Place overall: 1
Place in age division: 1
Marathon Debut..
Not going to lie, I've been pretty nervous about this race, simply b/c of the distance. I've had 8 weeks to prep, avged 60 mpw, 3 16 miler's and 1 20 mile long run. Just wasn't sure what to expect.
It was in the low 30s at the starting line, and right before the gun went off I decided to shed the underarmor. Thanks to Fiddy for holding my jersey as the gun went off. The first 200 meters of the race, I was still trying to put my jersey on. The first few miles we had a good group. Chad, Toni, Taylor, Fiddy all ran together till the big hill at 4.5ish? We just chatted and it made time pass quickly. Up the hill it turned into Toni, Taylor and I and then Toni bailed for the porta jon. Taylor and I just talked for the next few miles until Fiddy flew past us and we ran as a trio for the next 4 -5 miles. At 14 it was back to Taylor and I. (Taylor has a PR of 239 and won this race last year). I looked down at my watch at go figure, the Garmin I got from Chase Englestead back in 09 and has had over 5 years of good use, died. So it really doesn't matter except I love my stats analysis. At 15.5 there is a steep downhill and I didn't want to put on the brakes so I put about 20-30 meters on Taylor. He didn't catch up by 16 so I knew I was solo from there on out. I started really rolling at 17 after the temple hill. The hardest part of the last 12 miles or so wasn't my fitness surprisingly. On most of my long runs 16+ I get this neurovascularish foot pain on the ball of my right foot where with every step I get this shooting pain through my 3rd through 5th toes. It's annoying. Well this started at about 14ish and when I started rolling it was just super bad. I'm sure it looked funny as I was gimping down the hill. The last 10k felt good aerobically, but my stupid foot just hurt the whole time. I had no idea how hard to really push it just cuz I was in unknown territory and didn't want to crawl the last 5k or anything. So I just kept a decent clip. Saw Jake the last mile cooling down and knew I had to be close to the end. The finish was super anticlimactic. There wasn't a tape to break, (no big deal), no one gave me a stinking finisher medal (cmon.. really?), didn't even announce my name as I crossed haha. It was kinda funny. Some random guy just came up to me, and asked if I wanted a water.. haha. I waited for my wife to come find me, and after about 20 mins, I figured she prob had to feed our daughter so I went searching and found her, my brother and sister in law still looking for me to come in haha. I guess I blended in well with the half marathoners coming in.
Nutrition wise everything worked great. Jake had some great pre race nutrition advice that worked perfect. I had to devise my own fluid intake with how much I sweat so I had stashed this morning a 24 oz squeeze bottle gatorade at 7, 14 and 21 miles. I left them hidden on the ground and just had to slow down, pick it up and take off again. I can't drink out of cups, so that was my only choice if I wasn't going to full on stop, drink and then take off again. I'd just carry my bottle for a mile or so and drink it down slowly. No GI issues today. Big positive.
Overall, it's a great experience. Not intimidated by the distance any longer. I had 3 goals going in that I set yesterday. 1: finish, 2:win, 3: run under 245 for a course record. It's not everyday that I accomplish goals in running b/c I tend to set high goals, but I feel successful today, esp after dropping in a 7:01 mile at one point and several 620+ ad 630+ miles in the first 15 miles. Def left several minutes out on the course and am confident to race fully prepared in the Spring. Hopefully I can figure out this foot pain by the spring. I'm guessing it will get better as my feet get stronger.
I'm going to lay low the next couple weeks, not because I need to or want to, but I need to put a lot more focus on school. I need to score super high on my next mid term and final so I'll prob still run everyday, or most days, but school has to take more of a focus for the next 4 weeks for sure. Prob won't be updating the blog everyday, more like a couple times a week or so. I just feel like I need to catch up a lot in school.
Won't be racing again until spring. Not planning on racing a lot next year. prob a half, 5/10k and a full in the spring and fall. I race well off of specific cycles. Going to plan things around the marathon for sure as I want to do big things this next year. I'll have to sit down and plan out the cycles and see what will work best with school and the first clinical rotation.
6:17, 6:03, 6:06, 6:29, 6:25, 7:01, 6:36, 6:06, 5:55, 5:51, 6:18, 6:10, 6:07, 6:09 for the first 14. 1:22:01 (6:15 avg) at the half mark 1:15:27 (5:42 avg) last 13.22
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