Revised Rio de Janeiro Marathon Race Report

The race below is a clean-up, expanded, more detailed, race report from my first marathon, the Rio de Janeiro Marathon held on Sunday June 29th, 2008. I've added a bunch of new photos and a good number of links to YouTube videos for some great Brazilian music that can act as great background music for reading the report (although the music I listened to during the second half of the marathon was all hard rock/African).

Background music: Firstly a quick little traditional samba that (like the marathon) starts slow and tranquil, then picks up and hits a nice little rhythm. Quinteto em Branco e Preto (Quintet in Black & White) Xequeré.


Some more videos: since samba itself is not one of my seven pillars
Vanessa da Mata - AiAiAiAi, Vanessa da Mata with Ben Harper - Boa Sorte/Good Luck, Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66 - Mas Que Nada (1966) , MPB4 e Roberta Sá - Cicatrizes/Scars .

Race Prep: Good solid base training from mid-December through two half-marathons (march, april) getting from 25 mpw up to about 45. Did maybe 1 or 2 tempo runs before taking 5 weeks off around the birth of my daughter (mas o menos 4/15-5/22). This was around some of the less-than-positive spring marathon reports on RWOL and I thought, ok, I took too much time off, I'll die out there, and canceled my plans to run my first marathon in 2008. Then along came the June Challenge and I cranked out a 52-mile week and a decent 20-miler (3:45) and thought, sheeit, I doubt I will piss blood while I'm out there so decided to go for it. The 5 weeks prior to the marathon looked like this:
Race Strategy: My initial goal (like in December when I actually thought I would follow 18/55) was to shoot for around 3:30 (ie 2x my half PR of 8min miles) but my real thinking leading up to the race was...how fast can I go an not kill (or soil) myself? I settled on 5:30 per km (9 minute mile-ish) as something I knew I could do for 20 miles no problem, and hoped the marathon gods would show mercy over the last 6. 5:30 per km is a 3:51 finish so I hoped that even with dying a bit at the end I had a 9 minute buffer to break 4 hours.

Ok - now that we have dispensed with the boring stuff...on to the race itself:

The course: The course was point-to-point, almost perfectly flat and is 100% along the beaches of Rio de Janeiro (my favorite city in the world):
The thing I will remember most about the race was how totally tranquil the start was and how everyone ran in near total silence for the first 15km.

Got on the buses at the finish around 5:45, made it to the start around 6:30. Recreio beach is one of the last in the city and it was just us and the surfers enjoying a beautiful sunrise:



Only 1838 total runners in the full, with another 12,000 in the half marathon/family 6km. 18C/64F at start (yes, there were snipers in the helicopter)

(always one DB jumping the fence to get up front)

The first 15k was along a stretch of beach where there is a lagoon/nature reserve on one side and the beach on the other. With no hotels/apts along this part there were no crowds, but I wouldn't trade the view and the silence for anything:


The half marathon marker was at Barra da Tijuca beach (Praia do Pepê) and I hit it right on pace (plus a minute or so to snap pics/take a leak), I felt great, cracked a huge smile and threw in the ear buds (mix of Rush, Ozzy, RHCP, G&R, Johnny Clegg) and kept the turnover turning over.

Kms 22-32 went by quick and we were now on Ipanema beach where the crowds picked up, and the race had bands/DJ's every 4km for the rest of the way crossing over to and along Copacabana.

I was feeling great up until the course turned off the Atlantic beaches for the final 3km along the Guanabara Bay beaches of Botafogo and Flamengo. My thighs started burning pretty good and I was doing some serious huffin-n-puffing to hold pace for the last bit, but held it together enough to keep passing people through to the finish.

Result: 3:55.25 total almost exactly even-splitting a 1:57/1:58. I basically held exactly 5:30 km with the extra 4 minutes coming from 2 quick breaks, the one hill and fighting with stupid granola bar wrappers .

I was/am SUPER happy with the result. I surprised myself in how much I really was enjoying myself along the way. Since the pace itself (in the beginning) was not so tough I really took in the whole experience and it was gooood.

I may be addicted. The thought process of picking a one-mile pace you can do one of, almost without sweating and then trying to run 26 of them without dying is most intriguing.

Thoughts, Observations... As first marathons go, it is hard to imagine one better than Rio. Under 2000 runners in the full but with the infrastructure/after party worthy of the 14,000 total runners. Buses left on-time in the morning, water stations ever 4km, couple gatorade stops, free Exceed gels at 2 places and great volunteers. One who went above and beyond the call of duty, untying my shoelaces at the end to recover the timing chip so I wouldn't have to bend down to do it). While the end of June is technically the middle of winter in the Southern Hemisphere the 08:00 starting temps were 18F/64F but signs along the way showed temps of upto 30C/86F in the sun between 12:00 and 13:000.

The quiet, zen-ful start is something I will never forget. I have never been around so many Brazilians being so quiet in my life. Also, the combination of sweat, suntan lotion, Gatorade, caked-on-salt etc made for one impressive B.O. as I recovered after finishing.


Here are a few closing pics:

Race Medical Staff:

Toni Garrido , lead singer of Cidade Negra gave a free concert at the finish (Sugarloaf mtn in the back)

The B.O.P.E. (as seen in a movie you must see Elite Squad ) was on hand for security

Goodie bag was solid (ugly shirt, free pasta, cool hat & water bottle)

I thought the medal was ugly, but my daughter seemed to like it just fine.

Secret of my success: Steve Runner , or more specifically Episode #99 - Marathon Fueling . The podcast contains a formula based on body weight and race pace to calculate the number of calories you need to replace per hour to avoid hitting the glycogen wall during the final miles of a marathon. My number was around 300 calories (X 4 hours = 12 GU's). While I felt a little silly at the start with pockets stuffed with trick-or-treating, it did the job. You can download it from iTunes (link from his homepage)

My Actual Fueling: I had 9 GU's in the house before the race figuring I would buy the rest at the expo. Since they only selling Asics and additional race t-shirts at the expo, my pockets at the start with stuffed to the max with the following:

2 Speedo Light Energy bars
2 Nutri granola bars
9 Vanilla Bean GU's

I ate all of that plus probably 3 (maybe 4) of the Exceed Boost Gels they were handing out along the way. Basically I was taking one every 20 minutes for the first 3 hours, then one everytime I felt like it over the last 12km.

Eating the energy bars is the only thing I did for the first time on race day and indeed I won't do it again. My stomach was fine with them, but it was too distracting to open them with sweaty hands and chewing and breathing heavy just don't go together.

Like I said, I was wicked guilty of trick-or-treating my way through the race.

Liquids - I drank 2 10oz water cups at each water station (so about 4 cups per hour). I can't say the 6 oz of gatorade total from the 2 gatorade stops contributed much.

One Week Later: A week has pasted since the race. My legs were sore the first couple days (I took maybe 3 Aleve) but nothing all that remarkable. Today is Monday and I will get out to run a 5k or so today, but I can't say I have felt like strapping on the shoes at all this week. I have a local 10k on July 20th that I would like to run a sub 45:00 so we'll see if I can get some life back in the legs by then.


Again, a big thanks to all for assistance, guidance and motivation.