EC Trail Marathon

I've always had a thing for 6 minute miles. When I was a freshman in high school, I remember thinking it was a big accomplishment when I ran my first sub 6 minute mile. Then sophomore year, the goal became to run 3 miles at a 6 minute per mile pace. Through the years, the distances have changed, but the goal has always remained pretty much the same…get under 6 minute miles. Sometimes that goal seemed ridiculous. If you'd have asked me 4 years ago if I thought I could run a marathon in sub 6, I'd have laughed at you. Other times it seemed attainable, but it was always out there, motivating me. For the most part, I've accomplished the goal with PRs well under 6 at most distances, but the one distance that had eluded me so far was the marathon with a best of 6:02 per mile. Finally, on Sunday I was able to reach that goal.

The EC Trail Marathon is a (very) small marathon that is run in northwest suburbs of Chicago. The normal route for the race is to do about a 5 mile loop on an asphalt running path, then head out onto a limestone path for a 10.5 mile out and back course. The course is flat and the limestone is pretty forgiving on the legs. It's a nice low key spring marathon. However, this year, due to some flooding on the path, they changed the course so that we would do two identical 13.1 mile loops, with about 2/3rds of it being on the road.

Going into the race I felt pretty good. I didn't do a full taper going into the marathon, but I did cut back my miles on race week which left me feeling pretty fresh. I was a little concerned about some lingering soreness in my right hip and left hamstring, but it has been nothing that stopped me from training, so I was hoping both things would hold out during the race. The hamstring was a complete a non-issue during the race. The hip let me know it wasn't thrilled with me a few times, but it eventually realized that it would less painful for all of us if it just fell in line.

Race morning was perfect weather with temps in the lowers 50's and clear skies. There was a little wind, but for the most part it was a pretty calm day. After Chicago last year, I really couldn’t ask for anything better. The gun went off and so was I. I knew going in that this would most likely be a solo effort as there just aren't a lot of people in this race, and it became pretty clear that it was gonna be just me staring at the back of a bike for 2 and half hours. As usual, those first few miles passed by way too fast as I finished that first 5 mile loop in 29:02. At that point I tried hard to just settle into a nice 6 minute pace and I did finally find a nice little groove.

After the initial 5 mile loop, we headed out on the roads and I was a little taken aback by the fact that these were not the pancake roads that this flatlander is used to. Now don't get me wrong. These weren't huge mountains or anything, it just wasn't what I was expecting. I guess you could call them gently rolling. We did a 6 mile out and back on the road and then headed back to the trail for a short 2 mile out and back on the limestone path. The limestone path was a nice break during the race and gave the legs a little bit of a breather.

I came through the half way point right around 1:17:30 and things seemed to be on track for a PR, if I could just not blow up. Mentally I felt like this course was nice because it was easy to break the run up into nice manageable chunks. There was the 5 mile loop, the 6 mile road out and back, and the 2 mile trail out and back. Then you do it again. Once I hit the second 5 mile loop, I was feeling pretty confident that if I could just make it out of there feeling decent, I would be through 18 miles and be in good shape. Some doubts started to creep in during this loop, but nothing too bad. It was also right around this point that I started to pass half marathoners who had started a half hour after us. They were very supportive and it was nice to have people cheering you on at this point in the race.

Once I hit 20 miles, I was feeling pretty confident that today was going to be a PR day, but staying focused was becoming more and more difficult. I was passing half marathoners all over the place and it was kind of easy to let your pace slip and still feel like you're moving fast because I was passing slower runners. I tried to stay focused and for the most part succeeded, although my splits did slip a bit over the last few miles. While I'd love to blame that on lack of concentration, it probably had more to do with fatigue.

The end of the race is a nice long downhill section that really lets you turn it on and finish looking good. When I came through the finish chute the timing was still set to the half-marathon time, so I wasn't sure of my official time, but I was later informed it was 2:36:13….a 2 minute 23 second PR. I was happy…or maybe relieved. I feel like I had a marathon PR for a while now, but it has been about and a year half since I broke 2:40 for the distance. I was hoping that eventually training and opportunity would cross paths and I would improve my marathon time eventually, but at 34 years old, I also realize nothing is a given. For a day, it was nice to run 26.2 miles faster than I ever have before. Oh yeah, and it was nice to look at my Garmin afterwards and see avg pace…5:57.

Here are the splits...


Mile Pace
1 5:44
2 5:41
3 5:48
4 5:52
5 5:58
6 6:03
7 6:03
8 5:58
9 6:02
10 5:52
11 5:49
12 6:02
13 5:59
14 5:52
15 5:56
16 5:58
17 6:00
18 6:00
19 5:59
20 6:02
21 6:09
22 6:11
23 6:01
24 6:08
25 6:11
26 6:07
26.2 5:53