Last updated: 2007-01-27 12:00 AM
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03:28:57
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26.2 miles |
07m 59s min/mile
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4/179
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350/3698
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Below average
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My goal was to qualify for the Boston Marathon, which for me meant 3:15:59, or a pace of 7:28/mile. My plan was to go out with the 3:10 pace group, but to make sure that the group was actually running 3:10 (7:16 per mile...) If not, I was prepared to drop off the back and do my own thing.
I had written on my race bib my per mile paces for 3:10 and for 3:15 to see that I stayed on track. Makes it easy to be able to just read instead of doing math...
Planes flew over, anthem sung, and here we go!
Mile 1 - 7:33: A little slow, but probably due to all the traffic and such.
Mile 2 - 7:18: Still a little behind pace, but catching up, so I felt okay at this point. Feeling comfortable.
Mile 3 - 7:02: Now we are on track. Total time is 21:54, which means we only "owe" 9 seconds to be on pace.
Mile 4 - 7:02: Still feeling great. We're right on target now...
Mile 5 - 7:20: I love this pace guy! He is sitting right on 3:10 pace. So I am going to be able to go through the half with five minutes in the bank, and just cruise home in the second half.
Mile 6 - 7:09: Still right in the groove.
Mile 7 - 7:01: Okay, I'm not too happy with that. I don't need to do too many low 7's.
Mile 8 - 6:54: AHHHH!! That's way too fast. At this point, I say to myself that if he clocks another low 7, I am pulling back.
Mile 9 - 6:58: Yep, he's gone too fast, but I still feel great so I just slide myself to the back of the pack. At this point, we are 1:04:20 through 9 miles, and on pace would be 1:04:45.
Mile 10 - 7:11: See, he's doing this just to screw with me, isn't he? Truly, at the time I still felt super-easy, and I did not have any real concerns. Didn't want to blow it out, but I felt very in control.
Mile 11 - 7:18: Back in the groove. Felt good about the pace group again, but I was still in the back.
Mile 12 - 7:34: Still hangin on, but I had let a few steps form between me and the pace group. After all, they had served their purpose and had gotten me (nearly) to the halfway mark at 3:10 or so pace.
Mile 13 - 6:36: I have no idea where this came from. Still. This mile did not feel incredibly fast, it really didn't. However, this put me at 13 miles in 1:33:00. The half was 1:34:09, and I was about 20 seconds behind the pace group. So he was about 2, 2.5 minutes ahead of pace, and I was about a minute ahead of my target half marathon pace. Still felt terrific, and I was looking forward to a good, but hard, second half.
Mile 14 - 7:25: Yep. Just keep it right there.
Mile 15 - 7:32: Along in here, I decided my new strategy was to keep it in the 7:30 range, and I would qualify easily.
Mile 16 - 7:29: But I was starting to battle. The wind was dead in our faces from 13 to 18, and it was really taking it's toll on me.
Mile 17 - 7:40: See, it was getting to be too much. However, at this point, or somewhere along in here, I calculated that if I could keep it below 8:00 per mile for the rest of the way, I would still qualify. It's never good when your "target" goes from 7:15 to 7:30 to 8:00 in that short of time.
Mile 18 - 7:57: I was still in it, but really trying too hard to have 8 miles left in the race. I began to worry, and really, really dread the hill from the end of 19 to the end of 21.
Mile 19 - 7:57: Oh man, I was barely haning on. Too bad that I jsut turned to go uphill for about two miles. If I could make it to the top of the hill on pace, I could coast on home, right?
Mile 20 - 9:07: Holy crap. That hurt, and it was about all I could do. Now, my 8:00 per mile pace was based on finished at 3:15, and you get an extra minute of grace, so I knew that I had used that up and needed to finish out the rest of the way at 8:00 or better, but I doubted I could.
Mile 21 - 8:59: I cried when I saw that time. I knew I was cooked. It was all I could do to just run that slowly, and there was no way I could get back the time to qualify for Boston. My day was done.
Mile 22 - 8:44: I managed to hold on for one more mile, but I was dying. Crap. What went wrong? At the end of 22, the 3:20 group went past me, and that was so demoralizing. Here I was, trying to run 3:15, and with four miles left, the 3:20 group dropped me. Pain.
Mile 23 - 9:42: Started walking a minute at the beginning of each mile.
Mile 24 - 10:57: Yeah, I think I walked more than once in this mile. Everything hurts.
Mile 25 - 8:41: Not sure how I pulled that one off, but there it is.
Mile 26 - 11:56: So much for the goal of running the whole last mile. A meager attempt at face-saving. I walked so much during this mile, that I cannot believe it.
Last 0.2 - 1:45: Managed to run through the finish line, but I was dying.
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Good
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Just right
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Just right
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Yes
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Yes
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Yes
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Yes
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5
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United States
40F / 4C
Overcast
Overall Rank = 350/3698
Age Group = Clydesdale
Age Group Rank = 5/179
We stayed at the W Hotel which literally overlooks the race start/finish. Very nice spot. But let's go back to the day before. My wife and I spent a little time at Northpark Mall, mostly because we live in a city (Texarkana) which doesn't have a mall like that. We walked around and stuff and she shopped and I tried to mostly sit.
The night before we ate at an Italian Restaurant with four couples, all of whom were participating in either the half or the full, so that was a good time. One of the couples lives in Little Rock, so they were interested to see whether or not Darren McFadden had won the Heisman.
That morning, I got up and had some coffee, banana, cereal and a Clif Bar a couple hours before the race.
Ran about half a mile or so. Again, the good news was that I just walked out the front door of our hotel to the start line. I could look up from my spot in the starting grid and see six to ten goofballs grinning and waving down at me as they waited for the start of the half-marathon. Lucky, lucky.