Shamrock Sportsfest Marathon - RunMarathon

This was a great race and not only because it was a PR for me. The course was super flat and a nice mixture of scenery from the Atlantic Ave. strip to the oceanfront and by the lighthouses. There is great course support. This is the first marathon after seven previous that I did not use GU and just used the Gatorade on the course. I decided to make this change after a successful last 20 mile training run doing the same and it did not fail me again. I took a little gatorade at every station except maybe the first one. Not sure how much this contributed to the race going so well but maybe the more steady state intake of a supplement works better for me than taking GU every 45 min like I have done in the past. I held about an 8:22 pace through mile 20 and then my last 6.1 were a 9min pace. This is the first time I have not dropped off to an 11 min pace after mile 20 so this was a big thing for me. I also felt pretty good through those last six. I knew I was slowing a little bit (I did not have exact feedback as my Garmin bit the dust at about mile 13 as always during a race. Can't figure out why I'm guessing it gets confused or something being in a different location. Drives me crazy. I guess I could use the clocks but thats too much work to remember what the last clock said and do the math) but I was a little fearful of the run taking a turn for the worse as it usually does at this point for me and I still had six to go and was feeling not too bad and wanted it to stay that way. As I came up on mile 25 I decided to push it to the end which was pretty easy as this is where it takes a turn back to the oceanfront so you have a the beautiful ocean on your left, lots of cheering on your right and you can see the finish line from a half mile out in front of you. Its a great ending to a great race.

I should have started pushing it a little sooner like at mile 23 which was what I originally was thinking I would do.

Walked over to the beer tent and did some 12 oz. bicep curls.


Memory of past races not going so well at the end.


This really was a fun and enjoyable race. The after party on the beach is very nice. This race is well organized and a good size so that it is not a big production to get to the race and with so many hotels it makes it that much easier to just stay and enjoy the whole weekend. This year the weather was the most perfect weather I have ever had for a marathon.