My wife, Isabel, and I had a wonderful weekend in Nashville, Tennessee, where I competed in the Country Music Marathon on a warm, humid Saturday in downtown Nashville. The expo and race were really well-organized, and given the over 31,000 runners competing in the Half and Full Marathon, I was pleasantly surprised at how non-disruptive this Rock-n-Roll Series event was with respect to my pre-race/race morning schedule. Nashville's hills, however, were very disruptive, both to my overall pacing and confidence during the latter half of the race... Starting out like my hair was on fire, I ran a 19:30 minute 5K, approximately 20 seconds/mile faster than my target race pace. Stubborn as a mule, I held this pace through the 6 Mile point, where I pulled up with a pretty bad side stitch, backing my pace down to around 7:15/mile. I was able to run through the stitch, however, and the pain subsided. By Mile 10, I was cruising at 6:30-6:40/mile on the rolling hills that dominated the first half of the race. I hit the 13.1 Mile mark at around 1:26:30 (a Half PR), and then realized I still had another 13.1 to run. Doh!!! But I decided to just go for it. Why couldn't I match my Little Rock Marathon effort and go sub-2:55? Well, to start with, I was unfamiliar with the course, and I had no idea that two steady, 1-mile climbs awaited me at Miles 17 and 19, respectively. I'm not sure if being more familiar would have made it any better, though. I didn't have much spring in my legs, and after starting so fast, I was in no position to tame the hills. Rather, they humbled me. The end result was 3:05:53 (7:05/pace) on a brutal course made more difficult by the warm weather and humidity. Sure, I was a little disappointed given my time in Little Rock, but I have to keep things in perspective. When I started my journey to qualify for Boston last October, I would have been thrilled with one Boston qualifying time, much less two. Nevertheless, I expect more from myself. If you're not moving forward, you're moving backward, so there's only one thing for me to do. Learn. Prepare smarter. Train harder. Get better. I would be remiss if I didn't again say how much I appreciated having Isabel there by my side to support me. We had so much fun on Saturday night at the post-race concert in downtown Nashville at the Bridgestone Arena (where the Nashville Predators play). And it was nice to have some quality one-on-one time away from our kids. Isabel deserved the R&R, and I loved having her there with me. Wesley
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