So I'll always remember this race for the tragedy that occurred today. After I had finished and left, we were getting off the subway and both mine and my wife's cell phones started going nuts. The outpouring of concern was amazing.
Pre Race - got to the starting line and literally froze for 2 hours before it started. Had a good nights sleep and was feeling pretty decent. I really wanted to enjoy this marathon a lot more than the other three I've ran so I concentrated on taking in the sights and atmosphere. This was awesome and worth it from start to finish. Did I mention the the armed soldiers on the roof of the school and security guards with dogs sniffing everything in the Athlete's Village. I sat by two guys in the village one worked at Langley the other at the Pentagon and they were talking about how the race would be a probable target for terrorist attacks.....crazy.
1st 10K - 39:25 pretty happy, just ended up settling in after the 1st slower mile.
1/2 1:22:38 I was thinking this might be a bit fast but really was stuck on 6:15-6:19 miles. Passed Joan Samuelson around mile 15 and the cheers for her were unreal. Welsley College you could hear from 1/2 mile away and the energy there was amazing.
30K 1:57:45 still cranking around 6:19 waiting for heartbreak hill.
Finish 2:48:23 heartbreak hill not too bad but miles 23-26 felt like a death march and I had to keep talking myself into running. I think I counted to 100 a few times. Last 5K was 21 minutes 6:46 pace which is where I dumped pretty much all my time.
Overall I was way happy, my goal coming in was sub 2:50 so PRing by around 8 minutes was awesome, place was 682 bib was 2152 so I moved up a little based on my seeding. I've been told 3rd Idahoan but not sure. Glad that my family was here and nothing happened to them. This could've of went so much worse. I don't know how many people were affected and it makes me so sad. I can't imagine having my family injured at a race. Trying to explain this to the kids has been a bit challenging. The little ones keep asking questions. I'm just so glad we are all safe and didn't have to witness any of it. I wanted to put in my 5K splits so I could have the for future reference 5K 19:52 (6:24) 10K 19:33 (6:18) 15K 19:27 (6:16) 20K 19:32 (6:18) 25K 19:21 (6:13) 30K 19:59 (6:26) Start of hills 35K 20:18 (6:33) Heartbreak hill end 40K 21:00 (6:46) Finish 9:21 (6:52) Took gels at 7 and 14. 5 hour energy at 17. Planned on gel at 21 but skipped, appears that could've been my down fall at the end. About a minute fall off from 1st 5K to last 5K I'll take that on this course. | 