Marathon #2

it has been nearly a week since i ran my second marathon and i am just getting time to blog about it. it went a little better than i expected but not as well as i had hoped. i was hoping to finish it in 4:30 but would be extremely happy to finish in 4:43, 1 hour faster than last year. if i just beat my time from last year i would be happy but i was worried it might not happen.

i started out with the 4:40 pace group thinking if i finished a little behind them i would still finish an hour ahead of last year. i was really trying to stay with the pace team and keep it slow. i really enjoyed the first part of the race. by going slow i could look at the sites and really see what was going on around me. this was the first time i really enjoyed a run. at mile 13 i was feeling strong, my legs felt powerful, i want to start running harder, however i knew i had to stay at my pace or i would be worn out before the end. mile 14 and 15 were good, i was still right on pace to finish at 4:40. at mile 16 i started getting a pain in my side. i slowed down and ran with it as long as i could, but i eventually had to stop and walk a little. after a while the i was able to run again but not for long. this went on until mile 18. at that point i had to stop and walk and it was the first time my legs really felt tired. my entire body felt tired my legs were too heavy. i hit the wall. from mile 18 to the end it was a mixture of walking and running. towards the end i figured i could still keep my time under 5 hours. when i hit mile 25 i started running and felt pretty good. that didn't last long but i pushed until i just couldn't lift my legs anymore. about 1/2 mile to the end i could see the final uphill turn so i started running again. the uphill turn is at 25.9 miles. at that point i started walking to the top of the hill which was about 60 yards. from the point the rest of the race was downhill so i started running again. i finished in 5:02.24. it would have been great to finish under 5 hours but i really feel like i pushed myself every chance i could.

i finished 183 in my age group, 1018th male, and 1686 overall. overall, i beat 678 people.

thought of marathon day: you only regret the runs you don't do and you regret the runs not done most during the marathon, and mostly at the end of the marathon and the days following.