Really liked this race and the convenience of getting there. Stayed the night in a hotel with the family and our new puppy, Bella. The last several weeks have been a struggle in terms of focus, but I felt strong. My race time is a disappointment. However, I found the course to be very challenging as the first half has a lot of hills. Nothing steep, but constant. I didn't run a smart pace and blew all my energy on those hills. Struggled to the finish during the last 10K and had several older gents and ladies passing me up at that point. Very humbling!! At one point was going to quit, but kept thinking of my friend Jeff on this blog and him pushing through to finish a difficult race recently. Just like him, I didn't want my kids to see me quitting. Some items I need work on to make my marathon races a bit more easy next time:
1) Bodyweight has gotten too high. Ive gotten stronger and am injury free thanks to weight training, but I've let my weight slip higher and need to lose about 25 lbs.
2) Need more purpose in some of my daily running. I like those lazy mindless runs once and a while, but they've become the norm with me and I need a bit more planning.
3) Not sure how this got into my head, but I haven't been doing enough long endurance running and my consistency has stunk. I can string together a couple solid weeks, but then fade.
Plan to run the same race schedule next year, but with better results.
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