"The Qualifier" - Midland, Michigan (edited: the race report)

Well, I signed up with my brother and friend. They both missed their BQ time in Boston and don't want to "waste that training cycle" so to speak. It's a go for Sunday even though I haven't run anything longer than 13 since Boston. Still feel a bit tired and a bit nicked up, groin, knee, hammy. Nothing major, "just know its there" kind of thing. Will be a bit warmer than I like (start 65, end 80) but certainly not Boston-like. PR stands at 3:08. Haven't decided yet to make this a PR shot or a fun run. Was in PR shape for Boston, not sure whether or not I still am. Will probably start out with great intentions and adjust up or down from there. Race report to follow within a few days.

Well, after much hmming and hawing, I decided to go for it. After consulting with my sister, she advised, take it out for your PR and assess at various points along the way, and if the heat doesn't destroy me, drop out or easy jog the rest of the way. The 10k in Ann Arbor is in two weeks, deal with that one then. Easy for her to say. But this race was all about business. PR attempt for me. A BQ attempt for my brother and friend, Wilm after having missed last month. We knew we wouldn't even try another marathon til Fall, so let's get it out of the way.

A 90 minute commute up the road from our houses. Holiday Inn Express, everything like clockwork, except the temp was 79 at 9:30pm.

So the day went as predicted, weather wise at least. Dawn broke with temps at 65 without a cloud in the sky with Southern winds. Great. This course goes W>E to take advantage of the prevailing Westerly winds and the high sky meant the sun was going to be in our eyes for 15 miles at least. Ugh.

The race was set up really nicely. It's run by the Crim organization which does a fine job. This was the inaugural running of the event. 450 runners showed up. Pretty good for the middle of nowhere. Bill Rogers sat behind us on the bus. Greg Meyer was there too. Lots of warnings about the heat, hydration, etc. God, it was deja vu Boston. The race starts a minor league ballpark and is sponsored by Dow. Nice coaches with toilets. Easy ride. Arrived at 6:30 for the 7:30 start. The course is set up to BQ, no doubt about it.

So my plan (break 3:08:00) was to take advantage of the early morning cooler temps and then hang on the best I could. I figured I was still in pretty good shape from the BOS cycle, but running two marathons without six months in between was a new experience for me. Everything started out fine. I jumped into a group that said they were going for 3:05 and had an unofficial pacer who even carried a placard. Cool. Editorial Note: why would a race that calls itself the Qualifier, not have an official pace group at the 3:05 mark. The standard for open entry. They had them from 3:15 up.

Anyway, there were about a dozen of us, but by the 1/2, we were down to the pacer, another guy and me. We hit the tape in 1:31:27. Uh oh. His pace was a bit quick. Temps were beginning to rise. The pacer even picked up his pace a bit, and we let him go. Stupid. I caught him around 15 but couldn't keep up and dropped off the pace a bit. Around 20 I caught him again and passed him this time.

From 14 - 21 is a straight road, flat and dead East right into the sun. The wind turned a bit to the East, so now it was a bit of a headwind. Good thing in the end, I needed it to cool off. I think a tailwind and I would have cooked. Temps were now in the high 70s and I was essentially running alone. Spectators were sparce but vocal and supportive. Lots of water stations, GU and Powerade. Everything was going pretty well except for the damn sun and heat. So I started bleeding time. No surprise.

The fatigued mind started playing tricks on my time calculations. I thought I would just sneak in under my 3:08, but I was pissed, because I had worked this hard for 20+ miles and was giving it away. I kept looking at my watch. Instead of 6:55-7:05 I was seeing 7:35 and 7:45. I just couldn't make my legs turnover any quicker or push off any harder. About half a mile to go and I realized I was ok, should meet my objective and about .2 left and I started to "sprint" -- ha, now there's a term. My legs then decided to cramp and seize. But at this point I was hellbent.

3:06:06. Yipee. Wilm crossed in 3:14:xx and had a 10 min BQ and my brother in 3:34:xx for a 5 min BQ (although he really had a tough second half).

They gave out a nice medal, not too fancy, but after you verified that you had a BQ they gave you another duplicate medal, but in a bright gold color. 1/2 marathoners got bronze, marathoner silver and BQ gold. Cool. Two medals today for the price of one.

I did my usual 45 minutes in the med tent. I always need to lie down and raise my spazzaming legs and also feel a little queasy in the stomach. I can't really eat or drink much either. Don't know why it happens, but at least now I know it goes away.

They close off main street. Turn it into a beer garden. Have a DJ and pass out awards. NOW its ok to be hot. Bummer no, AG awards. By the time we left the temp was 91. So I figure low to mid 80s by the time we finished. Hottest day in Mass this yr for BOS. Hottest day in Mich this yr for The Qualifier. Just my luck.

Anyway here are the stats:

Finished 14/464 OA
Finished 1/35 AG
Beat the pacer - He was around 3:08.

Not bad. All in all we got our jobs done.

Here are the splits:
SplitTimeDistanceAvg Pace

Summary	3:06:06.5	26.39	7:03
1	6:58.1	1.00	6:58
2	6:53.3	1.00	6:53
3	7:03.3	1.00	7:03
4	6:56.3	1.00	6:56
5	6:57.0	1.00	6:57
6	6:58.1	1.00	6:58
7	6:52.2	1.00	6:52
8	6:52.8	1.00	6:53
9	6:51.1	1.00	6:51
10	6:58.7	1.00	6:59
11	6:54.5	1.00	6:54
12	6:59.6	1.00	7:00
13	6:51.5	1.00	6:51
14	6:51.9	1.00	6:52
15	6:54.0	1.00	6:54
16	6:59.1	1.00	6:59
17	6:57.4	1.00	6:57
18	7:02.1	1.00	7:02
19	7:02.8	1.00	7:03
20	7:11.0	1.00	7:11
21	7:11.7	1.00	7:12
22	7:17.3	1.00	7:17
23	7:30.8	1.00	7:31
24	7:27.7	1.00	7:28
25	7:35.1	1.00	7:35
26	7:23.1	1.00	7:23
27	2:36.2	0.39	6:44

Splits might be a bit fast. Got the usual 1% GPS error. Ran 26.4. So I figure 4-5 seconds per mile off. Too tired to figure out exactly.

Congrats on the PR in tough conditions. Great job.

Dude! Great achievement, you put it all out there, sounds like!

Congrats on the BQ, you earned it! Looks like you were in BQ and PR shape.

Good thing they didn't stop the race like they did in Green Bay.

Congrats Michael! You did outstanding, considering what we all went through in Boston. Sounds like this might be a good one to do next year!

Wow, congrats on an excellent race, Michael. And I know it was warm up there - so way to hang in there again in tough conditions. Bet you feel good today!

Outstanding! Congrats on a terrific race and the new PR. Especially considering the HeatFest2012 v2.0 conditions.

Now, if we can just keep you out of the med tent...

A great, satisfying race report. Well done!

Wow, I just saw this, tremendous job out there. That ws well-executed and especially well done considering Boston was last month. Great job and congrats on the PR and BQ.

Is that an AG win I see in there?!?! Very well done on both the win and the PR

Michael, well done!