Notes
Carmel Marathon!
Ha! Basically a perfect race for me - I don't think I had anything else in the tank at the end. (Sadly, not as great for the other two folks running with me, which I have to note.)
Random, unsorted notes:
A) At 5 PM, I'm feeling absolutely thrashed. My eyes are also super bloodshot, so that's fun. My right ankle is kind of jacked up right now, so that's not great, but outside of that, I feel okay.
B) Gear was the rocket singlet (shout-out!) and the odlo shorts; zulu socks and adidas tempos. That's pretty great, even if my feet are completely beat to hell. I think I need to play around with this a bit more, so more on that to come.
C) Fueling! Two brown cinnamon pop-tarts and coffee in the morning (the second was a struggle). During the race, two gus (berry and chocolate roctane) and gatorade at a few later aid stations.
D) The aid stations were a mess for the sub-3 pace group. That's 100% not a knock on the aid stations! It's just that we had 20-35 people ambushing a relatively short aid station at speed. [At the 20 mile mark, there were 20 (!!!) people between 2:16:03-2:16:10. 7 people in that pack ended up 3 plus, which oooof.]
E) The course is great! The first half is very suburban and the second half is kind of industrial - although the Manon Parkway is really cool. It's less flat than it looks on the map, but it's definitely pretty level.
F) I probably should have jumped in the bathroom line at the beginning, but I managed okay with a stop at mile 7 (aid station E). My big worry at the stop was whether or not there would be anyone else around - happily, it was a quick stop and that section is open enough that I could bridge up with the gentle tailwind without torching all of the matches; I was back in the pack around mile 10.
G) The crowds were a little quiet, but I do think that's mostly because it's a smaller race. It's comparable to Madison and Illinois, which is a little surprising - I suspect I've been spoiled by Grandma's and Chicago so my calibration is completely off.