The wind and the rain turned out to be the story of the day. I went into this race figuring I would be very happy with a 3:15 finish after tearing my hamstring badley nearly 9 weeks ago. I wasn't sure I would make the start line until the last couple of weeks. In the past 9 weeks I only got in 2 good weeks running in the 40s mileage wise and 1 week in the 20s. I did do a ton of biking though while I couldn't run. I only did any MP miles the last week and a half before marathon week.
The race started very dark in the rain with a driving headwind that never quit. I enjoyed the rain and temperature but definatly could have done without the headwind. I decided I was going to just start out at a pace that would be good enough for 3:15 and after the halfway point see how I felt and go from there. The pace felt very easy to me the first 10 or 11 miles and it was tempting to pick up the pace but I resisted. In an MP run one week before the race, my hamstring tightened right up to the point I had to quit running and I didn't want to risk that happening today. As I got close to the half I started feeling the effects of my low mileage a bit and the pace quit feeling so easy. I crossed the half in 1:37:06. Pretty much on target.
Around miles 14 and 15 my hammy started to tighten slightly, but worse than that was my quads starting to get sore. My hamstring never got any worse but my quads seemed to get worse with each mile. With about 4 miles to go my calves joined the party and started to compete with my quads to see who could cause me the most discomfort. I still felt like I had plenty of energy but my legs sure were hurting. I just tried to maintain the pace the best I could for those last miles.
Here are my splits :
1- 7:09
2- 7:18
3- 7:01
4- 7:06
5- 7:10
6- 6:54
7- 6:53
8- 8:09
9- 7:55
10- 7:44
11- 8:01
12- 7:38
13- 7:13
14- 7:26
15- 7:02
16- 7:03
17- 7:25
18- 7:32
19- 8:05
20- 7:17
21- 6:58
22- 7:34
23- 7:26
24- 7:14
25- 7:32
26- 7:28
26.2-6:32 pace
With my lack of mileage the past few weeks I was expecting sore leg muscles I just didn't expect it to start so early in the race. I was training toward a sub 3 before my injury but all in all I was quite happy with 3:14 considering all the conditions. It was an 11 minute PR for me so I guess I can't complain. | 