Spent plenty of time at the Expo on Saturday and actually bought some stuff.
Had pizza for lunch, pasta for early dinner and in bed by 8:30. Pretty much had everything organized for the next morning.
Up at 4am. Took a shower and ate 1/2 an apple and a bagel. Drank 12 oz accelerade on the way to Rogue. Got to Rogue at around 5:30am - one other racer there. Relaxed, made a couple of potty visits and contemplaited whether I would take my ipod or not. Decided not too. Since it was cloudy out with a light north wind, I wore my glasses with yellow lenses to keep the wind out of my contacts.
Planned finish time - 3:45. I actually planned to run with the pace group. In reality I caught the 3:40 group by Austin High and then let them go by visiting a porta potty. Never actually ran with the 3:45 group at all. Felt good from the start thru Enfield - high fived some kids and a dog. Made an effort to try and slow myself down. Took a GU around mile 9.
Mile 11 JimGelb hopped in and ran the rest of the way with me. His job was to keep from running to fast and to motivate me if I hit any low spots. Coming out of Exposition, my legs felt a little tired and it felt like I had a wrinkle on my sock. I focused on keeping my legs underneath me and bending my knees.
Great Northern - BLAH - I told Jim that if my car had been there I'da hopped in it and driven home. This was a key moment in the run because I have moments like that a lot in the long runs and I always give up and drop back. Since Jim was there I just kept plugging on at the same pace and amazingly once we passed North Cross mall I felt fine! Had another GU somewhere around mile 15. Now Jim was repeatedly telling me to slow down that I would thank him in the last few miles and next Saturday at the soulbuster. This was good because my legs felt strong and the tightness and soreness in my left glute was gone. At mile 15 I wondered how I would get 26 done and at mile 18 I was loving life.
We just maintained pace until mile 24 (we were definately sub 3:45 now) and then pushed up Dean Keaton, on Guad and then flew down MLK to San Jac. Everyone else was running to the left - I stayed in the middle of the road until I had no choice but to go on the marathon side of the barrier. Still working well but keeping pace under control. Once we hit 11th - I just kicked it up and we sprinted down to the finish. My legs were fresh and there was no pain.
Jogged back up to Belevederes and then back to Rogue.
With my warm up jog and cool down jog - total 28 miles!!
That was my 2nd slowest marathon ever but I learned a lot.
- I can recover from a low point if I am patient.
-I need to run in the middle of the road - I did not cut across the tangents at all - took the longest route around the turns. Taking the tangents actually slows me down and hurts my feet.
-having a pacer makes a big difference - I had someone to talk to the whole way and someone to either motivate me or slow me down when needed.
I ran about 2 min slower than last year but felt much, much better at the end. I ran the 2nd half 1 min faster than the first, so pretty much even splits the whole way - last year I ran a huge negative split and while I felt OK at the end, I felt great this year. I was not at all sore on Monday except for a spot on my right quad and was able to run up and down stairs with no pain at all.
Boston - I will be shooting for even splits again. I will lose a little time in the hills but hopefully this year will be strong enough to make it up in the last 6 miles.
I passed over 300 people in the last 6 miles of Austin!!
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