2019 California International Marathon | Recap & Lessons Learned | How the Bendites Fared

by Chase Parnell — December 10, 2019

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Salutations from the other side of a truly epic and formative CIM experience. As the title indicates, I’m going to break this up into two parts. As usual, I have a lot to say, so feel free to skip down to the sections you’re most interested in if you don’t have the time for a full read. Here we go. 

Recap & Lessons Learned

I’m going to tackle this chronologically for no other reason than that I have a million thoughts and ideas swirling around in my mind and I need some sort of structure to spew them all out. 

4:45am-5:30am | In the Hotel

I wake up at the Fairfield Inn and immediately drink 20oz of water and eat a bagel and banana. I always try to get my food and water in me two full hours before the start time to let the food settle and give the water time to circulate through. The trick is to get sufficiently hydrated while still having enough time for it to pass through you before the race starts. We don’t need any unnecessary pee stops! And spoiler alert, had I stopped even once to pee during the race I wouldn’t have gone sub-2:40! 

Next, I get dressed in my racing kit and wrangle the kids out of their beds, into their clothes, and load them in the car. Full disclosure: Nikki did most of this. 

5:30am-6:00am | The Drive

CIM requires that all runners take shuttles to the starting line. Thankfully they have a variety of locations to choose from so we picked the one closest to our hotel and head for the drop-off. On the way we listened to a Run Free Training podcast by Ryan Hall. I know he’s a bit of a controversial figure, but I’ve found that this podcast has some of the best mental game strategies and approaches that I’ve heard. Ryan knows what he’s talking about and you can tell that he’s done a ton of work and study over his career to maximize his potential. And also, he was the superstar when I was in high school and I remember seeing him run XC at Mt. Sac when I was a sophomore in high school and he was a junior. I’ve followed his career closely ever since.

All that to say, he put out a pod that is meant to be listened to when you’re on the way to the start line so I gave it a try. It was gold. It really was. So many great reminders: (1) run the mile you’re in and don’t fixate on how hard things will get later in the race; (2) everyone you love will be proud of you no matter how you perform; (3) relax and let you’re fitness come out; and finally, (4) he provided a mantra that I clung to for the entirety of this race, “On the other side of pain is great joy.” Good, right? Yes, so good. 

6:00am-7:00am | Pre-race Shenanigans

I almost really botched the start of this race and some of my biggest take-aways are from things I did wrong here. First, I get off the bus and immediately enter a bit of a lackadaisical haze, where I proceed to walk around, starry eyed, amazed by the row of hundreds of porta potties, thousands and thousands of participants, professional runner sightings, etc. and before I knew it, 6:30am rolled around and it dawns on me that I better get going. The race started at 7am. Reminder: this isn’t an ultra. This is far more complicated. 

With me, I have a clear plastic gear bag that was provided by the race organization that was to be transported with my things from the start to the finish. Enclosed were my water bottle, last minute Lunabar and some layers should I need them. First problem, where do I put the bag while I warm up? Easy enough, I find a bush to stash it behind but that takes a couple minutes. Second problem, turns out, despite hundreds of porta potties and finding the shortest line available, I still wait for 12 minutes! Another reminder: don’t let the number of johns fool you, they will ALL be full and with long lines. 

Okay, so I burned 14 minutes. I’m down to 16 minutes and I haven’t started warming up yet. I jog for 10 minutes and return to my stashed bag. I’m a bit frantic now because the guy on the microphone makes it sound like the sucker is about to start any second. I tear off my clothes and stuff them into my baggie and head for the truck that is taking bags. But the dude tells me I’m at the wrong bag drop off and that anyone with a race number over 7,000 needs to go to the adjacent car wash. Another couple of precious minutes wasted. Then, as I typically do, I get paranoid and hop into the bushes for one final pee. 

It’s now 6:58am and the race is starting in two minutes. Problem: when there’s 12,000 runners, you can’t just jog around to the front and hop in the third row back like normal. I knew this, but again, I was sort of locked into my normal pre-race routine where I do everything last minute. I’m sure the elites were there well in advance because they wouldn’t have wanted to leave it up to chance, but in my mind, I didn’t want to be standing around for 15 minutes getting cold and anxious. Poorly played.

