Notes
Spring Chance BQ.2 Marathon - Geneva, Illinois
3:21:11
55th place overall
1st place men's 50-54 division
Felt like I was in about 3:17 shape going into this, and based on my splits for the first 20 miles, I had the speed for that, just not the endurance. Garmin was off by quite a bit again, so it was showing me at 7:32 to 7:30 pace for the first 20 miles, when in reality I was running more like 7:37 pace. Calves started cramping badly somewhere between 21-23, even though I was taking in Gatorade non-stop from the 3-mile mark on. The last 2 miles were brutal. Splits according to Garmin were 7:42, 7:39, 7:35, 7:18, 7:26, 7:31, 7:28, 7:30, 7:38, 7:31, 7:31, 7:28, 7:34, 7:14, 7:28, 7:25, 7:21, 7:28, 7:39, 7:37, 7:35, 7:46, 7:51, 7:53, 7:56, 8:14.
Went out in between the 3:26 and 3:21 groups the first 3 miles, then caught up to the 3:21 group the 4th mile and stayed in that pack of about 10-12 guys until the 14-mile mark, when I tried to pick up the pace a little, but really only gained about 30 seconds on the pack over the next 4-5 miles. About 3-4 guys and the only woman in that pack caught me after 22 and passed me, so staying with the pack would have probably been the smarter thing to do.
Overall, I was a little disappointed with my performance over the last 5 miles, but I only finished 4 minutes behind my ultimate goal, so I'm okay with the time. Very stoked about finishing 1st in the 50-54 division. I wasn't expecting that and thought it would take 3:15 to 3:17 to win the division.