Marine Corps Marathon - RunMarathon

I did not have the time to seed myself in the appropriate pace group but I was not too far behind.
First 3-4 miles were really slow. There were just sooooo many people. Anyway, I wanted to start easy, so no biggy. It was also nice running on Dave's side.
But at mile 6, I realized I was still quite slow going 8:30-8:40 average instead of 8:00 I had in mind.

So I decided to push gently without going out of my zone.
I maintained a 7:50 pace average (going from 150 to 154 bpm avg). All went well and I made a point to check my heart beats to keep it in zone from mile 7 to mile 17.
Then at mile 17 my HR started to go in the 158 avg so I slowed down. I was also thinking about what everybody told me before, keep some energy until mile 20 so you can push after if you have any left.
So I reduced my pace, going easy (8:20) and went back to 155.
Miles 19 and 20, I started to feel my legs - not good. Plus the wind was not helping. My pace went to 8:36-8:50.
That was the begining of the end... :)

The "20 miles wall" came to me. I was mentally prepared to fight for it but it was a quite hard moment, being on the bridge, nobody to cheer for you, cramps starting to show up....
Miles 21-24 were the difficult ones as I had some major cramps. My hear beats were still very stable (156 avg) but my pace had drastically changed (9:00 avg).
I just completely focussed on my run, trying to think about the next mile to come. I made a point not to stop and I kept running.

I did not have any endurolyte until then, so I took 2 of them and cramps started to go away at mile 25.
I could finally push and I finished without too much pb.

3 lessons learnt:
1- need to arrive on time to seed myself properly so I can just keep the same pace up to mile 20 without worrying about being several minutes behind at the start of the race.

2- pace my self even if I am running behind on my target time so I can finish stronger rather than weaker. In other words, save some energy even though it feels very easy until mile 20
--- Yes I know, most of you told me that already, so why didn't I listen to you?.....

3- nutrition plan: bring more than 2 endurolytes for my next marathon and swallow them at regular intervals in supplement to the gels. My 4 gels were good enough, I did not need anymore, but my 2 endurolytes were definitely not enough.

Needed more endurolytes to avoid cramps
need to pace myself better up to mile 20, only after should I push


All in one, it was a great race and I am looking forward to doing it again next year. I will focus more on both my pace and my nutrition plan. With the same type of training, I think I can go 3:35 or below. We'll see...