3:39:35!

My 3rd Marathon of the year (well one was a 50K but who's counting) is in the books and I managed to take off almost 25 minutes from my last Marathon in May (4:03). I can't believe how strong I felt throughout the race and I can only thank Theresa, Nancy, Miriam and Ken for giving me the guidance and inspiration to finish this Marathon in good shape.

The weather was a little chilly to start (for those who know me NO I didn't have to wear gloves, tights or my much beloved balaclava). This was one of the few races I've done where I didn't know anyone else in the race. I had my mp3 player ready to go with new batteries, 5 gels, my 3:45 pace band and 1 small water bottle (Ken, I needed this as I'll explain later). The race started at just past 7AM with just under 1000 runners. I decided to stay close to the front but not too close.

As the race started I kept hearing the voices of Theresa, Ken and Nancy saying "don't go out too fast." I actually felt a little pain in my right knee and was worried about it lingering throughout the race. I chalked it up to not having run for the past 3 days, a rarity for me and kept on going.
Eventually the pain went away after the first mile . I kept a pretty even pace for me as I needed an 8:30/Mile pace to reach my goal of 3:45. I was feeling so good, though, that I found it hard to run that slow and pushed myself ever so slightly. I decided to try something that Theresa does so well and that is run by "feel." My breathing was good and I never felt out of breath so I ran this way for most of the race. From time to time I would glance at my Garmin and/or pace band and before I knew it I was 4:00 minutes ahead of my schedule. This was about 10 miles into the race. I was faced with a hard decision. Should I keep pushing myself and risk the chance of "bonking" near the end or try to keep the pace up for as long as I could. I decided to keep going as I felt very strong and wanted to see how well I could do.

Once I made this decision, the only thing left was to keep my motivation up. I called upon all the words of wisdom from my training friends. Nancy had lent me a great book on mental imagery which I read on the plane and I kept visualizing the finish line and how it would look. I would also pick out a few runners which were ahead of me and tried to catch them. Mostly, though, I used my music and the thoughts of beating my last Marathon as motivation.

I had a good plan going into the race with regards to hydration and fuel. There were water/gatorade stations approximately every 2 miles so I alternated between drinking water and gatorade. I walked through the water stations for roughly 30 seconds. I took a gel every 3rd station which came at roughly 50 minutes and this really helped to keep my energy up. There was only one stretch where there was no water station to be found and with the temperature starting to climb I was thankful that I had brought along a small water bottle.

The course itself was fast and flat with no hills that I could remember. It went along back roads and there weren't many people around but the ones that were there had great signs and plenty of smiles which helped. This race was also marked in miles and this seemed to help. For those of you who have run a marathon, you know that there comes a time in the race when you hit the "wall." This usually comes around the 30K mark. Ken had told me that the marathon is a long walk until the 30K mark and then it's "on." Well, because the marathon was marked in miles I had to remember where the 30K mark was (LOL). I soon realized that I had past it at the 20 Mile mark. As soon as I had less than 6 miles to go (10 K) I realized that I was going to beat my predicted time of 3:45. I was on pace to be around 3:40 which was fine with me. I kept trying to push myself a little bit but mentally I was satisfied knowing that I would beat the 3:45 mark so I let up a little. We finished the race at a local high school and had to run around the track to reach the finish line (the worst part of the race). I could see the giant clock as I turned the corner and knew then that I would be under 3:40. I picked it up a little at the end to ensure this and as I saw my 2 sons near the finish line I finished just under 3:40 (3:39:35). I finished 26th in my age category (35-39) and 200th out of 898 overall.

I am writing this almost a week after the race and still am on an emotional high. I was able to check my email from Florida and have received so many congratulations that I can't wait to come home to see all my running friends. Runners are truly a remarkable bunch and I'm fortunate to be part of this great community. I was VERY sore for the first few days after the race but started running again on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. As I ran today, though, I realized that I need to take more time off as it was a challenge to run 16K this morning.

I can't thank all my friend enough for their support and I wish everyone a safe and happy holiday!
http://www.brightroom.com/view_user_event.asp?EVENTID=11293&PWD=&BIB=300
Greg