Cox Sports Marathon - RunMarathon

The run went pretty well for the first 3/4 of the race. I was trying to PR and was gunning for 3:10, 7:13 pace. The first 15 miles went well, was right on pace. I was pushing it and I knew it would be hard to maintain the last few miles. By the big hill from 21-23, I felt like I was holding steady, fading a bit, but not too bad. I was still thinking that I could make up time coming downhill the last couple of miles. I slowed going up and could never get my legs to pick it back up at the top. My secondary goal was to break 3:15 for a BQ, but I spent too much early and was out of gas by mile 23. Some of the problem was the mile markers were off all day long. I'd have a 6:50 mile, then an 8:20 mile, then 7:10. I could never tell what pace I was actually running. The first 15 miles I felt right on pace, but when I was tiring, I couldn't tell how well I was doing staying on pace. I was probably the only one without a Garmin, and played into the crash at the end.

I would back my goal back a couple of minutes. 3:12-3:13 would have been more reasonable. Coming off my 3:13 in Delaware, I thought I could do 3:10, but I bit off more than I could chew. I'm disappointed, but not defeated.

walked back to the hotel, laid on the floor with my feet up for 20 min, took a shower and headed to the airport.


It was hillier than I expected. Nothing terribly bad, but a long 2 mile steady climb at mile 21.


My only complaint is the post race festivities. I never found them. There were 20 yards after the finish line where someone handed me a bottle of water and a medal. I never found the beer truck, which really pissed me off. There was a gear check station with some sort of recovery drink tent next to that. I never saw any food, beer, massage table, etc. I stopped at Dunkin Donuts on the way back to the hotel for some post race junk food.

The course itself was fine, nothing spectacular, nothing bad. Tons of volunteers and aid stations.