Race Report - Marathon at Piney Point Maryland (Read 744 times)

Well I completed my first marathon today. It was a beautiful day in Southern Maryland and I ran the marathon in 4 hours and 44 minutes. The race was okay. I enjoyed the experience but my legs were tight, which leaded to cramping early. I planned on running the entire thing, but since my legs started to hurt early on, I had to run/walk the last 6 miles or so. My last training run was 22 miles, with no walking, so my nerves must have gotten the best of me today. But I was still very happy with my time. I saw ShanGen at the race. We actually ran together on and off for the last 6 miles or so. She was a great motivator and really pushed me at the end. Thank you ShanGen and it was great meeting you Gwin

Great first marathon! Congrats on finishing. Just think, you covered 26.2 miles! In just 4:44. Nice! Keep going! --Jimmy

Congratulations!!! YOU DID AWESOME!!!!! It was nice to meet you as well!!

Way to go! And what an awesome day. Congrats!!

Congratulations you two!! I want to run this marathon some day. Shan. you need your own separate race report, OK?

As requested, LPRM 2009 report My sister-in-law visited for the weekend to run the marathon, and brought her husband, eight-year-old daughter, and Jack Russell terrier; we had a family marathon weekend, and it was a *LOT* of fun. My most miserable period was just after the finish line. I felt nauseous and very sore, and it was painful to try to stretch, so I just hobbled around, trying to keep moving. Happily my muscles did relax or warm up or whatever, and recover. After I had a shower and ate some food (first brunch), I felt much better. A friend lent me her bicycle, and I cycled out to somewhere in mile 24 (cheering inbound runners as I passed them) and found my sis-in-law, and cycled in with her, which was fun (maybe more so for me, being on the bicycle). We went in for my second brunch, and my niece was wearing her black cape and waving a plastic sword, and chasing me, so the two of us ran all around the runners' tables. It didn't occur to me until now looking back, that we must have been somewhat of an odd spectacle. As for the race results, I crossed the halfway point at 1:38, whereas my previous & only HM was my relay leg of Rehoboth marathon at 1:39, so that was a 1min HM PR for me, and I improved my marathon PR by just over 7 minutes, and my splits were 1:38 & 1:40, so I didn't fade in the second half nearly as much as I thought I might. So overall I was quite happy with my time. I knew from the turnaround points that the lead woman runner was quite a ways in front of me, so I knew she was going to crush the course record. I saw a local runner in his car get rear-ended on the course; that was startling and sad, but he was unharmed. I chatted with several runners during the race, and quite a number at least briefly after the race, and I heard mostly good things about the course -- although a lot of people didn't like the second half much, compared to the lovely first half, and I think most people found the heat tough. I'm sure my previous two weeks of training in Okinawa at 70 degrees was a real advantage.

Gwin - congrats! Way to go -- that's awesome!