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Comments: Started off fast. My legs felt great and it felt like I wasn't even trying. I would look down at my Garmin and see 6:00 min. pace and would back off. However, I was still going a lot faster than planned. Then I started thinking optimistically that because of my taper, my legs were fresher than in training and I might be able to hold a faster pace, so I kept going. I somehow dropped a gel right as the race started and did not realize it. This immediately changed my nutrition strategy where I was going to try to drink more powerade to make up for it. However, I did not drink enough with the hot temperatures. I felt great through mile 16 and was moving along quickly. Then the course turned into the wind and I immediately felt tired. My quads started feeling like they were going to cramp at about mile 19 and everything started getting worse fast. My pace kept dropping each mile and I could not do anything about it. At mile 21, I wanted to grab 3 gels of a specific flavor that I like. The volunteers kept telling me it was further down the aid station. However, they were wrong - they didn't have the flavor that they said they did. I knew I had to get gels or the cramping would take over quickly. So I turned around to go back to the gels and grabbed 3. This cost me about 30 seconds. I kept trudging along with my quads feeling more and more like they were going to lock up. Right at mile 25, my right one cramped a little more so I started favoring my right leg with my stride. I managed to make it to the end of the race without them cramping. I saw my family cheering for me in the finisher chute which was great. I wanted to break 3 hours and was disappointed that I missed it by such a slim margin. I keep thinking about the 30 seconds lost at the aid station, but ultimately, it was my stupid mistake of going out to fast that led to the situation I was in. What would you do differently?: Not make the rookie mistake that I was already aware of - DON'T GO OUT FASTER THAN PLANNED PACE!! I also should have been taking in more gels/poweraid due to the heat.  Post race
Warm down: Could barely walk. Found family and sat down for about 15 minutes. What limited your ability to perform faster: Terrible pacing, poor nutrition, heat Event comments: Great race. Lots of energy and supporters for the 1st half of the marathon. Then there is not as much. Last updated: 2012-11-06 12:00 AM
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United States
Cleveland Marathon
70F / 21C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 45/2863
Age Group = M 40-44
Age Group Rank = 6/227
Training: Training for this marathon went very well. I followed the 55/18 plan almost to a T with a lot of 18 mile long runs and then a 20, 21, and 22 mile long run where I was able to hold 6:35 pace. That was going to be my target pace for race day. However, the forecast started showing hot temperatures so I decided it would be better to start at 6:45-6:50 pace to start and hopefully finish strong. Planning versus execution are 2 different things!