2016 Phoenix Marathon
Blake and I ran the Phoenix Marathon today. It was warm and sunny but no significant wind. The plan was to try and pace Blake to a 3:05 marathon since his BQ time is 3:10. The actual 3:05 pacer was crazy faster than he should have been right from the start so we did our own thing and ran the first half in 1:32:01 exactly were we wanted to be at that point. With the warm weather I was dumping water on my head at every aid station starting at mile 7 but it still caught up with us eventually. During the 18th mile Blake dropped of the pace so I slowed a bit hoping he would come back to me. At mile 20 I was at 2:22:25 which still had us on pace to get a fast enough time to get him into Boston but he was no longer near me. At that point I was starting to feel it a bit and we already had decided that if he didn't get a good BQ time we would run Revel Mt. Charelston on May 7th to try again, so I decided to mail it in and cruise in to an easy BQ without spending myself too much. I only ran an 8:26 pace for the last 6.2 and finished in 3:14:38 for a BQ with 10+ minutes to spare. I turn 45 in May so I only needed a 3:25. I was tired at the end, but my legs on not sore like they usually are when I run a marathon all out, so with a week of cross training I should be ready to pick right back up on marathon training.
After Blake realized he wasn't going to make his BQ, he did the smart thing and walk/jogged the rest of the way in, so didn't finish until 3:34:??. Now we get to run another marathon! Hopefully he will get that BQ and we can enjoy Boston together next year. His wife says we are all going whether he qualifies or not. :) We'll see.
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