Notes
Nice race all around. The event and what I was able to pull off.
Easy start chatting for the first 4 miles then I backed off my group to stick to plan, figuring I'd see some of them again later. Passed by 2 guys at mile 4.5 and didn't change another position until mile 11 when I passed someone up a hill. Just after the half I had the urge to take a leak so, since it was raining and I was already soaked I just let it go. It was glorious, a perfect execution, just what Nads needed in Philly. The only guy to pass me came along like a bat out of hell at mile 14. I told him he came out of nowhere and he said "yeah, I like to finish fast." I wished him a good race. From that point it was just running and the rain slowed. I discovered it was hard to hold goal pace when it was level but easy when the road was rolling. I wasn't so slow on the hills but picked it up nicely going down. Race got tough around mile 20 and thinking the next mile marker was 20 I discovered it was actually 21. Nice. From that point on it got really, really hard to hold pace. I kept worrying I would crack. In a marathon you can go from hero to zero in a moment. Fortunately that never happened. Starting at about mile 23 I started passing guys by the handfull. They were failing in groups. This is where the garmin comes in handy in a marathon. It's the reality check and reminder that the effort must be lifted despite struggling to keep a pace that would be easy any day of the week. The last two miles were hard as hell since the road was a damn windy roller coaster. Right, left, up, down, mix and repeat. It was all guts and I was doing bad math thinking I had more time to spare in order to get under 3:05. Whatever. It worked out.
Always nice to see my family at the end. I gave them big hugs and got them sweaty. I then chillaxed in the van till I could start to move again. Then I went to take a shower. Yes this race offered a fantastic facility for showers! After the finish I figured I was in the top 30. I checked had found I was top freakin' 10 and won my AG! WTF? AG prize was a pint glass. Perfect.
In the end, it wasn't the easiest course and it wasn't the hardest course. I do think the last 2.5 miles are designed to suck your soul and looking at the times of the guys I passed in the last 4 miles I can tell it had many victims.
In the end, I can't think of anything more I could have done. No time was left on the course. A great weekend out of town.
Goal was BQ-10 (Sub 3:05) but went out on PR pace (3:03:32) for it. Ran a positive split by almost 2 minutes BUT the second half was my fastest second half in a marathon by over a minute, so a second half PR.
Marathons are hard.
13.1 mi 1:31:20 1:31:20 6:59
13.1 mi 1:33:16 3:04:37 7:08