Portland Marathon - Wet, humid, and still a blast!

So after a successful SF half and continued training with Team Asha putting in the miles and time, it was time to head on to the first Asha marathon of the season - Portland on Oct 5, 2008.

Portland - the name conjures up images of a beautiful green city in the Pacific Northwest replete with dreary skies and rains throughout the year. We had been tracking the weather forecast anxiously and the predicted probability percentage for rain on Sunday had been changing more often than the McCain economic plan :-) Well, we were trained to run in all kinds of conditions except rain this season - so, should make for an interesting time...

Oct 3, 2008 (Friday)
After having tapered, rested, and loaded up on carbs for a few weeks now, I was raring to go. The initial plan had been to drive to Portland with the family so they could come and watch me run. However, the wife had deep-sixed that plan and in any case, the kids had a bit of a cold. So, I had decided to fly out to Portland on an evening flight from San Jose.

Arrived at the airport and was sitting at the gate when I ran into Parag, who was on the same Southwest flight. We chatted for a while and discussed plans and strategies. The flight was fairly uneventful and they even served peanuts :-) Landed in Portland and picked up my bags etc. My friend Srikanth (from college) was waiting for me at the airport (with his two lovely kids, Anagha, and Krishna in tow) and took me over to his house to stay Friday night. His wife Priya had made a nice South Indian dinner rich in carbs for my benefit, and after feasting on it, and chatting and catching up for a while, decided to hit the hay to get a good night's rest. Oh and BTW, it rained pretty much all night!!

Oct 4, 2008 (Saturday)
The carbo-load dinner had been scheduled for 7 p.m. in downtown Portland (close to the Team Asha hotel). So, I decided to go to the expo right before then and pick up my bib and then head to the carbo-load dinner. The morning was spent with Srikanth and the kids at a science museum (which was quite interesting). The weather was wacky with bouts of rain followed by periods of some blue sky. After a nice lunch at home, spent some time on the Nintendo Wii with Srikanth playing golf! I then packed my bags and got things together to head downtown.

Around 5 p.m., Srikanth and I headed to the city and arrived at the expo. The expo was not much to write home about :-) (though definitely a step up from the SV marathon!). After picking up my bib (with D-tag) and walking around for a bit, we decided to head to Hotel 50 to meet the team. The funny thing with this marathon was that the T-shirts were not given out at the expo; they had to be collected at the finish!!

Reached the hotel at 6:30 p.m. and left my stuff with Vinay. Then, after saying goodbye to Srikanth, we headed out to Alessandro's for the carbo-load dinner. We met up with the rest of the group outside, and had to loiter around for a while till the tables were ready.

The restaurant had one thing going for it - ambiance! Too bad, the quality of food and the service did not match it :-) There was an interminable wait to even get the bread initially, and then the food orders were further delayed/mixed-up (Coach Tony got his soup after he finished his main course!!). Of course, the travel team picked the restaurant due to its proximity to the hotel and are not responsible for the service etc. Anyhoo, Coach Tony gave us a nice pep-talk and after finishing our dinners, we headed back to the hotel around 9 p.m. or so to get some shut-eye in. Oh, and it was not raining then :-)

Reached the hotel, and after pinning the bib on and fitting the D-tag on the shoe, said good night to Navneet and went to bed by 10 p.m. or so.

Oct 5, 2008 (Sunday) - the Race
It's funny how even if this was my 3rd marathon, I still had butterflies in my stomach, and the anxiety caused me to wake up at 3 a.m. (and then not be able to get back to sleep). Stayed in bed till about 4:30 in order to let Navneet rest, and finally got up to get ready. After the glide/nip-guard and other checks, was ready to go and had an energy bar and half a bagel around 5:30 a.m. (thanks Gurpreet and the co-ords team for the bagels and bananas - awesome work as always!).

