Notes
Fredericton Marathon 2022
3:04:54 - PR by 1:45
Training went well all winter/spring. Hit all my paces, got all my workouts in, didn't get sick and didn't get injured. Regardless I still felt that sub 3 hours seemed a bit too ambitious, so my B goal was to qualify for Boston again (3:10:00).
Lots of people around me were sick (Kyle had a head cold, Mike and family had gastro, Mark and Austin had covid) during my taper, so I was really worried about getting sick and not being able to race at all. Luckily I made it to the start line feeling good.
Started off a bit too quick so I eased off around 4k, Mary Bartlett caught me there and started chatting. She was going for a 1:29 half, which was exactly what I was going for. So we paced each other for the next 15k. She picked up the pace a bit at km 19 so I let her take off and kept it a bit more relaxed. I went through half at almost exactly 1:29, maybe slightly faster than I should have. I was feeling great.
Hit the aid station at 27k and noticed Rene and Dave were manning it, Rene said hi the first time through but I didn't see her from my tunnel vision. She asked how I was feeling, I said "great", because I was. About 1k later I heard a bike coming up behind me, it was the pace bike for the lead woman, she slowly passed me. I kept stride with here for a minute then thought it felt too hard so I eased off again. Then my watch ticked off 29k, shit, I was moving too slow.
I started pushing harder, after about 2k of that I really started to hurt, the last 10k were going to suck. Pace faltered, no matter how hard I tried my legs wouldn't keep it up. At about this point I knew I wouldn't make sub 3 hours, it looked like I was going to be done in about 3:05. Things really came apart in km 37, I was starting to doubt whether I would finish in sub 3:10 and started to wonder how I ever ran 3:06! I saw Drew he said I was cooking, I told him I thought I was dying.
With only a few kms left I pushed as hard as I could without collapsing. If I kept my pace below 5:00/km I would set a PR. I finally made it to the last turn, Nat was standing there, I just grunted at him. Kyle met me to run it in, I told him to keep up because if I slowed down I would fall over. Hit the finish at 3:04:54, not sub 3, but a PR and well under the Boston qualifier.