I don't know how to start this report, so i'll just get into the details.
Weather - Start - 44F. Finish 54F, S 12 mph.
Pre race - Mexican for dinner. Early to the start line to meet Daniel, the only other blogger from Oklahoma. I think that's 6 bloggers I've met now. Daniel is a great guy, really friendly, and ran a big PR today so go congratulate him! We got up a few rows back from the starting line and were off right on time.
The course - Basically a 2-loop course. The first with the half-marathoners, to the south of downtown, and the second loop is to the north and east - just the marathoners obviously. Definitely the hilliest course I've run, hillier than OKC. So maybe not the best for a PR, as I had been warned, but not too unreasonable either.
Miles 1-5 - 6:46, 6:50, 6:43, 6:45, 6:51. Daniel and I ran the first 2 miles together; a little faster that I was going to run, but basically on pace for 3 hours so no harm done. Lots of ups and downs through this first 5 miles. Everything was feeling good, way better than I was anticipating. Lots of holding myself back.
Miles 6-10 - 6:42, 6:43, 6:48, 6:51, 6:54. Ok, still feeling easy. The course flattens out here as it starts to go along the river. Split the 10k in 42:05, pretty reasonable.
Miles 11-15 - 6:41, 6:46, 6:46, 6:47, 6:54. More flats from 11-13, nice and comfy. Hit the half in 1:29:05, feeling really good. I knew the second half was probably net uphill, so I was happy to have banked a minute. After 13.5 or so, the course turns through downtown and we got some nice uphills. I played it conservative on the ups, and stepped it out on the downs, which is what I usually do.
Miles 16-20 - 6:46, 6:52, 6:45, 7:15, 6:48. I had to just kind of take what the hills gave me. Mile 19 was one I had circled in my mind. It goes due south, into the teeth of the wind, and climbs the entire time - just one long, stupid, hill. I had been keeping track of where I stood against the 6:50 guy....pretty much 20-30 seconds ahead of him the whole time, but I gave it all back on 19. Ok, no problem, still ahead of the 6:52 (sub-3) guy by about 40 seconds.
Miles 21-26.3 - 6:45, 6:52, 7:04, 7:05, 7:11, 7:08, 1:50 for 0.3 (6:08 pace). So you can see where I lost it, right after 22. The hills and the wind. Ok, and my legs too. At mile 20, I saw that I needed about a 43:10 on the last 10k. That is sub-7 pace. Why did it have to be so close? I wanted to either be way behind or way ahead of sub-3, I did not want to have to fight for it. But fight I did. At mile 23, I saw I had about 22:30 left. So still hanging on, and on pace. But now the uphills were bringing me to a halt. Mercifully the last few miles are net downhill, but everytime it went back uphill it felt like I was barely moving. I felt my world slowing down - I was bonking, but still close. My form was terrible and I was clomping loudly but still running as hard as possible. Even so, I was mowing people down left and right. I did not get passed by anyone, I don't think. As I passed the mile 26 sign, the clock there said 2:58:50 or so. Couldn't do the math. Turned the corner and made a furious sprint. I literally saw the finish line clock change from 2:59:59 to 3:00:00 and knew I had probably just missed it, based on where I was. Crossed the line and yeah, I was about 10 sec slow by my watch. 3:00:08 officially. 6:51 AP on my watch, enough for sub-3, but oh, those pesky tangents, got me an extra tenth of a mile.
I don't know how to feel. I mean my training was terrible. It was the hardest course I've run. But I still got a 1-minute PR. After I crossed the finish line it was a mix of sadness, anger, happiness, disappointment, relief, and frusturation. I can't even pick one. Now that it's been a few hours, I'm just kinda "meh." And if I had run 2:59:59, a completely arbitrary number as far as my body knows, I would probably be a lot happier. Just to rub it in a little, I actually arrived back at home at 2:59pm, seriously. But given all the circumstances, I will certainly take it. It sucks that I will be a 3-hour marathoner for at least another 5 months, but just 1 month ago I could barely run an 8-minute pace so I guess I'm just glad I got back to normal.
Gonna take at least a week off and start ramping up (slowly) for Boston. I need a gameplan. I've kinda stalled out on my marathon progress at a most unfortunate place!
Thanks for reading everyone! | 
