the big day has finally arrived! less than 2 hours to go and I'm finishing up some more bagels and banana and H20.. This was my one shot at a marathon this year. It was the culmination of months of training. Starting in the spring I made it a point to build a base like never before, with 50 mile weeks as a rule. I started building up from there in August, with a peak week just over 80 miles in October. My tune up races had gone well, especially my 10 miler in September which was a surprise time. When I plugged in that time into the McMillan predictor, it had my marathon time at a 2:45. So after that day I had that time in mind and I ran my paces based off of that. My plan was to print the 2:50 pace band and have that as a guide. I wanted to follow that for the first half and then do what I could to speed up in the second half.
Fast forward to race day…
I remembered to print my pace band this year. Last year I had to do it right before bed, by hand...
My fueling went well at the hotel. I didn't oversleep either of my alarms like last year. It was also nice to have everything set out for each feeding time. It all went down well and I didn't feel too yucky afterwards. However, for next time I need to have more shake or smoothie to take the place of some of the bagels..
The weather was perfect - low 40's at race time and very light winds, maybe 1-2 mph.
I got to the race with just enough time to do a little warm-up and hit the potty a couple of times. The lines actually weren’t that bad. It only took a couple minutes to get through that line. WOW – that was nice.
Then I lined up a couple of rows back from the front and we took off. The first mile around the fort's parade grounds was a little slow but after that we started making my 2:50 pace band useless. Basically I ran with the lead group and did all I could not to lose them. The miles clicked by and I really had no idea what pace we were running. It didn't really feel that hard. It was like we were just out for a group run. The guys were talking about going for 2:45-2:50, so I was pretty happy with that, cause that was my plan too. One guy took a 20 meter lead and we weren't sure if he was in the half or the full, but when the half split off, he went that way (there were no other half runners near him and he won easily with a 1:22:xx). Another of the lead group had taken off to split the gap but once the half runner split off, we caught up to the other guy and were a group of 4 by the 10 mile mark.
From there we chugged along and hit the 1/2 mat at 1:22:32 which was a lot faster than I had planned. Right after that Gino and I must have taken down the pace by 5-10 seconds a mile because soon after that I couldn't hear the footsteps of the other two guys. Either that or those guys slowed down, I'm not sure which happened. Anyway, I actually led a mile or two and it was pretty cool. I've never led a race before. It was cool especially that far into the race. But he didn't want me to get away and eventually caught me up. We ran right next to each other for another several miles. At 20 I started to feel like I really wanted the race to be over. It was getting hard. I wasn’t hitting the wall but I was feeling the affect of the pace that I really wasn’t prepared for. :)
I hung on to Gino until the 22 mark where the route goes out of the park for a mile and a half. I just couldn't keep up his relentless pace anymore and he gapped me. I did my best to hang on and mentally not give up. I felt like I had second place wrapped up and I really just was trying to run as fast as I could to get the race over with. The course from 24-25.5 is on an old paved road that is busted up, pot holed and patched -- really hard to run on when you are dying a slow death at the end of a marathon.
I kept on truckin' running as hard as my sore legs and feet could go, holding out hope that Gino might cramp up or stumble or something. Finally I got back to the parade grounds and Chrys saw me and yelled for me. Just as I got onto the circle the cannon went off for Gino winning. But seeing the family picked up my spirit and I was able to hammer the pace a little bit and finish strong. 2:43:44 over a 10 minute PR over last year’s race.
Thoughts on the race –
#1 It was really fun running with the leading pack. I knew going into the race that Gino was the one to beat. I took my best shot at him. I came up a little short but I ran way over my head and hung in there. It was like running one of those races you see on TV, albeit much slower that the elites do it. ?
#2 Running fast with other runners is a whole lot easier than by yourself. I knew I was going out faster than planned and I went with it. I made the decision early in the race that I didn’t want to lose the lead group. That was the right decision.
#3 - I love my magic shoes.
Bonus -- Sawyer ran in the Jr. marathon and did awesome! Next year Quincy will be old enough to do it. I'll try to figure out how to post a couple pics later today... 
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