Notes
Started off sorta cloudy with the sun just peeking through. It started to warm up in the corral . The gun goes off and I decide that I am going to stick with the plan and start off slowly to warm up, get on pace after a couple of miles and hope to make up the deficit gradually. Mile one started as planned but the next mile was downhill pretty much to whole way, along with mile 4 so those were faster miles. I certainly wasn't running a 6:52 pace through 10k as reported via the text tracking! There must've been a malfunciton in their system. We enter the 4.5 mile highway portion around mile 4 and the sun is beating right on us. At mile 8 or 9 you get the first hill and my pace drops significantly. It is at this point that I am sure there will be no BQ. I ditch the shirt at mile 10. I decide to reel it back and am content with a nice PR. I am shooting to stay around 7:35-7:40 the rest of the way. As I get into the later miles that plan is modified to break 3:20 . Things are right on track until I enter the bike trail for the final 4.5 miles. My calves locked up so tight I had to walk. Then walking was absolutely unbearable so I completely stop three different times to stretch and am able to run for just a short bit. Right when I cross the 25 mile mark I hear Alicia yell at me from behind to go get it. We run together for a few seconds and then she drops back and starts walking some, Somehow my cramps are gone and I can run the rest of the way in at a good clip. I think I could' ve run a couple more miles no problem at that point. Surprisingly, I wasn't too upset with this result. I really thought I had a nice PR at a minimum but it just wasn't to be on this day. I'm really hating the marathon distance right now and I told myself I wouldn't be running another one for a long time. You know how that goes.