The plan was to meet up with the group in the lobby at 6 a.m. and walk/jog the 4 blocks to the start line. Navneet and I got to the lobby, and of course, found no one there :-) We decided to wait a bit longer in order to stay out of the cold. It was pretty nippy outside and cloudy - but no rain! Finally, people started trickling in, and by about 6:20, we decided to head out.
Got to the start line, and picked up the sweats bag. Also stood in line for the port-a-potty and just about managed to get out by 6:45 a.m. There was a long line for the sweats check as well, but somehow snuck in and dropped it off. Started pushing through the crowds (6 hr finish, 5.5 hr finish etc.) to reach the 4 hours and below corral. I had planned to start with the 3 hr 50 min pace group and found the pacers with the sign and got to the back of the group there.

The announcer made some announcements and also noted that it had never rained during the marathon for the past 30+ years - should have known what was in store then :-) After the national anthem, the starting gun went off, and we were off. The elites and faster runners took off, and soon, we were moving as well and crossed the start mat (and I started my watch).

Miles 0- 5
Kept telling myself to start slow till I was warmed up. The crowd was moving and everyone looked like they were sprinting out of the blocks. Kept a 9:11 pace for the first mile and just about managed to keep sight of the 3:50 pacers. The next few miles were quicker (8:25-8:30 pace) and every time I looked up, I was still falling further behind the pace group! I had the 3:50 pace band on, and kept looking at the times. Something was definitely up with the pace group. Oh and it started drizzling around mile 2! So much for not raining during the marathon:-) And the humidity was around 95% (we found out later) - conditions were definitely going to play a part.

Miles 6-13.1
The rain kept getting steadier and was quite annoying to say the least. The roads were getting slick and some puddles were forming (had to focus to make sure I did not step in one). The 3:50 pacers were definitely off and going much faster (and as a result, I was going faster than planned/needed to keep up!). Hit 10K in 52:55, 8.9 miles in 1:15:48, and the halfway point in 1:52:50 (8:37 pace).

Just to put things in context - according to the pace band, the 3:50 group should have hit the half in 1:56:58; I was there in 1:52:50, and was at least a minute (if not more) behind the 3:50 pacers! So, they were off by a full 5 minutes or more! So much for them knowing how to pace us :-)

The humidity was definitely sapping, and despite the rain, I could feel that I was sweating a lot more. I made sure to drink electrolytes at every water stop. Compounding things, the marathon had 2 kinds of electrolyte drinks - Ultima, which provided mineral replenishment only, and Gleukos, which had sugar and electrolytes. I took them alternately, and sometimes grabbed both at a water stop. One of the things I had told myself was to be very careful with my nutrition during my race (having tailed off badly towards the end in my earlier races) - so, had an energy bar around mile 8, and some Liquid Gold (which was the honey based gel type thing that they offered - quite delicious I must add) at the next couple of water stops. I also looked around to see if I could spot my brother and his wife (who had flown in to see me race) but no luck. I did spot the Asha folks, and they cheered me on (thanks folks!).

Overall, I felt pretty good and seemed to be on track to hit my sub 4 hr goal.

Miles 13.1 - 20
What's that old saying about the best laid plans :-) I was moving pretty smoothly, when suddenly around Mile 15, I felt a twinge in my right hamstring and it started sending out signals of discomfort. I was keeping a good pace but decided to slow down to avoid further damage that might prevent me from finishing! 8:30-8:40 miles soon became 9+ minute miles. Still, I had over 7 mins in the bank, and I hoped that would see me through.

After looping through downtown stretches initially, we had moved on towards St.John's bridge at mile 17. This presented the only significant hill on the course - about a 150 foot climb but not too bad in itself - it was just the positioning in the race when people were close to the proverbial wall! I was now doing about 9:15-9:20 min miles and decided to be conservative on the hill. I took it nice and easy (I guess my quads still had some residual memory from Big Sur in April and SF half in August) and despite recording my slowest mile of the day (9:54), I made it to the top and across the bridge fairly comfortably.

