Short version:

I finished my first marathon. 5:23

Overall 342 of 414

Age 50-54 28 of 28

Male 209 of 241

Over extended cut.

I signed up for the Irving Marathon the night before I was supposed to run the Cowtown Marathon. It had just been cancelled and the Irving Marathon was close by, a month away and it was the last day of early registration.

Training actually started in August with base building to 25 mpw, and I bought a treadmill in November that allowed me to train through the winter months.

The marathon training began in October with a hybrid 20-week plan, mostly low heart rate runs (MAF) and speed work on Tuesdays with my running club. It included a half marathon in December, Dallas Marathon. It ended up being 25 weeks after Cowtown was cancelled, (I ran the Half Marathon.) I topped out at 60 mpw.

I think I benefited by the cancellation both mentally and physically, with better weather conditions, and a flatter course. I was ready, and ready for the training to be over. Not nervous or over confidant just ready.

Race Day

The Irving Marathon is a smaller race. It includes a Marathon, Half Marathon, 10k, 5k, and 1-mile fun run with staggered starting times. There were 414 finishers in the Marathon, but I am not sure how many were registered.

I was a little concerned about it being warm, but we had a cold front come through the day before and it was actually a little cool at the start with temperatures in the upper 40s, a light breeze throughout. It was 65 and sunny at the finish. Perfect weather!

I was up at 4 and had my coffee and Oatmeal Raisin Clif bar and left for the race at 6. I got there and got in line for the bathrooms, walked around and got in line again, just to be safe. The start was at the Irving Convention Center and I was able to stay inside and warm.

The course is a kind of T, 3.5 street turn right to 7.5 on trails and back, out to 17 street and trails, then the 3.5 back to the finish mostly flat with a 100ft rise at 23 over ½ mile and some smaller rises and gradual down hill to the finish.

Start time for the Marathon was 7:30, no corrals just signs with expected pace. I lined up at 7:20 at the 12-minute sign then moved up since there were not a lot of runners.

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1-10

We were off on time at 7:30 and I was about 30sec behind gun time. The plan was to run by HR, zone 2 +5 for the first 17 to conserve energy so I could finish, then zone 3 + to the finish. So when I hit 136 I walked till it dropped and took off again. I was feeling good so after a few of these I said screw it and just ran. It ended up being Zone 3 for most of the race, zone 4 for the last 6 miles and zone 5+ at the finish,

I brought 6 GUs and planned on every 4 miles or so, finally decide on 5, which was about 1 an hour.

The Half marathon started at 7:40 and ran most of the first half of the full course, so around mile 4 I started getting passed by all these half runners, a little disconcerting. At 6.5 the half runners turned back and I was pretty much by myself. I could see a runner ahead of me and a few runners coming back. At the turn around I was relieved to see that I wasn’t DFL and there were a number of runners behind me.

I started catching some of the other full runners at mile 9, I passed a couple of people then played back and fourth with a group of 4 run/walkers till I finally left them, then a lot of half walkers.

10-20

At mile 12 the half runners headed back to the finish and we continued on the trail. It’s a nice paved trail about 12 ft wide that runs along the Trinity River. You can’t see much of the river though because of the tree line.

At 13.5 we went back to the streets of Valley Ranch, current home of The Dallas Cowboys, they’re about to move. It was a bit unusual that we had both center lanes going and coming, and crossed some busy cross streets. It was well managed though and you could tell that the runners definitely had the right-of-way, even the slow ones. I passed the Dallas Cowboys HQ at 14.5 and thought to myself; “You got to get a picture of that for Scotty, you know how he loves the Cowboys.” Out to 17 and back at 19.5 passing a few runners here and there. I stopped and got the picture. Just so you know, it crashed the running app on my iPhone and I had to restart it!

20-26.2

At 20.5 I was back on the trail and not feeling bad looking for the wall though and pretty much zoned out and just running. I rounded a curve and there was Sly sitting on a bench. I had forgotten all about him saying he was going to meet me.

So from 21.5 Sly dragged me to the finish. We talked and started picking out targets. Not the one in front of me but 2 ahead, and started reeling them in. At that point it wasn’t too difficult though they were mostly walking. 23 GU and water stop then on to the finish. Sly keeping me going; slow on the up hills and take advantage of the down, find a target. Topping the last hill with a slope to the finish I picked out two more runners green and orange. There was also a couple of girls pushing they’re grandmother in a stroller, but who would do that? I couldn’t have caught them anyway. The stroller gave them too much downhill momentum.

I started picking up speed at about 1/2 mile and kicked in from 400 yds. I caught one of them don’t remember if I caught both or not. I was just trying to cross the line without falling on my face.

Thanks to Sly I finished faster than my goal of 5:30 at 5:23. I don’t think I could have kept it up if not for him. I would have walked more in the last 3 miles and not made 5:30. The last 4 miles were faster than the first 4 and a positive split overall of about 6 minutes.

With the exception of the walk breaks in the beginning and water stops I ran 98% of the distance, a long way from not being able to walk 100 yds without a break 10 years ago. I’m still not where I’d like to be speed wise. I think I can get a 30-minute 5k, but I may need more realistic expectations in the future but who knows. At least now I’m a .5 per-center. I looked it up, only .5% of the US population have run a marathon.

Thanks for reading, hope it wasn’t to boring.

Way to go, PAD!  Congrats on notching your first marathon!  Kudos to Sly for the assist...very cool of him.

Way cool!  Congrats on your first marathon!

Good job pacing, Sly!

Wow, PAD, that is a really solid first marathon.  Negative split!  Way to go!  Just the fact that you could adjust your plan like that in the beginning and still run a strong race is fantastic.  Enjoy the rest now.

That was really well executed.  A negative split and you beat your goals.  Congratulations, marathoner!

Good job PAD, it was my pleasure to run with you.

Let me know when you want to go for a sub 30 , 5k.

Congratulations on beating your goal and finishing strong.  I'll try to keep your method in mind when I'm nearing the end of my race.  Instead of focusing on, "I want to walk" I'll practice reeling in the people ahead.  Good job.

Great work, PAD! It has been a pleasure following your training and you have come a long way. I remember when you first started. Well done to Sly for giving you the assist. Big congrats to you.