New Jersey Marathon - RunMarathon

My first half was phenominal. I ran for 12, walked for 3. It was hard at first to walk and watch all those people pass me but I I had to keep reminding myself to run my own race and that I had a long way to go. No reason to screw it up at the start.

Nothing

Not much. I sprinted to the finish when I saw my friends (they had all gotten done LONG before me), got my medal and hat and put on some warmer clothes. Shortly thereafter we drove home.


I am not a strong runner. I need to run more and push myself to go faster on training runs. More time and miles should help.


It had its strong and weak points. This was my first marathon so I can't compare it to anything, I can only make observations. Support for the marathoners died down significantly at the 13.1 mark. As I started loop 2 I didn't know where to go. The boardwalk was packed with 1/2ers and all the spectaters, there was no clear course for the next 1/2 mile or so. Also when I was nearing the last few miles, some of the cones were being removed from the intersections (There was still over an hour left in the race) so mentally that was a challenge. Nothing like feeling that you're going to be left out on your own because of being slow. Anf finally at the last sugary food station I heard one volunteer say something to the effect of "these people coming through now are just walking". Man did that piss me off. I came back with "at this point we're surviving". I may have been slow but at no time did I stop. Last week I was afraid I would get pulled from the course, instead I did it with over an hour to spare. I own that race- it's mine, I did it!
My nutrition was a shot block and swig of gatorade every 15 minutes. Well, that held up until mile 18 I guess. Honestly if I had to eat another I would have thrown up. BLECH! Other than that I had 1/2 banana, 4 orange segments throughout and 2 more Tylenol. I hooked up with some runners with similar abilities which was nice. Best of all though was the group of us that went down. Andy (my husband) kicked butt in 3:25, Steve (sgillen- check out his blog) was next at 4:12, Christine came in at 4:43, and Ed finished in 4:56. Ed and Chriistine had bad races according to them. All in all, I had a great time, what more could I say. Other than next time- different sleeping arrangements. But that's another store entirely....