Madison Marathon: Race Report & Training
My third marathon and first time under 3 hours
Overview
On November 12, 2023 I participated in the Madison Marathon in Wisconsin. Madison represented my A goal for 2023, my top running ambition for the year and was my third marathon ever after completing two prior marathons in 2022. I had been highly anticipating this race for… the year really and it sure did not disappoint.
Picking up from my last race at the Milwaukee Half-Marathon in October I was feeling good momentum in training. After a summer of up and down training, I put in 12 pretty consistent weeks leading into the race.
As my only marathon of 2023 my goals were:
Race a new PB
Shoot for a sub-3 hour marathon (Boston Qualification for my age group)
Negative pace my splits (run faster each successive mile)
The goals were simple enough. With some experience in the marathon, I now knew that chasing a PB is a patient endeavor. Go out too hot, you hit a wall, go out too conservative and you’re off goal pace. It is a goldilocks game of applying effort over the course of 26.2 miles just right.
Training
The build up to Madison was relatively smooth. A sign that this build was going well was being able to race the Milwaukee Half-Marathon in PB time and not need substantial recovery following.
In this block I was very consistent. During my ever first marathon build, I lacked consistency in training. Some long runs and workouts were skipped and the schedule never moved or adapted. During my Grand Rapids build up I improved upon this somewhat. This time, however, I found an especially good rhythm.
I followed a 12 week 55 - 70 mile / week plan from Advanced Marathoning and really enjoyed the structure of the training plan.
Training Load
The build was quite steady. Coming from a very low mileage summer, I increased mileage for many consecutive weeks to normalize higher running volume in my schedule. It was an aggressive plan, but balancing rest and practicing flexibility sustained my progress.
Mileage capped at 70 miles 4 weeks out from the race. This was my top mileage week ever. Although the mileage didn’t represent much beyond my Grand Rapids build I am encouraged that I may be able to pursue higher mileage in the future.
Another differentiator about this build is how my long runs were executed. Instead of logging these runs at a standard easy / zone 2 pace, I ran a portion of them at about 10 percent slower than goal marathon pace. I would gradually warm up for the first half of the run, and then run the last half at this sub-tempo pace.
I think this was a big training differentiator for me as I got more acclimated to running longer at a higher intensity. It wasn’t too physically taxing that I needed more recovery, but normalized running faster for longer in training.
Also included is the Relative Effort or “Training Load” I experienced. With two recovery weeks as an exception, my body was consistently facing a high training load for approximately 7 weeks of the plan. When race week came around in that final week, it came as less of a shock to the system.
I have also included a comparison graph of the 12 week mileage in the build up to the Grand Rapids Marathon build, compared against the Madison Marathon build.
The total mileage was certainly comparable, although I managed to be slightly more consistent in terms of total mileage accumulated in this build.
Planning
To pace the marathon at sub-3 hours I knew my average pace per mile would have to be 6:50/mile or less. I had relative confidence that I could manage this but I was far from certain this would be achievable, no indications from training really confirmed this. I sought to begin at 6:50/mile and gradually quicken over the subsequent miles.
To help compartmentalize the paces I needed to hit I chunked my race into 6 distinct sections: miles 0-5, 5-10, 10-15, 15-20, 20-25, and the home stretch. I made mental notes of the elevation in each of these sections so I knew which of the 6 sections I could push a bit or back off if necessary.
Part of my pacing also relied on heart rate and more specifically my Lactate Threshold. Many runners avoid doing any pacing with heart rate but I have come to use it more as a secondary reference point always wearing a heart rate chest strap on my runs.
Lactate Threshold defines the level of effort (pace / heartrate) beyond which your body is not effectively able to process lactate from the bloodstream, and as it accumulates exponentially your legs begin to get heavy and fatigued. When below ones lactate threshold the body can use lactate as fuel and create energy.
Described another way, take the analogy of a campfire. If you steadily put logs on a fire over the course of an evening the fire burns gently and provides a comfortable warmth you can sit next to. If however, you pile on logs and build the fire quickly, the fire becomes too hot, unbearable to sit beside and burns up quickly. The point at which the fire goes from comfortable to unbearable can be thought of as our lactate threshold.
Over the course of my training, Garmin and the other training softwares would provide an indication of my threshold pace and heart rate after a workout. Taking these numbers and using my own judgement my goal was to avoid crossing 169 bpm (beats per min) until there was less than 5 miles to go. I hoped this would ensure I did not exert myself too early and burn out part way through.
Race Day
Race day was I was ready to go. I slept poorly but woke up motivated for the race. I had two-scoops of Tailwind Endurance which adds up to about 50g of carbs. I followed this up with 3 slices of sourdough bread and a long espresso ☕.
The drive from our hotel was only about 15 mins, and we arrived downtown a little after 6am. I got in a 0.91 mile warmup around the Madison Capital before shedding some layers and heading for the start line.
Temps were around 38 degree Fahrenheit (4 degree Celsius) at the start of the race. I thought maybe more layers were necessary but I stuck with shorts and a t-shirt knowing I would heat up once the race kicked off.
The Race
The race kicked off and in no time I was at a comfortable temperature. Gloves were necessary though. The first 5 miles flew by as I focused mainly on holding back the pace and zoning out.
Miles 5-15 were smooth also, I kept my pace steady, gradually increasing speed and focused on running my own race.
Miles 16-18 and 20-23 brought some pretty significant hills. I ratcheted back my pace on the ascents and let gravity help me out as I plunged down the downslopes. I was consistently passed on the ups and consistently passing on the downs. This strategy really helped my manage my intensity level.
My fueling strategy for the race was quite aggressive. I took a caffinated Maurten gel at the start of the race, and then took a gel every 4 miles on the mile. This meant a total of 7 gels. All totaled I consumed about 198g of carbs from gels during the race alone, not even counting gatorade from most aid stations.
When I hit the dreaded 18 mile mark I did not hit a wall. The pattern of dragging from 18 miles to the finish seemed to be broken.
The 3 miles leading up to the finish straight were predominantly downhill. I tried to push as much as I could, with some fatigue creeping into the quads and calves. To my delight as I came within sight of the finish I could see 2:57:??. I was going to go sub 3 hours! I pushed a little bit extra, and crossed the line 2:57:47
This was over a 5 min PR over my precious race time. I was ecstatic.
Even splits, minus some of the hills
Wrap-Up
Wins
I was very pleased with the entire build and overjoyed with the outcome, running sub-3 hours and qualifying for the Boston Marathon. I learned a lot throughout the process, and now have it all written down, so I hope I can repeat and improve upon it next year.
Very excited for the running to come in 2024 and beyond where I hope to improve upon my race times further.
Learnings
I’m beginning to repeat some of my learnings in race reports but a key has certainly been consistency of training. Ensuring I got the work in week in week out was key. Within training I practiced flexibility, swapping workouts for rest when necessary but prioritizing completion of all long runs and workouts within a given week.
Another new learning was completing most of my medium and long runs at paces around 10 percent less than race pace. This increased pace built the muscular endurance I needed for race day.
Nutrition was another key learning for me. Previous marathons were fueled by maple syrup 🍁. Not that it was an ineffective fuel source, but switching to gels and dosing them every 4 miles throughout the race was optimal.
Finally, improved pacing was a big learning. Keeping pace consistent, increasing speed gradually, slowing on the ups, and accelerating on the downs helped me mange the intensity over the course of the race.
Now for a little downtime, and off-season before I being building towards my 2024 goals 😊 Until next time.