Blah!!!
This was my second best marathon, but not what I was hoping for. The problem is I had high hopes but poor training. I have seen on somebody's fast running blog, something along the lines of "piss poor practice produces piss poor performance." Unfortunatley I have attempted several times to prove this quote wrong, I haven't had much success in doing so. I have several excuses for why my training was bad, knee injuries, broken rips, sore calf. But laziness is probably the key to why I am always getting disappointed.
This was my first time running this race. I checked the elevation map many times and thought I knew where all the hills were. But after about mile 6 it seemed like the course was hill after hill after hill. It seems like the course is deceptively hilly most of the way. But again, my training wasn't any where near what it could have been if I had been a little smarter in Februaury (overuse injury) and march (broken ribs from playing basketball).
My plan was to come in under 3 hours. I was right on pace until mile 15. I think the heat and hills finally beat me and I thought about flagging my wife down and having her pick me up. But I pushed throught the last 11 miles. It sucked at the time, but I am glad I kept going.
After the race I threw up in the shower, then threw up again while watching my 2 kids do the kids k. This was the first time I have ever thrown up from running, or any exercise ever. I felt horrible both physically and mentally for several hours. When I finished the marathon, I forgot to stop my watch for about 10 seconds. My watch read 3:09:00, but I wanted to check the official time. I saw that I took 5th in my age division. I noticed that this years times were much slower than last years (overall winner was about 5 minutes slower, and my age division winner was about 21 minutes slower. Different runners, but still) I don't know if it was too hot today, a weaker field, or a combination of sevearl things. Maybe it was just the field. I noticed I placed after the awards ceremony. I went and asked if I would be allowed to still get the award, they said yes. This was a big mental pick me up. My time stayed the same, but I felt like I accomplished something more than just finishing another Marathon.
I start Podiatry school in about 45 days, so this may have been my last marathon for a long time. I am hoping to still train and hope I can find some races here and there, but I am lazy now when I just had regular school and/or a regular job, so who knows how well training will go while taking 20+ credits? Hopefully I surprise myself.
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