The easiest 10 minutes I ever took off during a marathon (Read 643 times)

Congrats, Adny.

I thought this was going to be about stopping for a hotdog and beer.

Just a question to give me an idea of what I would never experience - how does it feel to finish 8 minutes ahead of the next closest person?

Honestly, I never knew he was that far behind. I knew from Mile 7 to Mile 16 he'd dropped back maybe a minute. My gut told me that given the speed of our opening miles it was unlikely that he was back there holding a steady pace anymore and since I was I was probably pulling away. But I did not know, so I had to assume this was not the case and if I let slip 2-3 minutes in the closing miles by blowing up he might catch me. (This is exactly what happened to the guy in 3rd, he was actually the guy in 2nd until Mile 25. The guy who got 2nd ran up from WAY behind). When I finished I got some water and a banana, and ended up laying down on the grass and waiting for the usual post-finish searing hamstring pain to subside and let me stand again. I asked if 2nd had come in and was told no. Waited and waited and thought WOW, did I have a lead. I was hoping the guy was OK and something bad didn't happen to him since I heard sirens near the course at one point. It felt good to win that authoritatively especially since I did not want to be involved in duking it out and pushing the end of this particular race, but it would have felt a lot better if I'd done it with a 2:25 or so in a larger race. A lot of people who don't win races could win if they cherry-picked less competitive races. Not that I cherry-picked Louisville, it just happened to look like a nice race and was conveniently located on the only day all fall that I could fit a race into my schedule.

That's funny. Congrats. Very impressive.

Congrats Spaniel. Hey I didn't realize you were Andy Haas or is it Adny from cool running. Hey did you ever build your own track at your house down there in IN? I remember you having a thread about whether or not to build one.

I just mowed it for the final time last night. I need to try grading it first thing in the spring so it is a little smoother. It's got one small rise at the 250m mark that I wish wasn't there but otherwise is pretty good. I used to maintain a 1K loop around the whole property that use part of the track too, but was not using it enough to justify. Maybe next year now that my kid is old enough to play outside under a tree while I run laps.