute to snap a couple of pictures of the start line.

Corral 2 and Up

 Corral 1

The horn sounded at 7:50 and we were off. I was feeling OK the first mile while running through the not-so-exciting streets of downtown Phoenix. 

During the second mile I glanced at my watch to see that my heart rate was 15bpm over target. I wasn't happy to see this but was hoping that it was just the excitement of the race start and would calm down. On the third mile I was beginning to wonder whether doing this race was such a good idea. I normally start to warm up on mile three and by mile four am in my groove. Not today... I felt drained and my heart rate hadn't gone down at all. I slowed my pace down a bit but it didn't help.

The rest of the race would be a mental battle to overcome my tired body. On mile five I gave up on my 7:45/mile pace goal and let it slip to 7:50. The next 15 miles saw a steady decline in pace with a heart rate that wouldn't go down. It wasn't a lack of hydration or calories as I had drank 150 ounces of water/day for the last three days and was carrying 70 ounces of Mike's Mix sports drink on my back in addition to three sleeves of Clif Bloks. I simply shouldn't have been doing this with a chest cold.

Mile 20 came and I accepted the inevitable. My pace had fallen to 8:11/mile and my heart rate had increased to 180bpm. The next six miles were split between walking and shuffling my way to the end.

I finally collected my finishers medal and picked up a few drinks in the finishers corral. Boy was I glad that this marathon was over!

Here I am an hour later after meeting up with my friends and recovering a bit.

After getting home and taking a shower I decided that I should have my chest looked at (something I should have done prior to the race). I headed to an Urgent Care and they took an x-ray, EKG, and blood. The X-ray and EKG looked normal so they sent me home and told me that they would call later tonight if the blood results were concerning or the next day if they weren't. I got a call at 1:30am...

My blood work indicated that I'd had a heart attack recently and I was urged to go the the ER. I debated on heading there immediately but felt that it was more likely that the blood sample was skewed due to the marathon and that having more than three hours of sleep would be time better spent. 

After a few more hours of restless sleep I headed to the ER. I'd heard good things about the speediness of this hospital and I wasn't disappointed. Before I had a chance to sit down I went through triage, met the doctor, had my blood drawn, and had another x-ray. The doctor agreed with me that the previous blood result was likely skewed but he wanted to see for himself. 

I was moved to a bed where they monitored my heart, blood pressure, etc until the blood results were analyzed. After another hour the doctor came by and gave my heart a clean bill of health. He prescribed a steroid for chest inflammation and sent me on my way. Total time in the ER, ~2 hours. 

Final thoughts: Overall, this marathon was harder than last year because there wasn't a mile where I felt comfortable running along. While I could have held it together for a shorter race, an endurance event is not the place to try to push through being sick. Lesson learned. Oh well, I'll just have to make it up March 1st when I compete in the Phoenix Marathon!