I only run on days that end in a "y."

It was warm - 64 degrees at the start, humidity at 75-80% - and a hilly, tough course to boot.  I had pretty much told myself I would run 13 as a training run and drive up to Ft. Worth next Sunday for a chance at better conditions and a better course.  Still, I prepared for running the full just in case the conditions were not too bad.  I did the Aussie carb load plan on Saturday and had packed enough blocks and gu's with me Sunday morning.  I loaded up with electrolytes all day Saturday and then Sunday morning.

A runner from our group had offered to give a couple of us a ride to the start.  While driving to his house and about a mile away I saw a runner and thought "who the heck is that out here at this time?" It was another runner from our group who was going to pace a friend.  She was running to the same place I was driving.  I stopped and picked her up and on the short drive she told me to just run with no pressure as I had a back up plan.  Run to 13 or 14 and if I felt like a million bucks to keep going.  It was sage advice.

The three of us lined up in front of the 3:20 group.  We knew that because of the conditions we would need to run the first half - which is also the hilliest - conservatively to save up energy and run a negative split on the second half.  We stayed just in front of the 3:20 group until mile 12 or so and started pulling away a bit.  At 13 I still had not made up my mind but I was feeling strong.  At mile 14  I picked up the pace and the others started to fade a bit.  I ran the rest of the way alone. I pretty much gave up on hitting the lap button on my watch at each mile.  I just my ran what I felt was the right pace.  I looked down occasionally but was not obsessive about it.  I knew I was well ahead of the 3:20 group so I was confident that I would BQ running my pace.

From mile 14 on I was in a zone.  I really can't explain it.  Everything just flowed.  In my past marathons at mile 18 I would say something like "oh no, 8 more to go" and today I was thinking - "8 to go, bring it on!"  Instead of thinking "gosh, still 30 something minutes to go"  I was thinking, "only 4 miles to go!" 

I was passing a lot of runners which was a huge rush.  I think the weather bothered many.  People were dropping like flies.  I never let the weather even enter my mind.  I never felt hot and thought the wind felt great because it cooled me down a bit.  The clouds kept the sun away and that was huge.  I am not sure what would be better - 55 degrees, low humidity, but the sun beating down on you for 3 hours or a bit warmer and humid but no sun.  I am sure it slowed me down a bit but I didn't think about it.

Anyway, the miles just melted away. There were runners from our group all along the route.  With 10k to go 2 of them saw me and ran with me for a while - shouting and encouraging me on.  At mile 23 another runner was there with her dog.  She ran next to me for a short while shouting and cheering me.  At mile 24 our group's coach was out there on his bicycle.  He rode next to me shouting at me for about a 1/2 mile and at 25 a large support group from our club was out shouting and cheering.  The whole run was a surreal and awesome experience.  Yes, I could have gone up to Ft. Worth and probably ran 4-5 minutes faster, but there is no way the experience would have even come close to running my home town marathon with all of the support here, and BQ'ing as well!

Oh, I was about 5 feet from the finish when my legs started to buckle. Come on!  5 feet away!  I always push that last 200m too hard.  I had to walk over the finish line.  As I did I walked to the side to put my hand on the fence.  So my left leg with my timing chip went to the side of the timing mat.  I did not even think about it.  A volunteer wrote my bid number down and my time because he thought it did not register.  He was right.  Now I get the fun of sorting all of that out!  Note to self - make sure your timing chip crosses the mat!

Notes to myself - what I learned:  If you have a big base 12-15 weeks is all you need to train for a marathon. Speed work once a week made a huge difference for me. Strength training at least once a week worked wonders for me, too - it kept me injury free, I believe, and helped me in my speed work sessions.  Nutrition is critical - even during daily training.  I always felt like I had lots of energy for my workouts and recovered quickly.  Doing MGP on long runs helped quite a bit as well.