Notes
2013 Boston Qualifier!
61 degree ~100% humidity. Heard other people complaining - and I was a little worried about the heat, but honestly I didn't really notice it. only had to splash my head with water a couple of times.
Had a good time - wife and kids came along and we were able to go to the beach for an hour or so Saturday afternoon.
Earlier in the week I wasn't sure I was even going to run. On Tuesday night caught the Norovirus Zach brought back from Disney World. Spent all day and night Wednesday in bed feeling horrible - could barely walk. By Friday felt "ok" and decided to just try it. During training I felt like I may have had a sub 3:05 in me, but being sick 4 days earlier with 60 degree weather forecast, I didn't want to try to push my luck. Decided I'd start out and just try to hold onto ~7:08 miles. First mile was slow and tough.. slowly eased into it and didn't really start feeling warmed up until 5 or 6 miles. Took a pee break at 6 or 7 and immediately felt faster. I really tried to ignore the miles and not dwell on them much. Took note of mile 8 or 9 - 1/3 done. Mile 12-13 were awesome coming up military cutoff - saw Gracie, Zach, Melody, and Rick. Gave Zach and Gracie a good luck kiss as I passed by. Seeing them really gave me a boost and I even had to throttle myself down a little here, fastest miles of the race. Somewhere in here I had to stop again to pee - probably wasted a good minute total peeing. I was still trying to not dwell on the mile markers and just focus on hitting my splits, but I couldn't help but notice as I passed mile 17. This was as far as I had run in training at marathon pace - a 17 mile run at 7 minute flat pace with Chris Moore about 5 weeks prior. It was a very tough and grueling workout, but also a great confidence builder. The next couple of miles started to get tougher, but not too bad. Also remember taking a good long look at the 20 mile marker. I was looking forward to the loop back up military cutoff for mile 22, but coming up that road the third time wasn't nearly as electric - most of the crowds were gone or had headed to the finish for the half-finishers. I saw Melody and the kids cheering, but I was trying to tell Melody I wanted another Gel, my brain was mush at this point, and I'm not sure what I was saying.. but she wasn't understanding me, very frustrating, but finally she tossed a gel at me at the last second.. Last few miles were mostly a blur - tough to keep pace, but I did it. I picked off a handful of guys who were slowing, one of them fought back and kept pace with me the last mile and a half. Finished fairly strong and I was able to surge past the guy who was running with me. I think he tried to go with me, but his calves may have been cramping. 3:07:22 time.. didn't want the feeling of finishing/bq'ing to end.. so I wandered around for a little while before the family caught up with me. Great feeling of accomplishment and exhaustion!