Oh man ....... lessons learned!

Did everything right when it came to pre-race activities, carbo loaded well, got decent rest in, did not run for a few days to fully recover, tapered well, etc. etc. but was overly ambitious in some ways.

Race morning, got up at 5:30 (couldn't sleep anymore) took the dog out and let her do her business, and then fed her. Got dressed in my pre-race clothes, kissed the wife and kids and told them I'd see them there, grabbed my bag of stuff and off I went to Raven's stadium (I mean M&T Bank Stadium).

At the event I parked, walked around a bit and grabbed a few more pins to put my Accel gels on my waist band for later use. Got all the way dressed at around 7:00 and deposited my bag at the bag check. About 7:15 then, so I started a basic stretching routine before taking the 1/2 mile walk to the starting line. Around 7:40 they start lining up the pace groups and by then I had made my decision to go out with the 3:20:00 group and see how I'd do with them. First warning should have been there ....... there were only about 200 people from me to the Kenyans/Russians/elite runners. 7:55 the wheelchair racers go off, 8:00 we go off. About a ten second delay from clock to my chip/watch.

First mile I stay right on the 3:20:00 pace group and we go through in a comfortable 8:02 by my watch. The first three miles are a steady gradual climb and I stretch it out a little. I go through mile two at 15:21 or so. I'm a bit ahead of the pace group, but I say screw it and keep my pace going (getting to a 3:15:00 I would need to be ahead of them anyways). 3 miles at 22:30-ish, still feeling good. I'm trying to keep it light and say thanks to all the police and encourage some of the relay people who only had to go 6 or 7 miles and went out too fast.

Cruising along smart letting my body work on the downhills and not pushing too much on the uphills. Around mile 7 I said to myself that there is really no way that I can maintain this pace for the whole race especially knowing what miles 17-21 look like. So I make the decision there to back it off and enjoy the race while still keeping a good pace ....... but it was probably already too late.

Right at mile 9 the 3:20:00 pace group catches up and I ran with them for a bit chatting with one of the pacers, and said good luck and backed it off again to let them go. Fort McHenry was beautiful and nice and quiet. Right out on the water and a slight wind (which was not really slight, and had a knack of changing directions through the whole race and blew in our face or on our side the whole time - about 10 -15 mph most of the time).

I'm enjoying it but not pressing too much. Cruising along I get to 13.1 at 1:42:40-ish. I know that the next half is going to be a lot harder not only because of the amount of hills, but also because the temperature was climbing. The day was supposed to get almost to the high 70's. Going through the half was nice because they had not started the half-marathoners yet and they were all at their starting line cheering the full runners that went by along. Felt good there.

13 - 15 are basically flat, but there were some very deep cobbles as we went into Fells Point, and I kept my eyes glued to the ground to avoid any slips/trips. I saw a co-worker/friend at 15.5 and waved to him and his wife as they cheered us along. But I was starting to get tired, and it was getting warmer. 16 is where the road goes up and stays that way until after mile 20. Beginning of the end for me .........

16.5 I got my first twinge. Left inside leg was contracting on each stride as I went up the slopes. But it would be okay on the flats and the brief downhill sections. By 18 I was starting to get twinges in my quads. Hmmm, this isn't fun anymore. Cresting the hill after 19 I had to stop to stretch to help alleviate the cramps. 19.5 - 20 is slightly downhill/level, then raised up again. I knew there was another water stop at 20.5, and was concentrating on getting there. Went through 20 at about 2:44-ish. Did my usual walk-through at the water stop and took Gatorade as I had been at all the stops. I even stopped quickly for a pee brake and happy to say that it was relatively clear, which means I was hydrated well. But electrolyte depletion was kicking my azz. Every step was a twinge in some quad or groin muscle.

From 21 -26.2 was a total nightmare and seemed to go on forever. It was a long combination of walking/jogging with a heck of a lot more walking and stretching breaks. I tried to keep a fast walking pace, and jog when I could but each time I got going again things would start cramping and I would either slow down or walk and stretch. At 23 I saw that I had about 38 minutes to go before I would be over 4 hours. So I did what I could to keep a brisk pace going whether it was walking or shuffling.

At 25 I was at around 3:46-ish and knew that I could break 4 hours if I did not walk the whole way. I kept walking from 25 to about 25.4 and then started shuffling again and vowed for pride's sake that I would run all the way in. At the first kid's fun run sign I was at 3:55:30-ish, but I knew that the longer fun run was supposed to be a 1/2 mile. I also knew that there was no way in hell that I could run a sub 5 half mile at that time. But I tried to pick it up as much as I could. Something wasn't right about the sign though, I knew there was not that much left to go. As I passed the second fun run sign (supposed to be about 100 yards) I heard the announcer reading off names and said, "If you want to break four hours you have around two minutes left!" to the runners. I could see the "tape" and timing clock and knew then unless I decided to crawl from there on out that I could break 4.

Crossed the line and stopped the watch. Watch time 3:58:37. Chip time 3:58:36.

Everyone seems to describe the euphoric feelings they have as they finish. Mine was more like, "Thank God that is f--king over ........" Got my medal, grabbed a blanket which I gave back after around 15 feet since it was so hot. There were so many people in the racer's area that I was feeling oppressive, so I bolted as quickly as I could shuffle out of there! I grabbed an orange on the way since I knew it would taste so good! Grabbed the wife and kids and sat down to rest.

Overall, disappointed with the run. I did break my original goal of 4:00:00, but not in a way that I really feel good about. If I had run slower at the beginning and ramped it up, I would have done better. Did I have a 3:15:59 in me?? Not this day. I probably had about a 3:30-3:35 in me if I had run more conservative. And while I knew electrolytes would be an issue (I have always used a lot in my endurance events) there was nothing I could do about it on the course. I sucked down Gatorade Endurance at every stop, and it wasn't enough. And I did not have any Endurolytes or Amino Vitals with me. Next time I will have to make sure I have enough supplements during the activity. What I DID take away is that I can easily be in the mid 1:30's for the half if that was all I was doing. And since my next "big" event will be the Eagleman 70.3 triathlon (half Ironman) then I can be comfortable in the knowledge I cab break 1:40 in it after more training. Like I said ........ lessons learned.

Wow, good job! I did this as a half, and would never tackle it as a full - those hills were bad enough as miles 3-7; don't think I could handle them after 2+ hours of running. It must take a lot of discipline to pace yourself and have enough left for that section.

Thought the race was beautifully organized until the finish line area - two chutes might go a long way towards fixing this, since the needs are different - half mary-ers are a lot less likely to need heat sheets or the med tent. No water (soft ice, though, so I was okay), and when I crossed, there was no one I could see giving out full medals. I think the marathon/half-marathon bunch-up was pretty bad, since probably 90% of the half people finished between 11:30 and 12:30 - there's really no good resolution to this though, is there - either you have the faster people trying to weave through the halfers, or a huge bunch-up.