My legs are trashed. I think running on all the concrete in my lightest pair of flats is going to make for a long recovery - my first 2 marathons were in trainers. But, who cares?
Now the obligatory post-marathon analysis and thoughts, before I have to start looking forward again.
Here are the 5K splits:
Ok, I thought my watch was acting funky as we were going through downtown at the end. This tells me that the last mile could not have been as slow as Garmin thought, as I actually maintained basically the same pace for the final 2.195K (7:07/mile if you do the math). Same effort given the headwind, I think. Garmin just shortchanged me there at the end as we went through the tall buildings. Makes sense because I was carrying an extra tenth of a mile on my watch (compared to the mile markers) and then somehow lost it in the last mile. So, the good news is I don't think I ever hit any wall. That is good to know.
Before I figured that out just now, I was thinking there was nothing I could have done to get sub-3, since I thought I was in the process of bonking at the end (stupid Garmin). Now I wonder if maybe if I had stayed and drafted with the pace group, it would've been a different story. But in the end I don't care. Now that the monkey is off my back, I can go for broke trying to crack 3 hours next time.
This was the most fun part of the marathon:
I guess it is not the norm to run even-paced splits, although you would never know that with all the awesome runners that do it on FRB.
Looking ahead to the next marathon before I get depressed about this one being over, I am thinking about a few possibilites for this Spring, including Big D (Dallas in April - hot?), Oklahoma city in late April, Arbuckles to Ardmore (Oklahoma, April 1st), and Eisenhower (Kansas, mid-April) since we will probably live closest to those 4. Will probably decide a lot later. Gotta run another one before summer hits. Then, I will probably run a different Fall marathon (not Houston) to give me a nice full training period before Boston. Maybe Route 66 or White Rock...
Finally, here's the finish line video for a little entertainment (gun time 3:01:26). I was a little excited. |