I started the day following the 3:30 pace group, and I totally blame the pacer for making me go 8 minutes slower than planned. A 3:30 marathon averages out to 8:01 per mile. The first mile was 8:35, then the guy must have felt like he had something to prove after that. Almost every mile for the next 17 that I stayed with him was well under the 8:01 pace. 18 miles into the race I was a goner. My plan changed from under 3:30, to under 3:35, to under 3:40, to finishing, to not dropping dead. When I ran the marathon 4 years ago I prided myself in not walking to whole time. I walked about 6 times between miles 21 and 25 today. And when I stopped running to walk my head would spin. I couldn't see straight. If I would have sat down I probably would have passed out. But, when I started back running the spinning would stop, but the overall pain did not. My knees, feet, toes, shoulder didn't hurt... nothing in specific hurt, everything hurt. At mile 9 Speedy Gonzalez had us go a 7:27 mile, mile 25 was a 10:04 when I walked twice, thought about jumping in the river to end it all, then prodded through.
All in all, I'm happy I did it, I'm happy I beat my old time by 28 minutes, but most of all I'm happy it's over. 1/2 marathons are fine, but if I ever say I'm running another marathon, someone please point me to this post and talk me out of it.
Pictures of the massacre:
Mile 8. Going fast, but just about the time I started getting hungry. Getting hungry 8 miles into a marathon? Not a good thing.
Mile 14. Still hanging in there. Less than a mile from the hill that did me in.
Mile 26.1. You can see the pain oozing from my pores.
13 comments:
Well congrats man! You're a star. You did more athletically during that one run than I've done in the past five years.
good for you. I'm with you, except that I'm not even bothering with the half marathons anymore. 10km is long enough.
That does not sound fun.
That sounds awful. LOL Love the pic of the old dude pulling past you though. You should frame that one.
Oh and I totally agree with Chuck. Same here.
Congratulations! But wait, no "after" pictures of your feet/toenails?
I was all set to build a new blog on a new site this week and now, suddenly, I can comment. Nice.
C - Thanks man!
P - I've actually never done a 10K. But, I think next year I'll definitely focus on more speed. More shorter races.
Px - Fun is not a word I would use to describe the day. Emotionally and physically draining, yet rewarding. Not fun.
L - Yeah, I looked it up and I'm pretty sure he's 58. I got 1700th place overall. He's one of about 500 people that passed me in the last few miles.
K - Amazingly my toenails did not hurt or blacken or fall off anymore.
I pulled a muscle just reading that.
I don't think I understand the "pacer" thing. Can't you just run real fast and win it or something. What happens if you go past the pacer guy? Does he shoot you with a tranquilizer dart or something?
You DA MAN! I see running as a sport where you compete with yourself as much as the other racers and you beat your previous time so you ROCK!
how many times did you pee yourself?
congratulations!
Timathon:
The most important thing here I think is how cute you look with your shoes matching your top :)
I'm proud of you. I could not do this without pooping my pants.
You are so outrageously cool. Even if you do look like you're about to puke.
Kudos to you for sticking it out. Congratulations!
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