I get as far up as the barricades allow. I politely weasel through as close as I can but I hit a roadblock that was way too far from the start. It turns out I went into the chute on the wrong side because they let only the other side proceed forward so I was stuck back with the runners who were projecting a four hour finish. There were security guards blocking the gate so in those moments I really thought I was going to be stuck behind literally thousands of runners. Thankfully though, a brash young kid comes up and says, “I’m planning on running 3:45, can I hop over the gate?” Security guard says no. Other runners provided the guard with nods of affirmation. Then I say, “How about if I’m trying to run 2:35!” That got the guards attention and the other runners gave me a once over to decide if I was for real — yes, yes, this dude has some serious chicken legs, let him through. The guard obliged and let me through. Yet even still, after some more side-stepping along the rails and weasel moves, I only made it to about 50 rows back from the front. All in all it took me about 50 seconds to get to the start line once the gun went off. Not ideal but not terribly disconnected from similarly paced runners either.

7:00am – 8:00am | The First 10.

The first few miles go quickly because I was pretty distracted by my own bobbing and weaving around the masses. I tried to stay relaxed and not waste too much energy in this frantic state. My first mile was a little quick in 5:44 but nothing crazy. I dialed it back for mile two to 6:04, then put in a 5:58 and a 5:56.

My plan was to go out in roughly 6 minute pace but really I knew I needed to just find a sustainable groove no matter what that might be. I felt pretty decent those first four miles but then hit a bit of a lull from miles 4-10. Things weren’t coming easy and I was passed by a few groups, which is never encouraging. But I’d learn quickly that in a competitive marathon there will be lots of yo-yoing going on and you can’t really get caught up by other people’s little surges. Everybody comes in and out of feeling good quite a few times throughout the race so its best to not react. 95% of the runners that passed me within the first half the race, I would ultimately pass back by the end just by maintaining my pace and running my own race.

Around mile 9 I was starting to get those thoughts creeping in about having a bad day. I started to wonder if my build-up to the race was worse than I thought and even started to question why the hell I was out there at all. Here goes Chase, all talk and no follow through! But thankfully, before I went too far down those rabbit holes, I was able to reign it in by reminding myself of those keys from the morning’s podcast: run the mile you’re in, relax, relax, trust your fitness. I was getting my calories in, drinking cupfuls of nuun at each aid, and staying within myself. It’s all good. Just chill. You’ll start to feel good again soon. 

8:00am – 9:00am | The Second 10. 

Around mile 10, sure enough, people started coming back to me without any change in my perceived effort. It was a little crazy actually. I literally just floated by a pack of 15-20 runners and then once they were behind me, I just grabbed on to that momentum and kept rolling. I think it’s worth noting that I don’t recall looking behind me once the entire race. That was another thing I learned from Hall’s podcast — always look up and forward, never behind you or even down at the ground. Those are signals of fear and self-defeat.

At mile 13.5, I see my parents and Nikki. I get an awesome image of my son Dashel screaming, “Go Daddy! Go Daddy!” I have to admit that the eyes might have welled up a bit there. Not only from seeing Nikki and Dash, but also because I was just so damn thankful to be out there and feeling good. Add to those emotions, hundreds of screaming people from the crowd, and you have a sweet little moment in time.

Believe it or not, miles 15-20 came easy. At mile 20 they have an arch set up for “The Breakthrough Zone” which is a positive spin on “The Wall”, which is what marathoners typically fear and expect to hit at mile 20. I remember crossing under the arch and thanking my lucky stars that I was still feeling fresh and moving up. There wasn’t any doubt that I’d get this done in a manner and time I was proud of.

9:00am – 9:39:55 | The Final Push 

It’s hard to explain the final 10k. The word that comes to mind is vortex. It was like I was sucked into the marathon vortex. I was surrounded by a few other guys and and a women who I later found out was Emma Huston of the Bowerman Track Club. We were locked in step, heads up, eyes forward, all pushing hard and drawing off each other’s energy. Our strides were all unique but our pace was totally even. I’ve never felt anything like it really. I knew I couldn’t run any faster, I was giving it all I could in the moment, and that effort level was moving my body at the exact same speed as those others around me. The marathon is so rhythm oriented so it makes sense but coming from a trail and ultra background, which is largely a solitary affair towards the end of the race, this hard-charging collective flow state was something I hadn’t experienced before.

From a few miles out, I really thought sub-2:40 was in the bag. I was crunching the numbers and thought for sure that if we maintained our current pace, we’d hit it. But as we neared the final turn, I realized just how close it was. I really had to sprint it in the last 50 meters to dip under for a final time of 2:39:55. Immediately I was greeted by Bendite Ryan Kaiser who had a similarly positive experience. We spend a good 15 minutes excitedly recounting the play by play, totally pumped to have arrived at an outcome we were happy with.

