Cape Cod Marathon - RunMarathon

The only real goal I had outwardly for this race was to do a bit better than I had done in my first mary at Hyannis in February of this year. I squeaked in just under 5 hours (4:59:41) there and was hoping to keep it under 5 and pick up a few minutes in addition to make it a PR. When I started to hear about how hilly the course was, I was thinking maybe this was not gonna be achievable, but didnt let it get into my head. Secretly, I was thinking how great it would be to do about 4:40:00. As I gave my husband one last hug before the race start, I said to him "I'd love to do 4:40:00".

Polly and I jumped into the crowd in the shoot and waited for the cannon to go off. Glen(c2fd) and Joanne(isis54) were there and we exchanged hugs. The cannon went off and off we went. Chatted with Joanne for minute or two, but she is fast and Glen was taking off without her so I shooed her away and told her to giddyup and get with Glen, which she did!

So we headed down the main street of Falmouth and then turned down to the water and it was just an amazingly gorgeous day with not a cloud in the sky, light wind and very pleasant temp. Nice and flat to start and I was maintaining a slightly sub 10 minute mile feeling pretty good. Tried to take a little water at each station and sip my cytomax every 15 or so minutes.

Just before mile 12 marker I jumped into the woods to pee. I really didnt want to take time to do this but was starting to feel some discomfort so figured better the woods than waiting in line at a portolet. We were already into the hills and I knew I was gonna have to buckle down from here.

Dave and Chris were working the inside of the loop to appear at key places on the course. This was awesome as I saw them about 5 times during the run and it was always a boost to run by and high-five my husband.

The hills went on and on until about mile 24 where it flattened out finally. I ran the entire way until about mile 22 where there was one last kind of tough climb up to the light house where I walked for just a few seconds. This was just a beautiful scenic spot btw which was really a great distraction. Honestly at this point to start walking was just too painful and trying to start back up again was too hard so I tried to just keep running and manage my pace to keep moving forward at a decent clip and minimize the impact on feet which were screaming at this point. I did stop and walk a few more times for just very short periods of maybe 30 seconds or so as my aerobic system was getting fatigued. Finally at about mile 24 it flattened out and took us along the beach. This was loooong. No shade and bright sunshine for about a mile and a half. At this point, I had been leap frogging with this women who kept asking how much further. She spotted my Garmin I guess. We kept up with each other and that was pretty good motivation for the remainder of the race. At mile 25, I knew I wanted to run strong the rest of the way. We finally turned off the beach road and back up toward main street. I could hear the announcer and the crowd at the finish and I knew that 4:40:00 was well within my reach if I kept pushing. I picked it up here and headed strong to the finish. Dave was right there just before the finish line which was just awesome!

Hyperventilated for a few minutes in the shute. Finally got wrapped in a space blanket and made my way out of the finish area to work through the lactic acid that was pooling in my legs. Holy crap! Painful! After about 30 minutes of this, I was able to stand up again. Drank some water and cheered on the runners coming in.

Not sure I'd do anything differently here. I think I had a realistic idea of what was achievable for me and I ran accordingly. I let my body choose the pace and hung in really well mentally. I stuck pretty much to my nutrition plan and persisted until the end. At times I pushed hard and other times I let up just a bit to let my body recover. Tuned in and turned on! ;)

Again, the warm down was all about dealing with the lactic acid that came crashing down into my legs once I stopped running. OWWW!!! Stretched a bit as I could tolerate it with Dave's help. Drank some water. Took an ice bath when we got back to the hotel.

I'm going to lose the tonail on my left index toe as it was already black and by the end to the race was surrounded by a nice blood blister. Owweee!! I've already lost this one a couple of times. That same toenail on my right foot is pretty sore too but not as bad.


I think I ran this race to the best of my ability and its just a matter of extending my fitness to a point where I can run the entire distance. Almost did it this time around. The suffering didnt really start until very close to the end this time whereas in Hyannis really the last 10 miles were a sufferfest.


I really liked this course and the event. Not too big and a beautiful venue. Well organized and well supported. Hope I can do it again some time in the future.