Carlsbad Marathon - RunMarathon

This was my first marathon and it was a great experience. San Diego received 4-8 inches of rain since the Monday prior, but it turned out to be a beautiful sunny and clear day.

I had been training at a 3:45 target and felt good throughout much of that, so on somewhat of a last minute decision, decided to go out with the 3:30 pace group to see how that felt. My right knee had been feeling some pain during training at around 20 miles, so I was hoping that if i finished sooner, maybe I could abate some of that if it became an issue.

Goal #1 was to finish in 3:45 with my secret goal of finishing 3:30 something. Goal #2 was to do sub 4:00. Goal #3 was to finish.

I figured if thing felt too fast or if the knee pain or cramping came into play, I could drop back before it got too bad and still shoot for sub 3:40 or 3:45.

The first 20 miles felt absolutely great. It's funny because at that moment, I had designs of pulling ahead of the pace group the last 5k or so and doing a solid sub 3:30 run. I had no knee trouble at all. I think the taper period did its job in letting everything heal.

However, as we started approaching the hill at mile 23 approaching Tamarack, my legs starting to feel the fatigue and I found myself just trying to hang on to the pace group.

The course up to that point had separated the 1/2 marathoners from the marathoners. There was an aid station around this point and with huge number of people going for water, I found myself having to abruptly maneuver to avoid colliding with them. That small amount of effort was enough to trigger cramping at first in my left calf and then my right hamstring.

Having experienced the whole cramping thing during the run at the Big Kahuna, I immediately slowed down to at least keep jogging. I also started downing the Endurolytes I had brought along.

I cramped again about another quarter mile down the road. One of the spectators that was cheering people along looked shocked as I sharply gasp in pain and stopped right in front of her. She asked if I was cramping and I confirmed and mumble something about needing to stretch and continue on.

Around mile 25, I was passed by my son's friends dad who we just meet the day before at the expo. He was running the half and gave me a fist bump encouraging me on. Many spectators during the last couple miles were super encouraging, telling me to keep moving forward and that I could do it. They called my name which was printed on the bib and that really helped me mentally. I love all the positive energy and support that random people give to each other during all of these races.

In looking at my HR data, I was averaging roughly 160 bpm for the first 2:55 of the race and slowed it down to around 135 before the final .5 miles. I was surprised to have held such a high avg. for the majority of the run.

It was a great feeling to finish and I certainly don't feel like I left anything on the course.

Most importantly, it provides a good baseline to establish training targets for Oceanside and CDA.

I was also very happy to see several other coworkers and neighbors who also had been training for the half, complete and meet their goals, inspiring some of first timers to enroll in future races.

Would have paced with 3:35 group instead of 3:30 group in hopes of not blowing up at mile 23.

I feel that this experience with the full marathon is very valuable in calibrating effort for future races.

Walked back to the car and back to watch my wife finish the half. My mom also came out to watch her finish and we met up with all the folks from the neighborhood as they finished.


Cramping at the last 2-3 miles.