It was a rainy day, nice and drizzly for the start. I felt pretty good at the top, although maybe a little more tired than I would have liked. Regardless, I went out nice and chill, and was just a little bit behind my planned pace at the half. I went through at about 1:16:40 or so, and I was hoping to go through at 1:16 low. Unfortunately there was a headwind from about miles 6 or 7 until about mile 21 or 22. I was able to be on pace to get my time of sub 2:30 through mile 20, but the headwind had taken its toll, and my legs were so beat and tired. It was such a strange sensation, never before have my legs felt so physically exhausted. At some point, I'm not sure where exactly, I just let out a physical groan, which was a first for me. Anyway, at that point it was all I could do to hang on to sub 7 pace, and then for the last couple miles, even that was a stretch. I was so glad to see Matt Thatcher, Scott Sandberg, Coach Fielding and a few others to keep me going all the way to the end.
I was glad to finish the race, and glad to get a new pr. It was hard though, not to have achieved my goal. I had worked so long to acheive that goal, basically about a year. After the race, I think my emotions were really close to the surface, and some tears were shed, I'm not sure why, it's really hard to explain the feeling I had afterwards. This has been really the first occasion that I haven't acheived a running goal that I've set.
I'm not sure when, but I'll be back to run a sub 2:30 marathon someday. A couple of things I want to do differently is get a pair of the nike 4%, and do some more strenth training, I think that might help my legs hang in there a little be longer.
Lots of learning, and an overall good experience, certianly a race for the books.
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