Great RR, Joe, but sorry about the marathon results. I only tried going with the pacers one time in a HM and didn't realize that it was going to be some sort of rolling chat-fest, so I took the opportunity to lose them at an aid station and ended up with my HM PR in that race.

By the way, on your comments on stock picks, Warren Buffett once won a million dollar bet with a hedge fund manager, betting that over a 10-year period a S&P 500 index fund would outperform a selection of hedge fund shares. He won handily...

Another great report, Joe.  I’m sure that anyone who has run a few marathons has experienced what you went through… one minute you’re running along just fine… then… you’re not.  But—you finished.  Congratulations!

Another great RR, even if the result was not what you hoped. You still had a smaller positive split than I've had in any of my 5 marathons!

 

I particularly liked your analysis of what may have been the reasons for the collision with THE WALL. Yes, the dip in both quantity and quality of training miles could well have contributed, but I think that is oversimplifying.

You mentioned that you have been training using a run/walk (Galloway) pattern, taking a 1 minute walk break every 3-4 minutes. Then you run 200+ minutes without a walk break. Perhaps you should have stuck with Galloway for the race?

You reasoned that you should target 4:45 pace and you stayed with the 4:45 pace group to mile 14, but your times show you were on about a 4:38 pace through 20 miles - and behind the pacer. Did you know they were going to bank so much time over the first 20 miles?

Your mile times scarcely show your 'pit stop', so I suspect you upped your pace straight after to try and catch back to the pace group. Did that come back to bite you later?

Did external factors, such as the temperature during the race have an effect?

quickadder, thanks for so quickly adding up the various numbers!  Very helpful to me...to your questions:

1.  You nailed the question in my mind about run/walk vs run...I trained in the former and then raced in the latter and that's not good.   A couple of thoughts.   I have, on a few occasions in the past, been able to make that transition.  Most recently, 4 weeks before the Indy race, I ran the Grand Rapids HM with a set of pacers with no problems.   But, duh, that was only 13.1 and I was fine this time too thru 13.1.

In short, yes, I need to shift to the Galloway method.   Shoot, years ago, I built a spreadsheet which lets me calculate, for any race distance and for any run/walk ratio the exact pace I need to run during my run intervals to achieve the aggregate (slower) pace which would be the race time.   I have the tools...just have to apply them.

2.  Yes, the pace group was quick, sub 4:40 slightly.   I noted this early and asked the pacers twice, around mile 8 and then again at 12 or so.  They kinda shrugged their shoulders.   They had a hard time going slow, it appeared.

That said, the 2 minute pit stop I had didn't show up in the mile splits from my Garmin because I had neglected to turn off the "auto pause" feature of the Garmin before the race.   By standing still in line for the (very dirty) portapot, the Garmin paused.   Post pit stop, I intentionally did not try to race to catch up with the pace group.   I actually did get a glimpse of them once as I crested a small hill and could see a fair way ahead.  But it wasn't a sprint to catch up with them.  I realize my text made it sound like I did...thanks for noting.     In short, the lack of run/walk had the biggest impact, IMHO.

Two points of learning...I need to be prepared to pace myself AND I need to account for an extra 2-3 minutes of buffer just for pit stops for my 68 year old bladder :-)

3.   Weather was absolutely perfect for a good race...mid 40s, not much wind.   Part of my disappointment was "wasting" a perfect weather day to have a strong race.   Lots of others did take advantage and did well.

So, thanks a ton for helping me think through this...your insight is most useful!!  Thank you!!!