Well, we started off pretty good! We were hitting our splits just a few seconds above planned pace for the first half of the race. I kept trying to pull Steve just a few seconds faster per mile, but he wasn't matching me, and I knew we might be in trouble later on as a result. You could really start seeing people struggle with the heat at this point too. Clouds disappeared about an hour into it, and everyone was getting cooked. We saw a girl doing the half in really bad shape, and on the way back out for lap 2, she was being attended to by EMS. Not a good omen for the 2nd half.

I'd say we were still fairly close to being on pace until mile 15-16. Then the heat and dehydration won out, and Steve blew up. From then on, he was just in survival mode. We were full on stopping at aid stations, mixing in walking, doing whatever it took. He kept telling me to go on, but I told him I was doing this race with him, and we were finishing together. We made it to the finish (after an unbelievably cruel steep hill to the finishing lap around the Olympic oval), and did it together.

Nothing.

After making sure Steve had what he needed (ice, fluids, etc.), I started chowing down. I felt bad because I was trying to hide how fine I felt during the run, and Steve asked "how can you possibly eat like that right now?" It was just too hot for him (or anyone) to PR today, so the result was probably preordained.


I wasn't racing this one, and probably for the best. I would've tried to go out at my race pace, and who knows if I would've adjusted to the heat in time to avoid a blow up.


When you run a marathon in June, you can't get upset when it's too hot to PR. Fun course though, was neat running on (mostly) the IMLP route without doing the whole swim/bike thing first.