St. Jude Memphis Marathon - RunMarathon

I was thinking that this might be a good race for me. I felt great through the first 8 miles or so, ticking them off right at 8:00 pace. I had to stop and pee about mile 10, which pissed me off, as I got about 30 seconds behind. The 3:30 pace group passed me while in the toilet, so I caught up with them, and they promptly ticked off the next 2 miles in under 7:30 each. About mile 13 I was thinking that I felt pretty crappy even though we had slowed back down to 8:00 pace. At 15, for some reason - either diabetes or prostate problems, I had to pee again. As I came out of the port-o-john, I realized that I could try and catch the pace group and try to stay with them 0 even though I was already hurting- or I could finish the run off by myself, knowing that I could have tried harder, but safe in the knowledge that I can walk without limping today. I opted to ease into the rest of the run. I slowed a bit, but I walked only at the water stops and never for more than 30 seconds. Otherwise, most of the remaining 7-8 miles were between 9-9:30. I never went over 10 minutes for any mile, and I never had to take an extra walk break.

I certainly don't think I drank too much, but I had to stop twice in the middle of the run to pee

Walked around the food area and ate several Krispy Kreme donuts


I think trudging around Disneyworld all week before the race, chowing down at two to three times a day weren't ideal marathon preparation


This is a very well run event. The course is nice, although it is somewhat of a double loop, at least you run the same 6-7 mile segmetn in reverse direction so it fells different. Overall it's pretty flat, but there are constant rolling hills that are just big enough to get your attention. Water stops at every mile was nice. The post race food spread is the best I have ever been to in 10 years of racing. The Tshirt is nice too.