I competed in the Hilton Head Marathon, today.  After missing several training runs due to the skin cancer surgery and the flue, I knew 3 hours was out of range for me.  But nobody has every training cycle go perfectly, and I was going to do the best I could do on the training I had.

Because of heavy snow in Chicago, my travel plans changed and I seriously wondered if I would even make it to Hilton Head.  But, with a sprint through Washington Dulles to catch a connecting flight to Savannah, I made it.  I got in later than planned, but I made it.

Like I said, I knew 3 hours wasn’t in the cards, so I started out slowly.  I figured I’d try to stay around a 7 minute pace and I wasn’t going to worry about it if it dipped towards 7:30. As long as I finished under 3:30, I was going to be fine with it.

I think it was around the 10 mile mark when a lady pointed out that I was in 6th place.  I was kind of suprised at that since I was going so slow.  I could see the next guy ahead of me and thought it would be pretty cool if I could be in the top 5.  I picked up the pace.

After a mile of chasing this guy, I still had not gained on him...but he was was reeling in another guy.  We both passed him and, now, I was in 5th.  My mile splits, still were not that great and that gave me some confidence that I had more to give but I wanted to be careful when I used it.

I was closing the gap on the 4th place guy when I noticed a guy just ahead of him walking.  Again, we both passed him and I gave a quick word of encouragement as I went by.  I was now in 4th place and started thinking how cool it would be to take 3rd.  But the guy ahead of me seemed to be aware that I was behind him and he responded with every move I made.

I finally caught him around mile 16.  I had increased my pace to about 6:55 and as I came along side of him he stayed right with me.  We talked a little bit but I stopped because I didn’t want to waste my energy.  We went through mile 17 together and that is when I decided to see what he...and I had left.  I dropped my pace to 6:50 and he let me go.  Now I was the hunted trying desperately to hold on to 3rd.

As my pace kept slowing, I kept expecting him to pass me.  With 3 miles to go I kept telling myself that I couldn’t give up 3rd place in the last 3 miles and dug deep.  I said the same thing with 2 miles and 1 mile to go.  I just knew that guy was beating down on me and I was giving it everything I had...which wasn’t much.

Well, he never caught me and I finished in 3rd with a time of 3:06:59.  I turned around to wait for him and shake his hand but he was not even close.  I headed for the hotel feeling pretty good.

Okay—that’s the Hilton Head Marathon.  59th marathon and 43rd state.

Great job, Mike.  Better trained than you thought.  Hope you're not heading back through Chicago, though.

 

 I think it was around the 10 mile mark when a lady pointed out that I was in 6th place.  I was kind of suprised at that since I was going so slow. 

Yeah, only Mike would say this about 7 minute miles through the first half of a marathon.... Great race, Mike! Glad you made it!

Well done Mike! I can't fathom holding those kind pf paces...

Congrats Mike, A nice marathon.

I ran a cold race up here in Minnesota, a 5k in Elk River yesterday. The temperature was around 0°F, maybe below for the race. I ran a slow race to get February in the streak. My time was around 24:10. The city did a great job making the sidewalks clear of ice and when thy couldn't there was a lot of sand on the ice. But I was quite concerned about my hamstring so I took it pretty easy. Unfortunately I did step on some black ice and got no traction. My leg just slipped and i could feel a good deal of pain in my hamstring. It eased but I will take the next few days easy to give it some rest.  Other than that one step it was a nice race.

Congrats Mike- flying may not be your thing but marathoning certainly is!

Good race Spinach.

Congrats, Mike! Which states do you you have left?

Nice race, Spinach. Way too cold for me.