Redemption! After a lousy Portland Marathon race where the wall made sure I didn't BQ, I got my second chance this morning in Seattle. Couldn't have asked for nicer weather....start temps were around 39, partly cloudy with some areas of sun, and no rain or snow. Aside from not getting out the door quite on time, sitting in traffic and searching for a place to park for more time than I'd like, the morning prelims went well. Had some qualms about how much clothing to wear and settled on a light tech longsleeve shirt and my CW-X tights, which turned out to be a perfect decision. Found my way relatively near the start of the pack. Looked around for Aaron who also ran Seattle today, but wasn't able to pick him out of the crowd from his blog photo. My plan was to run around a 7:10-7:15 pace on the flats, same effort on the downhills, and whatever didn't kill me on the uphills, which based on my previous day's scouting report were fairly numerous in the 2nd half. In my back pocket, I knew that a 7:27 average would carry the day. At 8:15, we were off. Slight uphill start and I kept reminding myself to go easy early and not to burn myself out. First mile wasn't quite as easy as I'd intended, but I managed to keep it at around my goal pace effort. Next couple of miles I made sure I stayed off the accelerator and settled into a groove. Headed down onto the I-90 floating bridge for the out and back trip across to Mercer Island. A small headwind hit for the outbound trip and I wasn't able to tuck behind anyone, so I was fighting a small headwind from 4.5 to 6mi. Wasn't feeling so hot at this point, and the uphill turnaround didn't help, but I kept pace and headed back across the bridge for miles 7 and 8. I could definitely feel the concrete and knew my legs wouldn't feel quite as peppy after this run, but what the heck. The next section was a 9 mile out and back stretch along Lake Washington down to Seward Park. Plenty of spectators here helped keep things light and easy, and I was able to keep my pace in my goal range pretty easy. Overall effort felt okay, but my left leg started feeling tight (ITB & Hamstring). Figured I'd stick with the plan and if it got worse deal with it then, but for now, it was managable. Ran for a stretch with a girl who was on her first marathon and was in need of a distracting chat. She revealed later that she was aiming for a 3:30, at which point I told her what our pace was, which got quite a reaction. Anyway, we chatted for a while and once we hit the park, she decided to slow a bit so I was running alone again. Hit the 13.1 mark in around 1:35, which I felt was good. On pace for a 3:10, but I knew the main hills were yet to come. Put it on cruise control for the next several miles of the "back" portion until we crossed under the I-90 bridge and headed up the northern part of the route. At mile 18, I was really starting to get nervous. I'd been consistently getting gatorade at every aid station, and had gotten the "sloshy stomach" feeling a couple of times, so I knew water intake was good, but I was fearing "The Wall" was nearing based on my Portland experience. At this point, my muscles were starting to hurt, but energy-wise I felt really good. Surprisingly good. The "rolling hills" portion began, and somewhere around here is where I caught up with Aaron. He'd stuck with his plan too, and was looking strong somewhere around mile 19 (wish I'd run that well *my* first marathon!!!). We ran together for a bit, but once the 20 mile mark hit, I decided to try to open it up a bit, since I felt so (relatively) well. Shortly after 20, the steepest hill hit....not too long, but most everyone was either reduced to walking or a shuffle. I managed to keep moving at faster than a walk, but not by much. After cresting the really steep part, the rest didn't seem nearly as bad as I'd feared. My splits for the next couple of miles were over 8 minute miles, but most of this was uphill, and I'd planned for these to take some of my time away, so I wasn't too concerned. I was getting more and more surprised at my energy level, and decided to try to stick as close to the 7:10-7:15 range as I could. I still had some fear of the wall, but my energy level stayed up and I felt more and more like I might make it to the end running strong. I really started picking off other runners at this point, which also helped tremendously. The last few miles were something of a blur. I had the energy to go, but the legs were beginning to scream at this point. At the 2 miles left point, I decided to stop fearing the wall and go. I felt like I was flying by others at this point, but also felt like I was really working. We had some downhills here that helped, but some were so steep they probably did more harm than good. Coming into the last 1/2 mile, which was uphill into the stadium at the square, I poured on what I had left. I went into all-out sprint mode with .2 left, which actually resembled my all-out sprint. I saw 3:11:49 on the clock in the distance and gave it everything I had left to get in under 3:12.....didn't find out my real time until I got home and checked online, but I knew I'd managed to nail a BQ time, on a hilly course, a mere 7 weeks after Portland. This was the first marathon I'd run start to finish (no forced walk breaks), no wall, and with some gas in the tank (even if the legs weren't working so hot towards the end). All in all, I can honestly say I'm completely satisfied with how things went today....couldn't have asked for a better race!
Splits:
7:27
6:21 (no marker, inaccurate)
7:50 (no marker, inaccurate)
7:24
7:01
7:31
6:56
7:29
7:11
7:09
7:31
7:17
7:12
7:19
7:16
7:23
7:14
7:13
7:17
8:04
8:13
7:14
7:30
7:23
7:08
7:12
1:13
1st half- 1:34:52 2nd half - 1:37:05
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