Notes
Today was a good day. Vermont City had been lingering in the back of my mind since February and I knew that luckily I had made it to race day without a major injury to cramp my style. This was the first marathon that I have done where I actually had some goals in mind. I wanted to make sure that I did at least one 20 mile run in training and multiple 15-18s. I accomplished that. I wanted to be able to race all of the races that I wanted to during my training and not let it disrupt my training for this race. I accomplished that. Was I specifically doing marathon training? Not even close. My highest mileage week was 68 miles and most of my weeks were in the 40's or 50's. I knew though, if I had no injury on race day, that I would be in for a nice big PR and hopefully help out my team. I had an A goal, B Goal and C Goal and was hoping to feel good after the race. The A goal was 2:38 - 2:40, B goal was 2:40 - 2:45 and still having my legs feel good after and C goal was 2:45- 2:50 and just PR. I rode up to Burlington with Hamel the evening before the race and we ate at some place called Mr. Z's Pasta. It was a hole in the wall, but the chicken broccoli Alfredo that I ordered was top notch. We were eating by 7:30 and I was hoping it was not too late before the race to digest. We got to the team hotel and I met up with Jose and Princic. Dan and I were planning on running about the same pace, so it only made sense to work together as much as possible. I woke up at 5:00 AM and was definately ready to roll. I ate my white chocolate macadamia nut Cliff Bar, a full pack of peanut butter crackers and drank 3/4 of a water bottle by 5:15. I made sure that I would have one of my Untapped Maple Packets for miles 9 and 15 and then got some of my clear Gatorade for mile 20. Dan and I took a shuttle over to the start at 6:30 AM and in all honesty it was about a half hour too early. I think I could have arrived at 7:00 and been better off then 6:45. We did lots of standing and sitting around. At 7:45 we met up with Jose and did a little jog and a couple of strides and got right to the line. The start kind of crept up on me as I was just jogging around on the other street. I lost Princic and thought I better get to the line. Luckily I just snuck in the 6th row or so and found Dan. After the hand cycle start at 8:00 we were off by 8:03. The first mile was just getting the jitters out. Dan and I ran together and hit 6:17. The pace was a bit on the slower side as our goal was to pop as many at 6:00 as possible, but I would rather start too slow than too fast. I was in 70th place through mile one. At mile 2.5, I was pleasantly surprised to see one of my best friends Lindsay and here fiancé Dan holding up a sign for me. That was a little adrenaline rush along with all of the people lining the streets. Whenever we wound up back in town, there were just hundreds of people yelling. Really fun to run through all the energy when you are feeling good early in the race. We kept clipping around 6:00 through the highway section. This was a fairly long but gradual downhill and then turn around for a long and gradual uphill back into town from 4-8 or so. Once back through town I hit mile 9 and had my first Untapped Maple Packet. Pure maple syrup to the system with hundreds of people lining the street gave me a shot of adrenaline once again and I felt awesome. Princic and I have very similar personalities when racing and we were giving lots of high fives and pumping up the crowd in the cheering areas. Fun stuff! After the town we went on the next loop out from mile 10-14. We hit 10 in 1:00:10 and were still feeling smooth. This was more of a less populated area and not as many people around. Dan and I notices a bit of a hill from 10-11, but it was nothing over the top. Just long and gradual again. I saw Ferenc at the half Marathon which we hit right at 6:01 pace... Always a boost to see Keene State brothers during races. From there it was a little single lane and then a while on the bike path from 13.7 - 14.7 ish. When we rounded the corner coming up on mile 15 I asked Dan if this was "the hill"? He said yeah and I looked at it and just smiled. People had been talking up this hill for weeks and honestly it was not really a hill. It was more like a bump. Compared to the courses around my house, this was kids play. Dan and I are both good climbers and we passed at least 5 people on the hill. In fact Dan and I had not been passed by anyone the entire race so far. We were just eating people up slowly. I took another Untapped at 15 and we were off again. We shot back out on to the last loop of the course and I was still feeling good at 16, 17 and 18. Right around mile 19 I noticed that my legs were starting to feel the pace just a bit. A sure sign that I needed some more fuel. I was able to grab one of my No Dye Gatorades at mile 20 and got in some electrolytes. This is were Dan started to pull from me. I went through mile 20 in 6:17, but 20 mile split at 2:00:20. So everything was right on plan until there. I even thought I still may sneak under 2:40:00. Mile 21 was 6:13 so still in the zone I wanted, Mile 22 was 6:20 and I could feel my legs tightening. Mile 23 was the blow up. 7:07 and full striding it. It was like being trapped in someone else's body. I was breathing fine, there was no real "pain" of any kind, I just could not get my brain to make my legs go any faster. I think over the last three miles the Gatorade must have kicked in a bit as I was able to get back down to 6:40 pace, but it just amazes me how the body works with all of the chemical reactions taking place. I got passed by 4 people in the last 10k, but I also passed three as well. So I am not calling it a complete blowup. Just damage control. The last mile and 2 tenths were 7:53 so 6:35 pace and I was rebounding. Coming in to the last 400 meters with everyone lined up 4-5 deep on either side and screaming was awesome! I saw Ferenc again at 25 and remember muttering something about Keene State to him to try and pump myself up, he gave me a high five and told me now I had a little Ferenc in there to get me through. It was a great finish as there was no one at all within 30 seconds of me on either side. So it was like finishing alone with the announcer saying my name and a thousand people cheering me on. I had to egg the crowd on with fist pumps and arms out to the side and people went crazy. It was really something to experience. I crossed the line in 2:41:17 with a 12 minute PR and could not have been more happy. Princic ran a hell of a race over the last 10k to sneak under 2:40:00 as well. Without him this race would have been much different! I got to see my friends again at the end and actually did not feel too bad leg wise. I got plenty of food and water in and have been recovering well the past two days. Overall it was a great experience and I would certainly run this marathon again. I know that I can get into the low 2:30's if I train specifically for the marathon and I will do it eventually. Boston is on the list for next spring. As I look back to where I was just a little over two years ago, sitting on a surgical bed with my patella tendon being torn down the middle and my leg filleted open, I can finally feel a sense that it was all worth it. The days, weeks and months of PT and just plain thoughts about whether I would be the same again are all gone now. I am not the same though... I am better than before.
SPLITS:
6:17, 5:58, 6:00, 5:55, 5:55, 5:57, 6:00, 6:02, 6:07, 5:55, 6:07, 5:55, 6:07, 5:59, 5:57, 5:59, 11:51, 5:59, 5:55, 6:00, 6:17, 6:13, 6:20, 7:07, 6:41, 6:41, 7:53 (last mile and .2)...