Had a great morning with the kids. Had some Santa tragedy earlier in the week when Emma found her Santa gift but I think I was able to come up with a good enough story to convince her why it was at our house already. My ex made me a marathon scrapbook including all of my race reports from the blog. She did a great job and I really appreciated all of the hard work that she put into it. A few weeks ago while I was debating what to do while my kids were with their mom during Christmas I had the crazy idea of running a marathon. I would have a few hours which would give me enough time to run it and recover before they got home. I did have other options but, selfishly, this is something that I wanted to do. So, I bundled up and headed out the door not knowing if I would be able to finish it. I was under trained, ran 17 miles 5 days ago and did not carbo load. I knew the only way I would actually do it is if I ran an out and back course giving me no choice but to finish even if I got too tired. Started heading North and was going to keep going until I hit 13.1 miles then turn around and come home. I figured that 8:00/mile would be about the right pace. Hit the first 6 miles a little too fast and tried to tell myself to slow down. Didn't do any good as my pace only dropped a few seconds per mile. I felt good and figured that I would just keep plugging along. Miles 12 and 13 were uphill and I wasn't expecting it. Of course, I wasn't complaining when I turned around and had a good downhill. Felt totally fine until mile 20 when I could start to feel the miles in my legs. I forgot how much concentration it takes to hold the pace once you get past 20 miles. Just kept putting one foot in front of the other until I got home. I probably could have found something more productive to do with my time but I'm glad I did it. I finished in 3:24:25 which is faster than my first 2 marathons.
1-7:46
2-7:45
3-7:47
4-7:35
5-7:42
6-7:46
7-7:49
8-7:50
9-7:35
10-7:55 - Made a wrong turn and had to cut through a field to get back on the road.
11-7:53
12-8:11 - Big uphill to Cherry Hill
13-7:59 - Slight uphill
14-7:38 - Slight downhill
15-7:19 - Big downhill
16-7:42
17-7:56
18-7:40
19-7:42
20-7:50
21-7:54
22-8:10 - Lost focus
23-7:51
24-7:47
25-8:02
26-7:43
26.2-7:13/mile
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