2021 California International Marathon

TCC Men's Marathon Record Established In Style

On Saturday morning, Tom Coyle competed in the 2021 California International Marathon, a well-known high-level event that always has a strong delegation of professional runners. In a very impressive debut at the distance, Coyle finished in 2:25:05, good for 57th place of the 7,000+ runners. We got the chance to catch up with Tom later that day to hear about his preparation, the race experience, and what he has planned next.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity

CC.org: We're here with Tom Coyle of our very own Thursday Cruise Crew. Tom, you ran your debut marathon at CIM this morning. It's been about twelve hours since you finished the race - how's the body feeling?

Coyle: Body feels alright! My stomach went through a journey today. The hamstrings went through a whole lot, probably could have used some more salt. But yeah, overall, super thrilled.

What was your plan going into the race? What were your expectations for the race?

I think the goal was to run something like 2:24-2:28. I feel like if I ran anything under 2:30 it would be a great day. Anything beyond that was a cherry on top.

And as a marathon debutante, where were you pulling that estimate from? Was that from your previous races, or workouts you've been running?

Well, the goal for a marathon started at 2:45. That was the expectation. But then I ran the Portland Half Marathon, after that the bar was raised a little bit. And then after some workouts, I felt good and the bar kept going up. I hit exactly what I wanted to - maybe not the way I wanted to, but I hit it.

This was your first time racing more than 13 miles. Tell me what that last 13 miles felt like.

Oh, man. Well, it started off with a nice little trip to the bathroom just past mile 14. I was feeling something, and figured I'd probably net out up if I used the restroom there instead of not, and I'm glad I did. And I probably went out a little too hard - I think it was 5:20 pace for the first half, and I came through in 1:11 [for half]. I knew I was going to run a positive split, which was fine. It was just up to how big the positive split would be. After the bathroom, I recovered really well, and I saw RK [our teammate Robin] right before then, which was great.

After mile 17 or 18, I felt a shooting thing, kind of like the onset of cramps, on the outside of my thighs. And then the cramps started, and I knew it was going to be cramp management from then on out. Right at mile 19 I stopped again because the cramps got really bad. At this point I was taking a gel about every three miles, just because the motor was running hot, and I was trying to keep the fuel coming. It wasn't enough for the hammy's, even grabbing two Nuuns and two waters at every aid station. So I did some leg swings, which helped, and then settled back into like 5:25 pace. And then I hit mile 20, and the legs were starting to go again - I help on for another two miles with all the gels and Nuuns, and then had to stop again. They have these pills for relaxing leg cramps, and I was like "give me two of those packs right now" and chewed them like candy. And then I tried to hammer it in the last few miles without stopping or walking, and I think I was able to run like 5:50's for the last couple miles, which was ok. Even if I ran 6:30 pace, I'd still hit my goal of 2:28, because I'd run fast enough to get some leeway.

I went out hard, and had the legs not cramped, and I'd taken an Immodium, I think 2:22 was in the cards. But it was a good learning experience, and I'm excited to maybe run another one.

Was the plan to go out hard, and be open to the positive splits?

Yeah, the plan was to try to do 72 en route to 2:24. You're wearing the super shoes, you have the race day jitters, and all of a sudden you're going out in 5:20 pace. At 6 or 7 miles I was actively trying to slow down to run 5:30's, but it would have been weird to use energy to move back rather than just maintain my position. And I wasn't really driving forward, I was just on autopilot running with a group of guys, clicking off miles.

How was the level of support on the course?

The course is like a giant party, it's really cool. The roads are wide, there's a cheer squad, a Taiko [drum] squad, a bunch of bands doing their thing. It was really, really cool.

It was also cool because in Portland I was basically running on an island, except for the one time I passed a dude. But here there were movements in the race. There were yo-yos with lots of people. Like, I stopped to go to the bathroom, and then immediately joined another group of guys, and there are people surging from behind you who you can latch onto. It's a very collaborative effort, unlike college track where everyone's fighting for spots - it's really collaborative, which is cool.

Did it feel like you knew a bunch of people at the race?

Yeah, the West Valley guys killed it. There weren't a ton of Stanford folks - Brendan Gregg won the race, but I don't really know him. But it was cool to see the West Valley guys ball out - one of them ran 2:26, another ran 2:27. Robin [Kutner] was out there. And now we need to get more people to move up in distance, out of their comfort zone.

Well, I think I'm running NYC next year, so maybe I'll join you.

Let's go! I think I will too. Unless I can petition Boston, which I might try to do now. I'll probably do the Kaiser Permanente Half in SF in February. And I don't know if I can maintain the same general fitness, but I definitely won't be training as hard. But I might be able to run 66-high or 67, depending on the conditions.

Oh, for sure! You're fitter now than you were in Portland, when you ran a huge negative split 68.

We'll see! I don't really want to get another marathon on the calendar for the next couple months.

So what's the plan for the next few weeks?

Well I've built up all this fitness. I'm trying to recover, and maybe see if I can get a 10k on the track. So I'm going to pick up some Nike Dragonfly's this week, and I'm getting a massage tomorrow, and next Tuesday I'm going to time trial a 10k, and see if I can break 30 minutes. If you want to pace me, you're more than welcome!

And then Christmas Relays!

And with this fitness that you have, are you willing to finally stop ducking the challenge from TCC teammate Sam Parker for a 400 meter race?

Absolutely. You're on.

Book it. Tom, congratulations on your debut, and thanks for filling us in on your race!

Thanks, this was fun. Let's go get a beer.