26.39 miles - 3:16:35 A 21 second PR..... woo hoo stop the presses. I'm happy that I came across the finish line feeling better than my first marathon, but not particularly pleased with the time. My goal for this marathon was a 3:10 BQ. I figured with my prior & first marathon ending up in a total collapse for the last 10k, I would try and stick to a 7:15 pace and push if I had anything left near the end. I would also be running with Jim, a co-worker and the head of our IT department. At 54 yrs old, Jim has run twenty five marathons with a personal best of 2:37 in his twenties. Lately Jim has been running right around a 3:15 or so and I figured his similar pace and experience could only help. Pre-race Jim and I discussed running together until one of us inevitably sped up or fell off. Of course, being the newbie, I started talking to some guys around mile (8) who had intentions of running 3:10 and by mile (9) I was running a 7:07 pace and had left Jim. The next couple of miles stayed under my MP and I started to feel crappy at mile (16). What really sucks is not being able to pull it together and get back to your goal pace. At mile (18) I was in damage control mode and couldn't believe that I was blowing up with 8+ miles to go. Right around mile (23) the 3:15 pacer blew by me with some words of encouragement. At this point I was feeling weird twinges in my left hamstring and thought "that's strange" and kept running..... 10 seconds later I had a deep muscle cramping/charlie horse that made me stop mid stride. I immediately and instinctively grabbed the muscle and dug my fingers deeply into the hamstring. It released after a skip/shuffle 15 seconds later. At mile (24) and feeling like a total bag of crap, Jim my co-worker pulled up on my shoulder. He told me the last 4 miles for him had been a serious struggle. We ran together for the next 1.5 miles cursing the day when all of a sudden my right hamstring locked up...... WTF! I said out loud and Jim replied "I gotta go". I watched him gain about thirty yards on me as I repeated the process of bear clawing my other hamstring. Luckily it released and I started to reel Jim back in. This time I pulled up on his shoulder and as I did, he said "Aww your the man!" This little bit of encouragement got me going and I picked it up and separated from Jim. With 26 miles on my tired legs, I pushed around the final turn and saw the clock at the finish..... It was going to be a squeeker! I summoned all I had for the final push and came in 21 seconds faster than my previous & first marathon. Obviously the good news is the PR. No matter how small it was in conjunction with the fact that I came across the line not feeling like I was going to die. I'm bummed that I didn't BQ, but that will happen another day..... I'm sure of it! | 1 | 7:08.1 | 1.00 | 7:08 | | 2 | 7:15.1 | 1.00 | 7:15 | | 3 | 7:24.7 | 1.00 | 7:25 | | 4 | 7:11.9 | 1.00 | 7:12 | | 5 | 7:15.9 | 1.00 | 7:16 | | 6 | 7:16.8 | 1.00 | 7:17 | | 7 | 7:15.2 | 1.00 | 7:15 | | 8 | 7:11.8 | 1.00 | 7:12 | | 9 | 7:07.2 | 1.00 | 7:07 | | 10 | 7:07.0 | 1.00 | 7:07 | | 11 | 7:05.1 | 1.00 | 7:05 | | 12 | 7:07.7 | 1.00 | 7:08 | | 13 | 7:14.9 | 1.00 | 7:15 | | 14 | 7:10.2 | 1.00 | 7:10 | | 15 | 7:15.6 | 1.00 | 7:16 | | 16 | 7:21.4 | 1.00 | 7:21 | | 17 | 7:19.6 | 1.00 | 7:20 | | 18 | 7:31.1 | 1.00 | 7:31 | | 19 | 7:29.9 | 1.00 | 7:30 | | 20 | 7:26.6 | 1.00 | 7:27 | | 21 | 7:45.8 | 1.00 | 7:46 | | 22 | 8:05.1 | 1.00 | 8:05 | | 23 | 7:55.6 | 1.00 | 7:56 | | 24 | 8:02.0 | 1.00 | 8:02 | | 25 | 8:17.5 | 1.00 | 8:17 | | 26 | 8:25.8 | 1.00 | 8:26 | | 27 | 2:47.3 | 0.39 | 7:04 |
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