Notes
Very rough experience overall today. I now have a much bigger appreciation for large marathons and how much easier they make it to run with people. Weather was awesome today and definitely no downsides there. Course was as flat as could be and seemingly very few turns as well. Just a rough race mentally. Tried to go out super easy and let the half marathoners go but still came through the mile way too fast in 5:06. Settled back even more even though I made up ground on those guys in mile 2 in 5:22. After this was off and on with this group for another 2 or 3 miles until Guliano went after it. At that point, I ran with the same guy for the next 7 miles or so but it seemed like he was constantly fartleking. It was rough that these guys had no sense of pace and I was trying to get in a rhythm. I still wanted to use these guys while they were around but should have just run solo the entire way. Learned another lesson on getting out too hard, especially for not really feeling good after just a couple miles anyways and my stomach not being excited about my intake of fluids today. Splits I took were 5:06, 5:22, 5:19, 5:27, 5:16, 5:23, 5:24, 5:17, 5:18, 5:25, 5:18, 5:24, 5:07, (1:09:46 at halfway), 5:25, 5:16, 5:51, 5:32, 5:28, 5:31, 5:28, 5:49, 5:46, 5:45, 5:52, 6:00, 5:41, 1:14. Worst time I've run at a marathon, worst I've felt for an entire thing, worst my body has handled fluids or the progression of the race, but still I was able to win by a handful of minutes. Learned a lot of lessons today. Still have a lot to learn with nutrition, need a lot more lifting in my routine, need to be smarter with pacing. Very emotionally trying today but not too bad for an "off" day. Wished I would have been patient early and gotten the course record but that and my opportunity for a pr both faded bad the 2nd half when I closed in 1:14:10 or so for the last half marathon. A 5 minute positive split is not going to get the job done when I take another attempt at the trials qualifier.