The rain was falling harder, and the chill was also causing my sore hamstring to keep announcing itself! I had continued consuming liquid gold and also had a packet of Gu around mile 14 onwards. I reached mile 18 and felt a little tired, but knew that this was the 'wall' and I had to fight past it. I took another shot of Gu, put my head down and kept charging forward - the words of Coach Harry were fresh in my mind - 'As long as you keep moving forward, you will finish!' Reached mile 20 in 2:56:40 (now at 8:50 pace). Oh, and I had lost sight of the 3:50 pace group a while back, and was relying on the timing bracelet for guidance!

Miles 21-26.2
It was now pouring pretty badly and I was tiring a bit as well. I decided to unleash the secret weapon - 'Chocolate Gu with Caffeine' that I had picked up just for this occasion! Took the first shot of it, and soon felt it work its magic. Started keeping a steady 9:20-9:30 pace and waited for the downhill that was soon coming. I knew that if I could do better than 11 minute miles or so for the remaining distance, I would be home in less than 4 hrs!!

The crowds and bands (which really helped get the spirits up on a few occasions) had been awesome from the start and kept cheering us on as we made our way to cross the bridge back to the downtown side of the river. Soon, the downhill arrived at mile 22, and I decided to pick up the pace a little (as much as I could). After a 9 minute mile, reached mile 23 or so when I spied the folks handing out beer in the little plastic cups! Despite being a teetotaler, I was in half-a-mind to throw away that label, and imbibe the nectar. However, I decided that this was probably not the best time to experiment with alcohol (now drugs would have been a whole other story - one is definitely high on something when one decides to run marathons!).

I could now see folks starting to struggle/cramp up/walk. There were several folks doubled up on the side of the road as well. I decided to focus and concentrated harder on keeping the back straight and the strides smooth (well at least I thought so - others may have seen me as the guy with the flailing arms and staggering feet!!!). The mile 24 and 25 markers soon passed by - and I had over 14 minutes to finish the last 1.2 miles. I decided to save the 'kick' for the last .2 miles just in case I ran out of gas (if I started sprinting at mile 25). Started hearing the cheering crowds and rounded the bend for the final .2 - picked up the pace as best I could and soon sighted the finish arch with the balloons - trust me - there is no sweeter sight for any runner than those damn balloons at the finish line :-) I passed a few people and finally crossed the mat and immediately stopped my watch - it read 3:57:02 - mission accomplished!!! I was drenched, soaking wet, but ecstatic and relieved! I had broken the elusive (well, for me anyways) 4 hour barrier, and shattered my PR by over 35 mins (previous best, 4:32:31 at Big Sur).

It turns out that for the first time ever, the time according to my watch and the official chip time, matched! Of course, the consequence of this is that my official finish line picture has me bent down stopping my watch:-)

I walked gingerly through the finish area and picked up my medal - they gave us a rose along with it - a nice touch! Then headed straight for the food and refreshments - they gave us cold Nesquik Chocolate milk - never had anything tasted sweeter! They also had quite a good spread of food, and I picked up a few things to eat in a bit (as I did not feel like eating right away). Finally spotted Ram (my brother) and Bindu (his wife) and went and accepted their congratulations. Headed down to the Asha tent where I was greeted by an ecstatic Gurpreet, and Coach Tony, and Raj (who had both finished ahead of me). The co-ords and volunteers had excelled as always, and in true Asha tradition, there were Samosas and also Lassi waiting for us in the tent.
After chatting for a bit and wolfing down a Samosa, I decided to go pick up my sweats bag - only to discover that we had to walk 5 blocks to get it! Limped down the streets with Raj for company and got our bags. Raj decided to head back to the hotel and I started walking back to the finish area to meet my brother. My friend Srikanth had also arrived in the meanwhile, and we decided to wait for a little bit - Vinay, Kiron, and Navneet finished in the meanwhile (and had all run awesome races given the conditions). Then, after congratulating the finishers and planning to meet at the dinner that evening, decided to head back to Srikanth's place (so as not to keep them all waiting) - went back to the hotel, picked up my stuff, and headed back.
Got to Srikanth's place, and after a nice warm shower (I know, I know - I am not a huge fan of ice baths :-)), and some ice-packs on sore knees and ankles, went out to a nice South Indian restaurant for a lunch buffet!

