California International Marathon Race Report

My Road to CIM

Brett Sanborn

Dec 6, 2017

I have little experience with road running. Having no background with sport or athletics beyond high school tennis, I began running five years ago with a goal of being healthier, but also to test my limits. After deciding to take up running I thought it would be a clever idea to have a goal, so I signed up for the 2012 Philadelphia marathon as my first ever race. Since I lived in Maryland at the time, it was local; I could stay with friends, and it would make for a solid result if able to finish the race. Giving myself plenty of time, I signed up several months ahead and looked up a free training plan online.  Following the training plan to the letter for 16 weeks I ran a time of 3:32, a time which left me pleasantly surprised and emboldened to pursue running beyond the marathon. The following two years I trained and ran local 50k and 50 mile races on the trails in Maryland, having decent success with my best result placing second place at the Stone Mill 50 mile in a time of 7 hours and 8 minutes. In 2014, I ran my second marathon at the NCR trail marathon, which is rail trail in northern Baltimore County and extends all the way into southern Pennsylvania. Despite running the 50 miler a couple of weeks prior, I managed to break 3 hours with a time of 2:53. Again surprised by the result, I tucked the idea of one day training specifically for a marathon and racing it all-out in the back of my mind.

After moving to Albuquerque, New Mexico in February of 2015, I turned my sights on the 100 mile distance as my primary goal. Wanting a (relatively) flat, runnable course that I could train well for, I decided to run the Javelina Jundred, which takes place in the desert near Phoenix. Trying to test my limits, I found that I was able to train at high mileage for the 2015 Javelina reaching a maximum of 140 miles, all the while avoiding injury. During the taper for Javelina that year, I decided to jump in to the Duke City Marathon, two weeks before Javelina. Despite it being during the taper, heavy heat training (temperatures at Javelina are usually 100 F), at altitude, and a fast road course (I had been training on trails), I somehow managed a time of 2:52—a PR of a minute over my NCR marathon time. This added fuel to the fire that I needed to train for a specifically for a marathon. That year at Javelina, I managed to complete my first 100 miler in 15 hours and 47 minutes, placing third.

The following year, I entered Javelina again, wanting to improve my 100 mile PR. Again I was able to reach new heights training at high mileage, reaching a peak training volume of 152 miles and an average of 106 miles for the 10 weeks leading up to the race, adding a bit more climbing and speed to my trail sessions. Similar to 2015, I decided to enter an event at the Duke City marathon. Thinking that perhaps the marathon the previous year sapped some of my energy at Javelina, I decided to run the half marathon, my first. Again, I had no idea what to expect and managed to finish the race in fifth place with a time of 1:18:27, just a hair under 6:00 minute pace. Again I was able to achieve an excellent result without having done a significant amount of track or speed work. Two weeks later at Javelina, I managed a 100 mile PR of 15 hours and 15 minutes, which was good enough for second place and 12^th on the 2016 American top time list for 100 miles. Around this time I started running with the Dukes Track Club. Talking with Jesse Armjio and describing my high mileage training, Javelina times, and the Duke City half marathon performance, he commented that if I could withstand 152 mile training weeks, I should be able to easily double my half marathon performance at a sea level race—a 2:37. The thought of this thrilled me, as I thought for sure any marathon time below 2:45 or even 2:40 would be well out of my reach. At that point I decided in the next year that I wanted to do dedicated, hard training specifically for a marathon, which ended up being the 2017 California International Marathon (CIM).

I trained for CIM with abandon. My goal was to apply the techniques I used in ultra training: excellent nutrition, high mileage, heat training, and mix in lots of workouts and hard long runs with the guys. When I began to start showing up to the weekly Dukes long runs, I was unable to keep pace with the guys and would get dropped at 12 miles. I found that each week, I was able to hold on about a mile or two longer before I got left in the dust. By the end of training I was able to finish with the guys at excellent distances and paces—lots of training runs on the Bosque trail with the Dukes of 20-24 miles between about 6:30 and 6:50 average pace. The regularity of the quality of these runs never ceased to surprise me. I think that in all of my previous years, I only managed one or two runs at similar paces and distances. I managed to peak at a mileage of 141 miles leading up to CIM, with a 10 week average of 103, meaning that I would be in similarly good shape as my best ultra performances in prior years. Despite the forecast for CIM being a comfortable 50F, I decided to do a period of heat training—for two reasons: in case there was a freak warm spell and also to reap the benefits of increased blood volume, which can lead to an easier effort in mild temperatures when running hard. The heat training consisted of layering up with every piece of long running gear that I owned and heading out the door, dressed as if I were running not in Albuquerque, but in the Iditarod. At the end of heat training, I would wear three pairs of tights, a pair of pants, two raincoats, two thermal layers, and six sweatshirts. This activity would result in the loss of about six or seven pounds of water weight each run, which ranged from about 6-10 miles long.

Leading up to the race, I hoped to run with fellow Dukes team mates Zach Chenoweth and Chris Valicka, since we might be running similar paces at around 2:37ish pace. I guessed that Zach would finish around 2:35 and Chris around 2:33, so if I could hang with them for a bit, that would be great. My spirit was somewhat bolstered by the fact that a friend from Pennsylvania, Michael Heimes, had run 2:37 a couple of weeks earlier, which was significant because back in my days running on the east coast, Michael and I had similar finish times at different races.

The morning of the race I felt great. Unfortunately there were so many people on the CIM start line that I wasn’t able to find any teammates. Once the gun went off, I quickly caught up to Jenny Sanderson who was running the relay, and commented that we were running 5:25 pace—far from sustainable for both of us. After chatting for a bit, I took off but still didn’t see Zach or Chris. I concluded that Chris was probably up ahead and really going for broke. Zach is tall enough that you’d be able to see him from quite a distance, but he was nowhere ahead. Two miles in, Justin Wiens caught up to me. Offering a bit of encouragement, Justin took off to chase his own PR. I ran as comfortably fast as I could through the halfway point in a time of about 1:16:30, which was a PR by over a minute—risky, but I felt fine. Trying to tuck in behind groups where I could, running with the elite women, and running the tangents as efficiently as possible, I passed through miles 14-19 as comfortably as I could. Still feeling good at mile 20, I was surprised to pass Mike Wardian, a legend in the road and ultra world for his consistent ability to run without having to recover. Pressing on, things started to hurt around mile 21, and I pushed as hard as my legs would allow through to mile 23 and eventually slowed a bit the final two miles, finishing in an astounding time of 2:33:37—an hour faster than my first marathon, a 19 minute PR over my Duke City time two years prior, and even better than a double than the half marathon that I had originally discussed with Jesse a year earlier. To my surprise, Chris finished less than a minute behind. He had been caught farther back in the crowd at the start, so I had not seen him the entire race. I wonder if we had been able to run together, would we have achieved a better time?

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In the end, CIM resulted in a familiar feeling as my other marathons: surprised by my performance and how well it went and leaving me to question what I could achieve in the future. I also learned the power of training in a group with a common goal. Certainly the long runs, track workouts, and tune-up races with the Dukes were instrumental in my massive PR at CIM.