This is one of the great mysteries of running I suppose, how such intense suffering can indeed lead to such great joy. If you’re looking for a way to manufacture happiness or induce a grade-A serotonin flood, run a marathon or an ultra, because when all goes well, that finish line feeling is hard to emulate anywhere else. 

Finish Line to Present | Final Thoughts

This was my fourth fastest marathon but definitely my most fulfilling. I don’t exactly know why, but perhaps its because it sort of feels like I’m back in the game after a long absence. I needed this! I’m not sure how I’d be feeling today if I would have totally bonked and things turned sour. I feel like there’s a lot riding on what we’re trying to do with Treeline Journal, with leaving my job and quitting drinking and all that; we just needed a happy ending to this build-up and I’m really thankful we got it. 

Hopefully there’s only more good things to come and my running continues to progress. I want things to start getting really exciting again! This was definitely a step in the right direction. I still have some big running dreams, dreams that in my more fragile moments, I still hold pretty close to the vest. 

I really believe that we all have so much more potential within us than we give ourselves credit for. Life seems to be one long journey of self-discovery and learning how to tap into your full-self is one of its great challenges. I’m trying to commit more and more to learning how to better peel back the layers and perform at my absolute highest level. To all of you out there reading this, if there are any resources that have really helped you, let me know! I’m trying to soak it all in right now. I figure I have about 3-8 years of really good running left in me and I want to take full advantage now that I feel like I’m more committed than I’ve ever been. 

How the Bendites Fared

Well, all things considered, it was a pretty rough day. If you didn’t read my preview, and want to know how poorly my very optimistic predictions went, you can READ THAT HERE. To sum it up, we all ran significantly slower than I predicted. I think some of that is because its hard to remain objective with people you know. I didn’t want to poo-poo anyones fitness or dampen their goals in any way (not that I have that level of sway on the emotional state of these very awesome runners) and I think I really just sort of naively planned on us all knocking it out of the park. Lots of men and women had huge breakthroughs at CIM, but for whatever reason, we just didn’t get to taste any of that magic. Here’s how things shook out: 

Max King: 2:26:42. It looks like Max was on pace through 30k and then started to fall off. He said on social media that he could have used some more pavement pounding in training and that he just wasn’t ready. Fair enough. I’m a little curious why he decided to go out well ahead of Olympic Trials Qualifying pace instead of just locking in with the OTQ pack. Maybe its because he was really competing and trying to maximize his day instead of playing it safe. I’m not sure. Max is human like the rest of us I suppose. Without the training due to his recent injury, he just didn’t have enough time to run himself into peak form. One thing is certain, the marathon is really damn hard and it will expose any weaknesses. It sounds like Max will shake this one off though and move on to other important things, like skiing.

Ryan Kaiser: 2:34:46. Kaiser had a similar day to me out there. He was hoping to maybe run four or five minutes faster, but really, after a short marathon build-up, it became clear that this effort was about the best he could do on the day. He went through half at 1:15:30 and held on as much as he could. Couple interesting notes: (1) he went through 5k in 246th place and ended the race in 245th place, and (2) he ALMOST broke the top ten for masters. Well done. All in all, Kaiser seems to be walking away from the experience with a skip in his step and I’m sure he’s already shifted his focus to Across the Years, 100 mile edition, which is now t-minus 25 days away. Whew! You got this!

Colton Gale: 2:54:09. I bumped into Colton at the expo and learned he’d gotten sick and had some hectic and less than ideal travel leading into the race. He gave it a go but it looks like his race was pretty much done by 10k. Props for keeping the ultra spirit alive and seeing it through to the finish. I don’t know, if I were Colton, I’d be tempted to still try to capitalize on his fitness. Any chance to still get into the Houston Marathon on January 19, 2020?! Either way, Colton has really improved a lot in 2019 and it’s been inspiring to watch him throw down some really epic workouts during his buildup to CIM. 

Allison Morgan: DNF. Looks like Allie was forced to drop after a quad flare up that led to pain in her achilles around mile 15. The achilles is not something you want to mess with so it sounds like she made the right choice to pull the plug on her marathon debut. Hopefully this doesn’t derail her training too much. Rest up! 

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The 2019 Cal International Marathon was definitely one to remember. If you enjoyed this post, consider signing up for our weekly Rise & Grind Newsletter to arrive in your inbox every Thursday morning. If you REALLY enjoyed this post, consider supporting us on Patreon for as little as $2 per month. We appreciate all the support and it really does go a long way. Thank you so much!