Oct 5, 2008 (Sunday) - evening
Arrived at the planned rendezvous (at Taj India/India Palace) after several phone calls and updates from Gurpreet (that included name changes, address changes etc. - they had apparently relocated the restaurant recently!). Had come along with Ram and Bindu and there were already some folks there at the restaurant (Chandrika, Shailesh, and others). Started on the pakoras while we waited for the rest of the crew to arrive in the shuttle from the hotel. They finally showed up, and we celebrated over drinks and dinner. Coach Tony congratulated us all, and we were also happy to receive a phone call from Coach Raman (who congratulated the team on speaker phone). Coach Martina had already called me in the afternoon (as had Rajeev Shankar, and a few others) - though Martina probably had mixed feelings as she now owed various people lunch and dinner (or worse - money :-)) - details not supplied in order to avoid corruption/betting charges :-)


We shared the victory stories, and it was especially gratifying to see the smiles on the faces of the first time finishers. Despite the weather, and various other injuries/inconveniences, Team Asha runners had braved the odds, and had all finished strong with a smile on their faces! The spirit of Team Asha shone through on that bleak, cloudy, rainy day in Portland - and we had all indeed conquered the beast and had tales of valour and courage to tell.

I am extremely grateful to all the Coaches for the training, advice, and support:

Tony - for pushing me hard at tracks and prepping me on race day.
Martina - for all her support last year (running with me at SV marathon, off-season Rancho runs etc.) and her advice this year.
Raman - for running with me at Rancho and introducing me to the joys of Black Mountain and other assorted hill trails.
Harry - for his injury analysis and input.
and last but not the least - Rajeev Char - for all the advice, injury prevention/recovery tips (when I had the ITB issues), for running with me and encouraging me at the long runs (Los Gatos etc.), helping me plan out a race strategy (pace groups).
Raj (asst.coach) - for the pep talks, and making me believe that I could crack the 4 hour barrier.

I also owe the Rancho group a vote of thanks! Being their mentor, and being responsible for their progress, and to get them to their marathon goals, has instilled a sense of discipline in me (and caused me not to miss any runs this season); well that, and the fact that I am the only mentor for that group with no back-up :-) I have also enjoyed the fun and camaraderie - thanks a bunch guys and gals!

Epilogue:
Oct 6, 2008 (Monday)
Flew back home on Monday morning (after thanking Srikanth and his family for their excellent hospitality and saying goodbye to Ram and Bindhu - it was excellent to have them all share the experience). Was really glad to get back to the wife and kids and they were all thrilled with my achievement and to have me back (well, even little 9 month old Rohan gave me a high-five (or so I thought - he was probably just waving his hands:-))).

Oct 7, 2008 (Tuesday) - track workout
Some of us Portland finishers showed up at tracks on Tuesday evening. We wore our Finisher T-Shirts (awesome BTW - Nike, full-sleeve, wicking shirt) and medals in order to inspire the Chicago and SV runners. A couple of us gluttons for punishment even ran a few laps (to get in a recovery run I guess).

Oct 9, 2008 (Thursday) - weekday Rancho run
Back in action to fulfil my duties as mentor. Ran with the guys - some things never change :-)

Running is not a chore anymore - it's a lifestyle choice, and I am proud to be a card-carrying member of this Marathoner's club! And, the fact that I am where I am (being able to make the above statement) - I owe it all to the family called 'Team Asha'! And for this, I will keep coming back year after year to share new experiences and forge new bonds and friendships!