When a Race Goes WRONG

Little Rock Marathon has this early start thing...if you are going to finish between 6 and 8 hours you start at 6am. If you are going to finish in under 6 hours you start at 8. Well...I was planning on a 5:45ish finish, but I was going to be running with a friend who was planning to run a PR marathon the day before at Snickers. She had not told her coach (not me) that she was going to do back-to-back marathons. I really wasn't sure what that might do to our race day. She assured me she was down to do whatever I wanted (early start and make it a 6-8 hour day or regular start and make it sub 6). I figured I would be good for a 5:45 on a good day but 6:15 on a bad day. 

So I asked questions...

When I picked up my bib I went to the "Bless Your Heart" booth (so cute to call it that)....and asked for some details on the early start. I was told that the most crucial thing is that early starters MUST NOT pass the 6 hour pacer (who starts with the early starters) because that pace group "opens" the course. I said at some point the regular starters would pass that group. The lady said that wasn't until about mile 18...and at that point it would be fine to go ahead of the 6 hour pacers. So I thought an early start would probably be great-hold us back a bit early on and then after the hilly section (at about mile 19) we'd turn it on and finish sub 6 (even if not by much). The lady said it's really hard to hold back when you are fresh on the front half but I figured that might be the better option.

So a little while later I went to the early start meeting. (In order to be in the early start you have to have a special bib...I wanted to gather all the information before pulling that trigger.)

In the meeting they said if you were to join the early start you ARE NOT EVER allowed to pass the 6 hour pacer...even at the finish line...and if you had an early start bib but end with a sub 6 hour time you would be DQd. (This was NOT what I was told earlier, but the lady who told me this was in the room so I figured she was wrong since the RD was giving the information.)

Earlier in the week they had sent out written instructions. In that email it said the early start was for 6 hour or slower finishers and that the cutoff for the general start was 6 hours (must be faster than 14:53 pace).

From the instructions:

Well, a 6 hour pace is really like 13:40...so that question was asked in the meeting. They said basically they made a mistake in the instructions (I get it...instructions are copied from one year to the next and sometimes new information gets missed). They clarified and reiterated-slower than 6 hour finishers need to early start.

So I asked the question...if I'm having a good day I'll be 5:45. If I'm having a bad day it will be 6:15. Given the fact early starters are NEVER allowed to pass the 6 hour pacer (who starts early) I really wasn't sure if I should start early or at the regular time.

This is the CRUCIAL point in time where my race day plan was formed, and WHY my race went VERY WRONG....

They said there are 3 cutoff points but the first two are more for the half marathoners (therefore much slower than the full marathoners would need to be at that point in the race). The 3rd cutoff point was at mile 19.2. They said that is a HARD cutoff...if you miss that one you will be turned (cutting the race short for you). You'd still get to finish, you'd get a medal, but you would be DQd in the results.

They SAID that cutoff time of day was going to be 12:45. He said it was based off the 8 hour pacer (who starts early and is the last person to cross the early start line...then they add buffer time; he said it was based on an 18:18 pace...plus buffer time). I made a point to text that information to Dwayne to figure out the pace we'd have to have in order to make that cutoff point in time if we were to start at 8...

text to Dwayne

TriCalc app info

Based on that information, and talking with my friend, we decided we had plenty of time to make the 12:45 cutoff starting at 8 and we'd make sure we had a sub 6 hour finish.

Here's the thing about Little Rock-the first maybe 15 miles are mostly flat (flat-ish). Then there's a hill that is literally like a mile long--and NOT a gradual climb, and there are several hills after that until mile 19. But at mile 19 there's a LONG out and back that is super flat, there's one hill and then the finish. So you will likely lose time between 15 and 19 but you can make up a good bit of time from 19-26 if you have properly paced the first 15 and don't kill yourself on the hills. Armed with the 12;45 cutoff I figured we'd have no problems at all.

Well...I was right, but... (cue sinister music)

To Be Continued.... stick around for my race report....