Shamrock Marathon - RunMarathon

Well the gun went off and I started. Within a few minutes, I saw Shelley a BT friend from NoVa. I said hi then we went our separate ways. Right from the start, I felt that my stomach (upper abdomen area) was bothering me. Similiar to some recent training runs which I had chalked up to eating too close to running. Not the case today though.

Hard to describe the feeling although it bordered on pain and at the very least caused a great deal of discomfort. The pain did not let up except for a brief period around miles 17/18. It didn't prevent me from holding my pace and I hit my 13m time check on pace for my plan. However, it mentally wore on me and prevented me from taking in my nutrition. I took a squeeze of one gel around mile 5 (my first planned gel) but I skipped my next planned gel around mile 10.

The bridge heading out of/into town was pretty small but still an incline so going both ways (mile 3/10) I took it easy and tried to hold a steady pace and figured whatever I lost going up, I'd make up going down.

Around miles 8/9, we ran through a base and had a huge crowd of soliders cheering for us and giving high 5's. That gave me a bit of a boost and it was really cool to see them and see how enthusiastic they were.

Then the fun was over. First, I hit the boardwalk and the horrible wind. It was very strong and I cuold not find anyone to run close enough to for shielding purposes. It sucked. That just about took my last ounce of mental toughness. It was at that point that I realized, it was not going to happen for a Boston time. Even though I was hanging with the plan, I knew I would not be able to negative split. I needed the first half of the race to go well and be easy. I needed to have all of my fight left for the second half and I didn't.

So I figured I would try to hold a pace in the 8's and focus on a solid sub 4hr. time. I ran back through the boardwalk area and saw Tony. He yelled some encouragement and it was nice to see him.

I headed out the long stretch of road to make the loop for the second half of the race. Somewhere around mile 14 or so, I saw the leaders coming back. The guy who won looked like he was out for a training run as he glided past mile 23. He crushed the field. Then I saw our own local celeb, Micheal Wardin about 4-5 min behind in second. He ended up 3rd. It cracks me up that he finishs 3rd at the Marathon Des Sables and pops up for our local 5ks. The man loves to run!

Anyway, by the time I made the turn do the little loop for miles 16-22, I was hurting. I forced down another bite of a gel but that was all I felt like eating. I also noticed that my hands had really swelled. Usually that happens to me in the summer and I get a little swelling. I could not even move my rings and I had little sausage fingers. My water consumption had been normal for the race. Another mystery.

I held my new pace until I headed back to the final home stretch but the wheels offically came off at mile 22. The lack of nutrition had finally caught up with me. It was ugly. I had a funky lean and shuffle working then mile 24 consisted of run/walking from cone to cone. My sub 4 hr. time was in danger so I had to pull all of mental strength to keep going even though I desperately wanted to lie down in the middle of the road. Not pretty.

Once I made the turn to the boardwalk, I saw the finish in the far distance. I picked up the pace as much as I could and stumbled home for a sub 4 hr. time.

Super happy w/ breaking 4 hrs. So that was a small victory. Never so happy to see a finish line and those last 4 miles were the toughest I have ever run in my life.

Not sure b/c I never got a chance to really execute my plan. That is the only disappointing part of the race. It's like getting a flat tire out of T1 in a sprint tri that you really wanted to see how fast you could go.

Walked around and gathered stuff, food and chatted with Shelley for a few min. She had passed me right at the finish and given me a slap on the butt. I was in such a state that I almost fell over out of shock but it was all good. She had a super race. And I started eating - ERRRR.

We went back to the hotel. I got an ice bath which made me feel 100 times better than a nice warm shower.


My stomach.


This group always does an amazing job on their races. Super organized, grat volunteers and great swag. I got a really cool hat at the end and a finisher's shirt. Lots of food, drink and beer. Although I had no interest in walking through the sand to the beer/stew tent.