Route 66 Marathon - RunMarathon

I'm not exactly sure what happened at this race. I slept well the week before (even the night before which is rare before a race), weather was perfect, nutrition was just right during the race. I can't blame any of those things.

The course was hilly in parts, but nothing more than what I'm used to.

But my best guess is that I hadn't recovered enough from my previous weeks, and I had developed some pain in my left hip lately that has affected how my recent runs have been going. I had run a great half marathon on Oct. 27th, felt really good the whole race and even had enough in me to pick it up the last 4 miles. But then a week later I did 13 miles at marathon pace (well, a smidgen faster than my fastest expected MP). I felt really good after the run. But looking back at my training log, none of my training felt good after this run.

I think I'm still learning what my limits are. When I'm getting close to the end of my training cycle and feeling so good, I think I tend to push it too hard in training and often get injured near my big races. I've managed to get by ok in the past, but not this time I guess.

During the marathon I never felt great. Even 3 miles in, my stomach started cramping which rarely happens. This continued in the first half, where I needed to walk a few times for the pain to stop. Then somewhere in the middle right before the ascent started, I started to just hurt all over. I did a lot of walking in the second half. Just looking at my HR data, you can see where it happened. At some point it hurt just as much to walk as it did to run. So I started to run more. I really didn't think I could finish several times, but at some point my family showed up to cheer me on, and told me to keep going. I've had low points before in races, but not so many, and not ones that lasted for miles. This was the second hardest race to finish for me.

Hold back more in the beginning, run more by heart rate, less long and intense training so close to race day.

A little stretching and drinking and eating. Then 8 hours in the car back home.


Hip injury, too much hard training too close to race day, not mentally in the race, already thinking about my next training cycle, lots of self doubt.


This was a really good event. It's too bad I couldn't enjoy it more.