SunTrust Richmond Marathon - RunMarathon

Ok, this was a HUGE learning experience for me. I am not at all happy with the time it took me to finish this race, but it was my first marathon so finishing is the accomplishment. The temp was great for running but I made some wrong decisions on how to handle the race as a whole. I was relatively on pace around the half...perhaps a little slower, but close to on target. Mile 15 had a very long bridge over the highway and water with cars rushing but as well. It was windy and cold and I had given up my long sleeve shirt in mile 7 so my body temp dropped and my muscles felt very hard and cold. This is essentially where I broke down in the race. I walked ALOT after that and the last 10 miles were a fight. Some key lessons from this:
1.Pay better attention to temp. My body temp was up and down and for this distance i need to be able to accommdate the flux. I should have kept the long sleeve around my waist so I could take it on and off as needed.
2.Work on the mental aspect of the difficult part of the race. Mile 15 was difficult, but I let my struggle take over mentally. I had a hard time getting back focused on what I was doing because I felt like I had lost it at that point. I want to be able to reign that in and get back to the task at hand.



Some other lessons:

More cross training during the week.
More consitantcy in long runs...fewer breaks, etc.

Nothing really. I changed into warm clothes and went back to the hotel.
Any stretching I attempted made my muscles go crazy so I just laid down.


My mind and my body temp.
I should also train harder to fun faster.



There was limited food left by then time I got over to the food tent. This was annoying.