A staple of the marathon training plans in Pete Pfitzinger’s Advanced Marathoning book are his long runs with marathon pace work. These runs, to me, are some of the most challenging in the plan. Even though I know I can run the marathon pace, and I have many times before, it is HARD to do it all alone in a training run. 

So, whenever I can, I try to find a race that fits in with the schedule that will allow me to practice the pace in a race environment. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t! 

The long run for the first week of Pfitz’s 12/55 plan that I am following for Boston was 13 miles with 8 at goal marathon pace. I am still not sure what my goal marathon pace is going to be – I’m not chasing a PR in Boston, just hoping to run a strong race – but I feel like somewhere in the 7:40-7:50 range is reasonable. 

When I saw the Lewis Memorial 10 Miler was happening on Feb. 1 near Frederick, I thought that might be a good opportunity to practice marathon pace. 

But this wasn’t your typical 10 mile race.  

For starters, it was straight up a mountain for the first 5 miles, then straight down it. (So, you were pretty much guaranteed to run negative splits!)

But the real catch is that it was a prediction style race, meaning you had to guess your predicted finish time before the race started and prizes were given out based on who came the closest to their prediction. No watches allowed! 

My last 10 miler was the A10 last August, which I ran in 1:11. However, with this elevation profile, I had zero clue what to expect. I predicted I would run a 1:18:30 (which was more or less in line with my goal marathon pace anyway.) 

The race started and ended at Mount St. Mary’s college in Emmitsburg, and I got there early enough to do a 2-mile warm up. When I checked in, the volunteers with Frederick Steeplechasers, who organize the race, asked me if I was OK with my predicted time. Sure, why not, I said. 

The first three-quarters of a mile or so of the race was mostly flat, with a few little rollers– but then the climbing began almost immediately. There was a pretty steep hill in the second mile – at least I think it was in the second mile, because not only were we not allowed to wear watches, there were also no mile markers! I was actually glad I didn’t have my Garmin on here, because I think my pace would have depressed me, ha! 

There were a few downhills during that first half, but it was mostly a climb. It was really tough! It sort of reminded me of Riley’s Rumble, except in that race, I felt like there was a lot of downhill in the first part and then some mean uphills in the second half. 

At one point during the first half, I ran past a water stop and asked the volunteers what mile we were at. “Mile 3!” they said. (Seriously? Only mile 3?)  

After lots more climbing, we finally reached what seemed to be the top of the mountain and then, thank goodness, we got to run down! So much downhill! I actually don’t consider myself to be a particularly strong downhill runner– for one, I am clumsy and always afraid I am going to trip and eat shit – but this felt so fun after the long uphills. Did my quads ache for two days afterwards? For sure! Again, no idea what my pace was, but I felt like I was flying! 

At one point, we ran past another water stop and the volunteers told us we had a little less than 3 miles left. The course flattened out a bit, then we got some more downhill, and then in the last mile leading back to Mount St. Mary’s– we had another long-ish uphill! It was all I could do not to walk at that point, but I knew I was so close. 

When I crossed the finish line, the clock said 1:18:00. So, I was exactly 30 seconds faster than my predicted finish! I was really happy with that! 

I thought I might get a prize based on how close my prediction was, but the top 3 closest guesses were within 10 seconds of their finish time. The funny thing is, I almost chose 1:18:00 as my prediction. Oh well! 

After the race, I ran a 1-mile cooldown to get to 13 miles for the day. My average pace for the race was 7:48/mile, so pretty in line with goal marathon pace (and I guess I did a little extra as far as the workout goes since my plan only prescribed 8 miles at goal pace.) 

I was also the fourth female finisher, so I was happy about that! 

This weekend, Pfitz has me running 16 miles with 10 at goal marathon pace and once again, I am running a 10 mile race: The Road Runners Club of America Club Challenge in Columbia, after a friend recruited me to run on the Bullseye Running team. The course has a reputation for being challenging and the race itself is very competitive, so even if I was planning to race it all out, which I am not, I have zero chance of placing! 

That said, I did practice the course with some friends over the weekend and it was hilly, but nothing like the Lewis 10 Miler! I’d compare it more to the A10. I am looking forward to it!