Run: marathon pace Previous Next

Notes

All went to plan despite fears of bad weather. There was no real wind and temperatures themselves were great, though cooler than we're used to. (I wore shorts and a short sleeved shirt, which was fine - no hat). It did start raining around halfway and picked up over the second half but never rained very hard. It was wet enough, though, that I worried about slipping on steeper downhills but never did. ST5's handled fine in the rain. The course had rolling hills throughout with some longer uphills toward the end, the biggest of which was at the end of mile 13 and the beginning of 14 but wasn't nearly as bad as people said. I ate gels at around 6.5 and 12 miles, I think. My back didn't give me any trouble while running, though it tightened up afterwards. I'm weirdly heavy today, though, perhaps from ibuprofen the last couple days? Anyway, I felt strong throughout and maintained a steady effort - the slight variances in pace are due to hills. The hills in the last few miles made me tired but I passed a few people there and recovered well enough to pick up the pace for the final mile. So even on that course I could have gone further at the same pace, and on a flatter course I could have run quite a bit further at that pace, though who knows about a full marathon. I probably would have stuck with my slower early pace, right at 6:50, if I hadn't started talking for most of the rest of the first half with a guy who kept jabbering away and distracted me from my watch. When I realized that my average pace was 6:45-6, I stalled at a water stop to let him go but ended up staying just a little ways behind him because by then the rhythm was set. I caught him in the last mile but he out-kicked me at the end. 9th overall and won my age group.