I did it! 26.2 miles, with no walking other than at the water stations, because really, you can't run and drink from those little cups without losing most of the liquid.
I did better and feel better than I thought. When I reached mile 20 I started thinking wow, this is now the longest distance I've run. But the training schedule paid off, and I finished feeling good.
Thanks to my awesome wife and lovely family for their support! Not just today but all year long. My running every day was a change to our schedule, but she handled it with grace and at some point must have decided that if she couldn't beat me, she should join me. And she looks great doing it!
I really enjoyed the race. Getting up early wasn't so much different from when I get up for work or for when I've been getting up for my long runs. The parking was a "bear," not that I want to overuse that term. Several people had mentioned to me that the course itself was very hilly and tough, but this year they changed the route and from what I understand it wasn't as bad as last year's. Training on the hills in our neighborhood and areas close by was definitely a help, and I didn't have any problems on the hills during the race.
I also don't feel like I ever hit a wall. I will say that the last mile was the longest of the race, because you feel like you're almost there when you get to mile 25 and you're thinking that what's left isn't so long compared to what you've just run, but sure enough, it's a real mile, plus a couple hundred yards thrown in for good measure. The weather was fantastic. There was one point at about mile 16 where we headed east about two miles, then turned and went back the same way. The way out on that also seemed like it went on forever, but once we made the turn it was nice to run past all the people who were behind me and hadn't made the turn yet.
I tried to keep a good, slow pace, and I was kind of worried about 4 miles in when I passed a couple of guys and they remarked they were doing about 9 minute miles, and I thought whoa, that's way too fast. I was shooting for somewhere in the 10-minute range, hoping to finish somewhere between 4:20 and 4:40. I thought that was a reasonable goal for my first marathon. At about mile 9 or 10 I picked up a pace group for a time of 4:10. I didn't join them but thought hey, I feel pretty good so maybe that's a reasonable time for me. I passed them at most water stops, but they usually passed me up again within a few minutes. At mile 20 I finally left them in the dust and didn't hear them again the rest of the way. There was a 2.5-mile uphill stretch at that point, and I passed a lot of people. I was kind of surprised at how many people stopped and walked (hill training pays off!). The official results aren't in yet, but I figure I came in somewhere between 4 hours and 4:10 (obviously).
Overall I had a lot of fun. Fun? Yeah, it was cool to be in a race with 6,000+ other people, about 1,000 who did the full marathon. When the half-marathon course split from ours at about mile 6 it suddenly seemed like nobody was running the full course. There's a lot of energy in such a big group of people, and hearing my family scream for me a couple of times was a big lift, too. People lined almost the whole length of the course, most all of them shouting encouragement, and I even got a few high-fives from kids watching from the sidewalks. I was crossing a bridge at about 24.5 miles and a guy was standing at the near end and clapped as I went by and said, "Looking good! Nice, tight stride this far in the race - you're looking great!" And of course I'm nodding and thinking to myself, you betcha!
I'm pretty sore from the waist down, mostly in the hips and calves, but not as bad as I'd expected. I'm taking a couple of weeks off from running to rest my poor aching body, so I'll probably hit the bicycle a few times before lacing up the shoes again.
That Turkey Trot in November will seem like a walk in the park after this!
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