Notes
Grandma's Marathon, official time 2:29:53
Got that elite entry so it was nice to be able to hang out with a chair and short porta potty lines before the race. Got in a short couple minutes of jogging before heading to the line. It was about 60 degrees, cloudy, and rainy, it would have been perfect if it stayed like that the whole way but no luck there. It stopped raining before the start and the clouds gone by mile 5.
The gun went off and Will and me got out nicely. It was the usual flurry of passing a ton of people and getting passed by a ton of people in the first mile. Overheard a few people making smart-ass comments about my shoes and one guy pulled up next to me and made some comments before taking off ahead (don't think I lost to any of them). The early miles just melted away like they always do. I was taking my bottles when I had them and water when I didn't.
Before I knew it we were through halfway in 1:14:49 and I was still feeling pretty good, stomach a little heavy but otherwise I was good. Will and me were still side by side, we both agreed that even though we still felt good we should stay in the low-5:40's until at least mile 23. We went through 19 together and I think it was during this one when I first noticed Will start falling behind me a little bit. I checked my watch to make sure i wasn't increasing the pace and just maintained the low 5:40s.
Saw the "lemon drop" hill (why the hell is it called that?) coming up and was still feeling good. Ran a 5:41 for that mile and I really didn't think that hill was much different than the countless others on the course. Kept it moving into town where the crowd support got a lot more helpful. My legs were feeling quite good given this point in the race, they started getting the marathon wobbly feeling once we began making all the turns in the last little bit. Managed to hold it together pretty well though. I mustered up a kick in the last 50 meters and my stomach was not a fan, as I nearly puked probably 4 times and needed to take a few heaves after the finish line. I finally broke 2:30 though, and that was the best part!
I wore the new Nike Zoom Flys and they are much more cushioned than the Streaks I had worn in Des Moines and Boston. The different shoes really helped the way the bottoms of my feet felt at the end of the race. I had the elite bottles too and took in 3 gu's and 4 ~ten oz bottles of Sword sports drink. I think those were a small factor in avoiding a bonk. Having Will there the first 20 miles too was awesome and I think the biggest reason we were able to keep things in check. Just having someone there to make sure we didn't get going too fast too early was a huge confidence boost and he had an awesome first marathon.
I'm not sure when I'll be trying the distance again at full effort, maybe Chicago 2018, but I will definitely be going with the squad to Boston next year where I will probably just try to take it all in and not worry about running hard