Suntrust National Marathon - RunMarathon

The run went great. Going into it, I didn't know what to expect with my lack of training th elast 3 weeks. It was ideal waether and a pretty flat course, so I thought I would push it a bit. After the slow first mile, I settled into a nice rhythm that felt good, and was surprisingly about 10 sec faster than I had anticipated. Bby 10 miles, I was 2:45 ahead of my ususal 3:30 pace, hit half way at 1:41 or so. At mile 20, I was 5.5 minutes ahead of 3:30 pace and still feeling pretty good. I knew I would have to keep it steady 8 min miles to get 3:25. Miles 23,24 were the worst, and when I hit 24, I knew it would be close. I needed to run just under 8 min miles to hit 3:25, and even though I missed it, I ran it well. The last 1/2 mile was a slow gradual incline that hurt

Nothing. This was my most consistent effort throughout a race, and a 3 minute PR . THe course was hillier than I had expected, although not too bad. Unfortunately, the last 5 miles were rollers the entire way. Took gels at Miles 11,15 19,23, drank one cup of gatorade at every otehr stop. Nutrition seemed right on. I might try 11,14,17,20,23 for the gels next race and see if teh gut can handle it. Usually after taking one, I couldn't really feel it until after a mile or so. Maybe a 3-3.5 mile increment between them would help.

walked around, got my banana and cookies and water and went back to the house, showered and was at the airport 2.5 hours later


Nothing


This was very well done. Expo moved smoothly, the Metro ran early race morning to assist in transport to the start, things went off on time, tons of volunteers and plentiful water stops. Lots of drinks and gels were out at least 5 stops. Post race was adequate, I didn't stick around to check it out too closely. Good medal and race shirt. Very well done race. A good PR never hurts, either