The first thing that comes to my mind as I write about my race today is about stepping stones, and to put it in just a few words, that is how I feel about today's performance. I set a new pr in the marathon of almost 3 minutes (compared to my old pr which I set at St. George 2007 it is really more than a 3 minute improvement) and I ran a virtual negative split (barely slower on the second half, but based on terrain, the quality was much better). I also came the closest to not blowing up than I have done in any previous marathon (although there was a minor blow-up the last 2-3 miles), and I ran the fastest second half of anyone in the race. However, that is not good enough. I still finished out of the money (by only 47 seconds to a guy that was almost 5 minutes up on me at the half). I wasn't able to maintain a 5:50 pace the last few miles in order to get me in the money and under 2:30:00 (instead finishing with a 6:08 and a 6:29). And finally, I am still comparitively slower in the marathon than I am in other distances. So, like I already said, stepping stones. I know that I am not quite where I want to be, but I feel like I am a lot closer than I was even just a couple of months ago, so I am pleased with the progress. Anyhow, on to the race. The plan for the race was to go out with Sasha, and to run a 5:50 effort through the first 16 miles or so. There was a group of 4 guys that took off after a mile and left us behind, so Sasha, me and Steve Ashbaker were all running together. We were basing 5:50 effort off of our heart rate, so I was paying more attention to that than I was paying attention to my splits, which is just as well. I think that when I can zone out and forget to look for mile markers and check my splits that I can actually relax more and I run better. This is more or less what happened during the first half of the race. At 5 miles we were at 29:10, and we went through 10 miles in 57:00. We hit the half in 1:15:03. My heart rate varied from about 160-171 during most of these miles, with an average of about 166. My heart rate started to climb a bit after about 11 miles, and from 11-16 it was anywhere from 168-173. I was probably starting to push the pace a little more because I was getting anxious to pick up the pace and begin the chase. Sasha and I lost Steve around 11 or 12 miles, and At 16 miles I picked up the pace and dropped Sasha. I owe a lot to Sasha in this race, because he helped pace me during the early miles, and helped me to not get too excited and take off too soon in chase of the leaders. I hope that I was able to make those early miles easier for him as well, as he was running his first marathon in his five fingers. Anyhow, After I dropped Sasha, I picked up the pace a lot and my HR climbed into the high 170's. I then decided that the pace was too aggressive and I backed off just a little until I hit the 20 mile mark. Mile splits from 16-20 were 5:30, 5:42, 5:42, 5:40. At mile 20 I realized that I really needed to work if I wanted to catch 3rd place and finish in the money, so even though I didn't feel like I could maintain the pace for 6 miles, I picked up the pace again and got my HR in the 177-178 range. I made it from 20-22 in 11:11 (5:35.5 average) and maintained pace pretty well for another mile. However around 23 I really started to hurt. I could see 4th place in the distance in front of me, and I could visibly tell that I was gaining on him, but I felt like garbage. I still made it from 22-24 in decent time, running 11:39 for the 2 miles (5:49.5 average) but I think that the second of the 2 miles was just barely under 6:00, while the first was close to 5:40. From 24 to the finish things started to unravel. I ran my next mile in 6:08, and ran the final mile in 6:29. I was still gaining on 4th place the entire time, despite starting to crash, but I was just not gaining fast enough and I was running out of room. I was never able to really get into striking distance of the 4th place guy, and he ended up passing the 3rd place runner right before the finish to get himself into the money. I finished 47 seconds back. So, I am happy with how I ran, and I am mostly happy with how I finished the race, and to tell the truth I really do not care that I finished out of the money. I was not planning on getting any money before the race started anyhow, so I wasn't dissapointed that I finished where I was supposed to finish. As I said before and I will say it again, stepping stones. I think that the key is to never be content so that complacency never becomes a problem, that way I can someday reach my potential.
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