Finished my 2nd ever marathon this morning in des moines. Perfect weather, awesome course as usual. Here is the report.
Pre-race:
Woke up at 4:30 and had a white bread sandwich with a little turkey. Drove down to the race early to get a parking spot close to the start/finish. Given this is my hometown, I succeeded in finding a great, close parking spot. warm up was light, bout a half a mile of easy running. Wore a singlet, blue shorts and bright green arm warmers. Made exec. decision to go with my trainers, another oversight on my part was not getting a lighter pair of shoes beforehand and i realized i had done all my long runs in my trainers, so since I had foot issues on my first marathon, i figured i'd play it safe here, probably a smart choice. I Gu'd twice, at time instead of a mile, at 1:06:00 and 2:10:00.
Race:
Got started with a pack of people, perfect weather of 40 degrees and light winds. Was surprised to see the 3:05 pacer pass me in the first 2 miles, turns out he was booking it and probably dropped a lot of other runners. Here are my splits:
1-6:48.3
2- 6:47.6
3- 7:13.8 (all the hills are in the first half of this race)
4- 7:11.0
5- 6:52.1
6- 7:03.3 (41:56, 6:59 pace)
7- 6:58.3
8 &9- 13:37, missed the marker
10- 6:46.3 (1:09:18, 6:56 avg pace)
11- 6:44.4
12- 6:41.3
13- 7:01.8
HALF--1:30:31, 6:55 pace, felt amazing the first half, just easy running and the increase in pace was not accompanied with an increase in effort, I will make a side note to say that I had some GI issues early, just everything I took water, which i was at a lot of the early stations, good hydration was key this race, the water was upsetting my stomach, so at mile 7 i grabbed some gatorade and that actually seemed to calm down my stomach, something to note for future races
14- 6:47
15- 6:02.4-- Marker was off, likely a long one in the last 5 but i couldn't tell given my deterioration in pace
16- 6:40.7
17- 6:38.5-- on a beautiful, quiet trail here, was very positive and mentally and physically amazed at how good i felt
18- 7:15.8
19- 7:01.6
20- 6:59.9 (2:17:11, 6:52 avg pace, everything was going so well here...but this is where i crashed into the wall) it was intense how quickly things went from great both physically and mentally to bad. I ran the last 5-6 miles in a walk/run alternating, just couldn't avoid the stopping, just had to walk the aid stations and was in a lot of pain, miles 21-26 were this: 7:30, 7:40, 9:10, 9:03, 9:27, 8:52, 1:51 last .2, last 10k was 53:36, 10 min slower than my opening 10k, very, very disappointed in this outcome for the last 10k as i was feeling so good and was on pace to break 3 with ease, never underestimate the marathon
Final time: 3:10:47, 7:17 avg pace, not what I wanted, but a 15 minute PR given the issues in my first ever marathon, which was actually a more spectacular collapse than this one.
Post race-- pretty painful for a few days, but I am recovering faster than the first time, better nutrition, in better shape, overall more prepared this time, I need to learn how to run the last 10k of a marathon, I attribute this marathon collapse to my lack of long runs, i had a 16, a few 12-15s, but only one 18.5, just no time with work to get in longer, but that is when things started to go south, next time I will get at least 2 20s in. very key. Regardless, I am very proud to have finished #2 and i still set a PR for the marathon and probably for the 20 mile as well as I was very much intact at that point, may try to turn around and get another marathon in in a few weeks to see if i can capitalize on my "long run" of 26 being completed. really want to get this BQ past me.
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