A breif history of my Marathon Experience.

This is my 3rd marathon. I really don't even count the first one because that was pretty much on a dare 4 weeks prior that I couldn't finish under 4:45. I do remember that I won the bet but it was by seconds. I don't remember the year either.....early 2000's.

2006 I did the same Marathon I completed today. I finished that one in 4:18:XX on minimal training.

The quick report:

3:43:00

143/746 OA

113/468 Male

12/53 AG

1st Goal was to finish under 3:30:00

2nd goal was to see how close I could get to 3:20:00

These last few weeks I was convinced that 3:30 was in the bag. My longest training run of 22.4 miles was done at an average pace of 7:56 and that was with an easy start and a cool down.

So it's over. I got home, took a shower, ate a frozen pizza, enjoyed a beer, took a nap, drove 1 hour to pick up my youngest DD,drove 1 hour home again, enjoying another beer and now creating a race report. Thats real time.

Bottom line...no excuses. I had a great plan. I have solid fitness.

I divided the race up into 5 segments with goals and gut checks for each. It's not clear in the chart where my pace fell off but it was after the half way point.

Ok......so you might say.....Slo....you want out too fast. And I probably did. I tried to correct that in Lap 3 which is exactly what that was for. I felt really good at the Half Way point and I was dead nuts on my target pace for a 3:30 but shortly after that is where the wheels came off.

For about 3 miles I battled side stitches. For some I could do some shallow breathing with a complete emptying of the lungs and some I just had to break into a walk to shake. I was able to put them behind me but I was somewhat demoralized by the time I had lost. I'm not sure why I couldn't push back to that 7:45 pace. I honestly believe it was a mental thing....not wanting to fight those side stitches again so just rolled comfortably along at an 8:15 pace.

I really lost the mental battle in the final six miles. My legs were fine. No cramping...tired yes but still strong. I was trying to push back some shoulder pain. I'm used to this on long bike rides but never experienced it on a run. It didn't take much to cave and let myself walk. Never tried to push myself. Used the aid stations as an excuse to take walk breaks...yadda yadda yadda.

I did run the final 1.5 miles in. About 2/3rds of a mile out I was struck by severly sharp shin pains in my right leg that came out of nowhere.I'm pretty sure that pain will be evident on my finish line photo.  I'm icing now and it has me limping slightly. Absolutely no warning. Keeping my fingers crossed.

OH...I FORGOT.....Mile 24 I made my 2000 mile for the year. YTD 2002.2

Now lets get to the real disappointment. I just covered 26.2 miles. I drink my water and make my way to the beer tent. You get one friggin beer....just one!  And these guys aren't set up to sell beer. They only take tickets from our race bibs. That's just insane.

So we'll see what tomorrow brings.....and the next three weeks. There's another Marathon in Des Moines if the shin is cool and I can swing the work scheduled.

And don't those after race beer tents suck? They always want an ID, too.

Erica is boasting that she still gets ID'd. Nice.

Slo, I really thought that your conditioning was spot-on; you've put in tons of miles (congrats on the 2k mark, btw), and I've been taking note, with envy, of your training runs. You're in shape to go sub-3:30.

I think that your pacing was pretty good, too. It seems like your mental game got tossed with the side stitches, which is a huge, huge part of the last half. When I did my first marathon, I got squirrely around the halfway point, and jogged in the last half primarily to keep the next day's disappointment in check. That's no way to finish.

So....get better and try again.

And congratulations.....you PR'd by about half an hour.

Walt.

Congrats on the PR SLO!!  Sorry to hear this wasn't what you expected/were in shape for ... I know you're conditioning is great.  I'm particularly sorry to hear the results due to the deja vu from last weekend. 

We'll have to pick a marathon to run together!!

Be careful this week, recover and then think about what's next.

Amie

First and foremost, congratulations on slashing your marathon PR!  Enjoy it now 'cuz a reduction of 35 minutes in one giant step ain't gonna happen again soon.

Of course, I know this didn't meet your expectations, though.  On the one hand, I'm really surprised by this. Like others, weather permitting, I thought for sure you had this nailed.  As Walt says, I've been admiring your training run times and knew you were definitely capable of a sub-3:30.

On the other hand, I'm not that surprised.  So many things can go wrong on race day, despite good training.  Weather, just an "off" day, or, in your case, new problems like stitches and sore shoulders. 

Any thoughts of trying another race in late October or November while your still in such good shape?   ETA: Oops, just realized that's what you were referring to with Des Moines.

Till then, rest up.  You've earned it.

Slo – at the Seattle Marathon, they gave us tickets to get a free beer at the end, we wandered around till we found the line, then they said we had to have a photo id!   Like Erika said, who carries their driver’s license in a marathon?  And I think our bibs had our ages on them....thankfully Erika’s DH had a cooler full of brews waiting for us.

Side stitches are the worst, aren’t they?  They can really burn up your mental resolve.  While I do believe that you’ve got a much faster marathon in you, you still had a huge PR, and that was with side stitches and walking breaks – awesome job!

And like you said, there’s still time to try another this season and take advantage of your fitness, if you want to.  I'm already scouting around for a "revenge marathon" in November, just in case I have a bad day at Columbus....

Another Maniac here.... not with words of wisdom but a huge butterfly hug instead.

Congrats on your HUGE PR...a 30 second PR is huge...a 30 minutes PR is monumental.

Rest up the body this week, take care of that shin problem and go back at it again.

You can do it!!!!!!

Slo, thanks for the report.  I'm sorry you didn't hit your overall goal, but I hope in a few days it'll really hit you what a spectacular PR that was!

P.S. Hope your shins are OK too.  That sounds very painful.