Mardi Gras Marathon - RunMarathon

At Packet pick up I got moved to corral #5 instead of #19 because they lost my number.... that set me up for my biggest mistake of the race. When my corral went, I was getting passed left and right so I sped up. BIG MISTAKE.

Oh sure I was feeling good, and life was great but I knew my plan was 10/miles. It's what I did in training and I when I varied I always paid the price. Well After mile 15 I made myself slow down to the 10's....

Saw the wife, kids and my dad at mile 11 :) Yay!

Saw Will and Neil at 15 :) I was still feeling good at this point :)

Mile 18 I decided I needed some sort of calories and grabbed a GU and drank cytomax (both of which I hadn't been using) but no stomach problems luckily.

It was too late, by mile 22 I could see it was going to be ugly. Someone handed me half an orange which I think fended off the cramps. People were constantly pulling off to the side and stretching, then pass me up and pull off to the side and stretch again....over and over, the same 5-10 people.

By mile 23 I conceded to walking for just one minute. I was drinking two cups of water at a time. Getting full of water and being uncomfortable when I ran.

Mile 24 it would be walking for 1 minute a couple of times...

Mile 25 26 etc....who knows how much but I walked alot... and got really hunger and drained. Saw WIll and Neil again, but wasn't much on conversation this time LOL.... I don't even think I got a word out LOL...

The finishing chute was a blessing to see! My family were among the people there and after a short high fiving them I crossed the line and began to fend off death for the last time.

Okay here is the main information. I finished the race but I did three major things wrong....

1. Got swept up in the "fast" crowd. I should have never gotten below9:45 miles and I knew it. Move to a slower Corral.

2. Forgot to grab my Clif Shot Blocks from my wife at mile 11. I took on Gu and that drink they had for calories at mile 18 or so, but I had to do something. Luckily it didn't affect my stomach but it was way to late.

3. I drank to little water early on. In my training

Ate and drank everything I could for the first 15 min then I was gtg.


Drinking to little water in the first half of the race caught up with....I never cramped up but I was parched at the end.

I needed probably 300 calories before mile 20 imo, Those shot blocks would have done the trick.

It was a little warmer than my training temps, but not *toooo* bad.


I don't know if I hit "the wall" or not.... I just know that if you are going to run for 4+ hours you need to take some water and or calories in at some point......

This was my biggest race to participate in... I thought it was well run, with TONS of police to protect us from crackheads!

I have learned a lot and will do better next time. All those people passing me up ? Who cares? I would never see them again anyway.... Next time I will stick to the plan!

One last thing, my Garmin had it at 26.5......