2021 California International Marathon

(Photo left-to-right: Eric Barron, John Lobo, Darius Fong, Jose Sanchez, Eric Bowles, Phillip Brunk, Loes Olde Looheis)

I was pondering writing a race report, and thank you Stephen for the encouragement.

After EVERYTHING went wrong for me at the Chicago Marathon this year with my first marathon DNF, and it being 4 years since my last marathon (bike accident and covid infection) I was unsure what my goal was for CIM. My Garmin watch has persistently said my marathon race prediction would be 2h 48m, which bruised the ego.

Nonetheless, I have had the strongest marathon track workouts I have ever had this fall and that had to mean something! My goal would be to run 2h 28m (5m 39s mile pace).

I stayed at a hotel in Folsom (the race start) so I was able to wake up at a comfortable 5:30am. This is a smart move, always stay at the race start! Went to have breakfast and discovered the Maurten Gels that I thought I had left at home in the cereal box, a good start to the day!

CIM was an incredibly well-run race, perhaps the best I have ever participated in. Very smooth drop off system and nice amenities at the start. We got off to a smooth start in perfect chilly weather and I got through the first 13 miles one minute ahead of pace (1h13m - 5m 34s mile pace). At this point, I felt fine and was unsure if being a minute ahead was smart or if I would regret it.

Miles 16-19 I teamed up with another runner and we started running 5m 30s miles and passing everyone around us. At this point I knew it was a special day.

By mile 20, I dropped the guy I was running with and accelerated to 5m 20s miles for miles 21-25. I saw Kate and the kids at mile 21, and I started yelling in disbelief and with a lot of certainty "I am going to break 2 hours and 25 minutes!" The second half marathon was a 1:11 and my last mile was 5m 10s!

The day was up there with getting married and the birth of my children. It was special. Who knows if I can ever replicate it, I hope to try it in Boston this year. The only area for improvement would be going out with confidence in 1h11m or 1h12m.

The question is how did I PR by almost 5 minutes and in retrospect the answer is:

This is the first marathon I have used carbon plate shoes
This is the first marathon I have used Maurten gels
This is the first marathon I have kept my mileage around 60 miles per week for 2+ years and been healthy the whole time (normally I would do 80-90 and get injured).
My track workouts and long runs were the only two workouts I had to hit each week. Everything else was completely negotiable based on how I felt. No set training plan, just listen to what my body was telling me in preparation for those two days.
My uncle, who got me into marathoning, told me 20 years ago the single biggest predictor of his marathon time was his weight. And after 10 years of a pescetarian diet, I am down to 140 pounds, previously I had never been below 145 pounds.
And perhaps most of all, at 35 years old I am running with nothing to lose and absolutely no fear of failure. I really treasure that my kids get to watch me run these races, it motivates me, and hopefully they will someday.

Oh, and after the race my Garmin watch said I had overtrained and downgraded my race prediction to 2h 50m.

Eric Bowles

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Following Eric's lead and Stephen's encouragement here's my CIM race report.
Leading Up To The Race.

Like Eric, I had a rough race in Chicago earlier this fall. My plan was to have a huge PR in Chicago and run CIM for fun with no pressure, but 10 miles into the Chicago race I knew it wasn't my day and I finished the race well off my PR and very disappointed. I was determined to do everything I could to build as much fitness as possible in the two months between Chicago and CIM. This ended up translating to running the most mileage in a two month period in my life.

The week following Chicago I ran 80 miles to ease back into things. The next 4 weeks were 112, 112, 112, and 113 miles. This was done by doing doubles of 10 miles in the morning and 10 miles in the evening 3 days a week, 20+ long run on Saturday and 10-12 miles a day the rest of the week. I went into this thinking it was a big risk and I would probably feel beat up by the end, but I felt great throughout the whole training block. My legs felt strong and my confidence began to come back. After a two week taper I was ready to race.

Race Day
I woke up at 4, quickly drank a cup of coffee and ate a banana, put on my race gear, and headed out to the buses near the finish. The bus ride to the start line was fairly long and I kept thinking to myself "I have to run all the way back?!" I got off the bus and made my way to the porta potties, which stretched for at least a quarter mile. After taking care of business I made my way to the corrals to see if I could spot any TCLA friends. I found Jose, Phillip, and Darius a little before the start and we all wished each other luck before the gun went off.

My goals for the race were:

Don't go out faster than 6:25 for the first two miles
Run 6:20 pace from mile 3 to halfway and run the second half by feel
Finish between 2:45 and 2:48

The first two miles were 6:23 and 6:20. I felt like I was jogging. I sped up a bit to around 6:15 for the next few miles but really felt like I was holding back. At mile 6 I saw Reed Fisher from Tinman Elite cheering on the side of road. I called out to him, he gave me a wave and I was stoked. A quarter mile later I looked at my watch and I was running 5:50 pace, I pumped the breaks and told myself that no matter what pro runners I see for the rest of the race to not get over excited. I kept running between 6:15 and 6:20 through the halfway mark and hit a 1:22:38 half split which was right on pace for a 2:45.

By this point 6:15 no longer felt like jogging, but it still felt way easier than most of my long runs which I did in the 6:30-6:45 range. Around mile 17 or 18 the course felt like it sped up and I really had to resist the urge to run in the low 6:00 range. I told my self that I could run as fast as I like starting at mile 20. When I finally hit mile 20 I had a little pain in my hip/groin area, but other wise felt fine. I decided to push a little for 3 miles and empty the tank the last 3. I ran a 6:11, 6:18, and 6:15 for the next 3 miles. At mile 24 I decided that I didn't have enough for an all out push to the end so I tried to just hold my pace.

Up until this point in the race I hadn't seen anyone from TCLA on course, but I could now see Jose about 100 meters ahead of me so I worked on reeling him in. I caught up to him in the middle of mile 24 and suggested we work together to finish strong, but he was cramping up so he encouraged me to go on ahead of him. I could hear him cheering me on from behind the next quarter mile. Right when I tried to really pick up the pace around 25.5 miles in I felt both my hamstrings cramp up really bad. I gave them a few seconds to calm down and tried to pick it up again, but they would quickly cramp up every time I tried to push. Now it was all about making it the last 1.5 miles without completely blowing up. I found that I could run around 6:40 pace without cramping so I did that through the end. I knew I was going to PR and I figured I would finish the best of the rest of the TCLA runners behind Eric who must have finished 20 minutes ago at this point.

There is a sharp left turn at the mile 26 marker and as I began to make the turn Jose came steaming up the inside of me running like a man possessed. I thought to myself "I can out kick him". Two strides later my hamstring reminded me that I in fact could not out kick him on this day. The last 0.2 miles hurt, I felt like I was running with my knees locked so I wouldn't cramp up. I crossed the line at 2:45:56, almost a 9 minute PR. About 20 seconds behind Jose. We embraced at the finish and my wife along with Eric and Wendy were cheering from the side.

This was a special day, not just because of a PR, but because I got to share the moment with so many friends. The whole year leading up to this race I spent every Saturday doing long runs with Mike, Darius, Philip, Eric, John, Jose, and many more. We pushed each other in our Tuesday track workouts. Now we all shared the starting line together and we all had amazing finishing times. It was such a great experience and I'm glad I had the opportunity to share with you all.

Javier Quintero