Notes
0-10K -=37:04
10-20K = 37:40 (1:14:44)
20-30K = 38:59 (1:53:43)
30-40K = 40:29 (2:34:12)
3rd marathon complete!!! 1st marathon was 3:00, 2nd marathon was 2:52, and now 3rd marathon was 2:43. Huge PR and and did it en route to a 3rd place finish.
As the race started off I found myself in a group of 3 (places 3-5). Two runners took an early lead and were probably 10 seconds in front of us right away. I quickly learned that each of us in this group of 3 had the same goal: break 2:40. I expected the top 2 runners to come back to us - I was half right about this. One of the front runners dropped off pace after about one mile but the other front runner kept his quick pace and never relinquished the lead. Now for a while I thought the group of 3 I was in would run the first part of the race together, but one runner looked at us and decided to go after the lead.
after this runner went for the lead I ran by myself until about mile 8 or 9. This first part of the race went by pretty pain free with the exception of some stomach cramping. This stomach cramping caused me to move all my gels back by about 1 mile.
Once we came up to observatory hill three runners caught up to me and I was in a pack of 4. We ran together until around mile 15 near warner park. During this middle section I felt like I was in a dog fight. There were times I felt like one or more runners in this group would drop me and then a half mile I felt like I was going to drop these runners. I felt comfortable but still had fleeting thoughts of whether or not I should be this tired this soon in the race.
At around mile 15 one of these runners made a surge our group of 4 was split up. At this same time my pace dropped off significantly to 6:30/mile. It was around mile 17 that I had the lowest point in the race. I had just been dropped by 2 runners and was then passed by another to be put in 6th place. At this point I could've packed it in and been satisfied with top 10, but I decided to stay strong and finish the race out.
Over the last 6 miles I passed 3 runners to finish 3rd. First, the runner in 5th place started walking for about 5 seconds a few hundred feet in front of me. I knew that I had him and eventually I passed him. The next runner I passed was laying in the middle of the running path (I had noticed that he wasn't taking water at the water stations and I never heard what happened to him). The final runner I passed was the runner that left me at mile 1 or 2 to chase after the leader. I passed him at around mile 23 after putting in some quick miles (6:13 and 6:17 after running several 6:30s).
Coming back towards the capital I was blowing up but when I finally saw the finish line I couldn't help but come up with a big smile on my face. When I finished I was completely exhausted and couldn't hardly walk let alone run another minute.
I am very happy with how I handled adversity at mile 17 when two runners dropped me and another passed me. I stayed strong and ended up passing 3 runners to finish 3rd.