Clam Chowdah Challenge and Ultra Marathon Training

Shoe Schedule and Recommendations for Marathon Training

Summary of my diet for marathons

Clam Chowdah Challenge 2011 – Race Days

A word of warning

As this was late October, it was getting cold in the NE. Most of my training was in warmer weather and it was a bit hard to get used to the cooler October weather.

So on Saturday, it was the Half Marathon and packet pickup before the race for both races.

The bibs were printed with the challenge so others saw I was running both half and full Marathons. The start of the race was only 42F. I’ve ran in colder weather but not this early in the year.

The race was in Falmouth so there were some great views of the bay area.

This was my first half and i definitely sandbagged this one so I can focus on finishing the marathon the next day. I finished a respectable 2:20, which was much faster than the half split for my first marathon. At this point, my plan for the full was to finish.

Unfortunately, a freak ice/snow storm was due to hit MA after the half. Luckily, there wasn’t much snow on the ground for the full, but the temperature dropped to 40F at the start of the marathon and earlier in the morning, gusts were at 70mph. The drive down from Boston wasn’t too bad, even though it had snowed/rained the night before. It probably averaged 30-40mph during the whole race, which really brought the wind chill down around 25F.

This was a halloween marathon so many people dressed up for it. During the race, i was too pre-occupied with keeping warm and keeping warm and watching out for falling branches as there were many the night before. The wind was pretty bad and I cringed anytime i saw I had to run through an open field which guarantees 40mph cross winds.

The clam chowder challenge runners had special bibs. I did hear a conversation behind me as i passed them:

Wife: “why is his bib different?”
Husband: “He ran the half yesterday.”
Wife: “He ran yesterday?!”

That gave me an awesome feeling.

Race was good overall. The finish was very similar to the half, except it wound through some different streets. I saw the sign for 26 miles in the same area that the 13 mile sign was the previous day. However, after running 26 miles, i wasn’t thinking straight and assumed it would be the same place as the end of the half. Well, I didn’t account for the 0.1mi and I kept wondering where it was. It seemed like i was running for 5 minutes to the finish.

I looked at the clock shortly before I finish and it was a great time. About 40 minutes faster than my first marathon and I did a half before it.

The prize was two cotton shirts (not great) and a giant white soup mug that has 13.1 and 26.2 on it. I use it for coffee sometimes around in the office. The medals were nice too.

I was just so glad to be warm as it was still very cold outside.