Notes
PR!
Goal was sub 3:15 by some amount depending on how I felt.
Much warmer than I wanted, and then I started faster than I planned.
Just one of those days where my running felt relaxed and I could still hold pace after mile 20. It was fun.
Pit stop during mile 11, otherwise very happy with my splits.
26.5 miles was longest I've recorded for a marathon - ?
training: Used Hansons book "advanced" for 18 wks prior. I had planned on a 3 hour 14 min goal (new PR) from the start of training. This seemed to end up being a pretty good spot for the recommended training paces. Physically the training felt quite easy this cycle; mentally, it was an awful grind.
prerace: slept in a hotel night before, went OK.
race day: Got up, had usual coffee, bagel with PB, banana, and started drinking gatorade. Was worried about the heat and probably drank too much. Used bathroom, took imodium. Got to the race 1 hour early. Plenty early. Weather felt perfect at that point but I knew it was going to get hot. Goal was still sub 3:15 by some amount depending on how I felt during the race.
1-5 7:21, 7:21, 7:22, 7:05, 7:14
Started off a little fast but close enough to my plan. Had to go to the bathroom almost immediately.
6-10 7:18, 7:17, 7:19, 7:20, 7:20
Still good. Became very relaxed at this pace except for one thing...
11-15 7:38, 7:14, 7:08, 7:15, 7:18
Definitely drank too much, decided to use bathroom during mile 11 and just get it over with while I still felt good. Hadn't done that during a marathon in five years. After breaking off from the half around mile 13, it became incredibly quiet but I still felt good. Zero spectators, one runner 1/8 mile ahead of me and one runner 1/8 mile behind me. Wow it's quiet = time to do work.
16-20 7:21, 7:15, 7:22, 7:16, 7:12
The gravel road sections kind of sucked but not too bad. I knew they existed and had done some training runs on gravel. Started catching and passing people during miles 16-23. It's fun passing people that look half my age.
21-25 7:16, 7:13, 7:25, 7:13, 7:17
At mile 21ish I thought I had cut the course earlier and kept turning my head to try figure it out. Without thinking about it, I turned around and started running backwards to talk to the guy I had just passed. Maintained marathon pace running backwards on a gravel road at mile 21 - still cracks me up; sheesh, that was stupid. He looked annoyed with me but said I was good and the people we were crossing paths with were the ones who were off course (I confirmed this to be true afterwards). Got really hot from mile 22 on. Slowed to a walk the last two aid stations (mile 23, 26) and drank two gatorades and took two waters to dump over my head. Probably not necessary but I was able to quickly get back to race pace both times.
26-26.5 7:20, 6:44m/m
Realized at some point that I could get below 3:13 if I really pushed it and finished pretty strong. Actually had a volunteer give me a bike escort to the finish because of how sparse the runners were and the fact that a lot of spectators were using this time to cross the roads. That was cool.
p.s.
-gels at mile 0,5,10,15 couldn't get the last one down at 20. lots of gatorade though
-I think 26.5 miles is the longest marathon I've run - should pay more attention to running the tangents.
-Sue, Derrek, Marcus showed up - nice
-BQ-17 Should I do Boston again? I think so.