Great day. My first marathon was a success, and I beat my original goal of 3:30 by 4 minutes.
Night before – Danielle and I met April, April’s sister, and her friend for a carb-loading dinner. It was awesome to meet April and pick her brain a little. Mr. and Mrs. Flatlander also stopped by for awhile; it was great to finally meet Mark in person as well and talk a little running. Hopefully I’ll be seeing more of these fellow FRBers in the future.
Race day – Weather predictions were all doom and gloom the night before, but the thunder and lightning stayed away on race day. It rained off and on the entire race, soaking us to the bone, but at least we had a race. The bad part was the unseasonable warmth. The temps were in the mid-60s the whole time, with about 90% humidity. I decided I better start slower; I even told Mark last night I would run 7:40s and 7:50s in the first half because of the heat. I guess I lied. Miraculously, we bumped into April before the race among the 20,000 participants and made our way to the starting line. The mile splits below are from Garmin.
Miles 1-5: 8:02, 7:34, 7:36, 7:42, 7:42. The gun went off and April and I started together. I ran with her for about 3 steps and she was gone, picking her way through the crowd. The first mile was really clogged up. I noticed about an 8:30 pace about halfway into that first mile, but didn’t panic, and used it as a nice warmup. Obviously it opened up a bit after that because I was in the 7:30s pretty quick. 5K was 24:04. I focused on shortening my stride to keep the pace slower but I felt really great.
Miles 6-10: 7:33, 7:30, 7:39, 7:37, 7:36. Whoops. I started running by feel. It felt so very easy, so I threw the conservative plan out the window and listened to my body. That probably would’ve worked if it was 20 degrees cooler, but not today. 10K was 47:55. I saw my dad around mile 8, which was awesome. The crowd support was unreal – people lining the streets in the rain all 26 miles. Here's a picture my dad took about 8 miles in:
Miles 11-15: 7:28, 7:35, 7:35, 7:38, 7:40. Still feeling ridiculously great. My plan was to hang around 3:20 pace just in case, and I was still right on it. In mile 13, I ran right by my childhood best friend’s house and saw his mom out there – pretty cool. I went through the half in 1:40:22 (nearly a PR) but was still breathing really easy and didn’t feel a big toll on my legs yet.
Miles 16-20: 7:37, 7:36, 7:50, 7:35, 7:49. Ok, doubts started to creep in mile 18. 30K was still a great split, 2:22:51 (7:40 average so far). I slowed down as the legs were starting to burn a bit in 18. Then I inexplicably sped up in mile 19, feeling strong again – maybe I shouldn’t have done that. By mile 20, I was giving more effort but the pace was starting to bleed out for good.
Miles 21-26.2: 7:55, 8:04, 8:19, 8:39, 8:58, 8:43, 2:27 (0.33 miles on garmin). Cue death march. Looking at the splits now, I thought it would be worse (wasn’t looking at my watch much at this point, but every time I did I thought I saw 9-something). I saw my dad, brother and his fiancée at mile 23 (brother lives in an apartment right on the course). I faked a smile for them, and then went back to pathetically staring at the cement 3 feet in front of me. My lovely wife had finished her half marathon and was there cheering for me with about a tenth of a mile to go! I saw the clock, and put on a furious sprint (8:00 pace was a sprint) and officially beat 3:26 by a second to get a 3:25:59! I think the bonk should be mostly attributed to going too fast in the early miles on a hot, muggy day. Still, it wasn’t an aerobic wall – I actually caught my breath a little but just could not will myself to pick up the pace. So, I gotta think part of it was also mental, but maybe part fueling? I had a total of 5 gu and took Gatorade pretty much every stop. Weird to think that wasn’t enough, but my stomach felt fine and I could probably tolerate more; I really think I was burning fats at the end, but I’m not experienced enough to know for sure. A real learning experience, but I’m still really, really happy with the time given the conditions. Here's the smile I faked at mile 23 - looks like I am barely moving!
After the race I very slowly went to meet Danielle. It was then that I got light-headed and she told me to sit down. I obeyed, and started to feel a bit better. When April and company found us (April looked much more lively than me, after her awesome PR), I managed to get up and sorta tried to pretend I wasn’t as exhausted as I was, but I still looked terrible I bet. It took me awhile but I am feeling better now.
Some stats from runpix – I finished top 6% overall, top 8% of men and top 12% of my age group. That also feels pretty good, because it lets me know everyone struggled as well. First half was 1:40:22 (7:39 pace), second half was 1:45:37 (8:03 pace). My first 20 miles was 2:32:54 (7:39 pace). Last 10K was 53:05 (8:32 pace). So there it is.
Anyway, definitely a successful day. I would love to make a run at BQ at this race in 1 year, so back to training. Danielle and I are hoping to run Oklahoma City again in 3 months if work allows. Not sure yet whether I want to do another full already, or maybe just the half. But Boston is officially on the brain now! | 
