Well...my first marathon and I'll always remember it. The good, the bad and the ugly. I must admit to myself that I was seriously undertrained for this distance, I had never run past 13 in my life and did not follow any sort of training plan. I suppose the summer got away from me but I hoped that my triathlon fitness would carry me through. I hate sounding like a walking, winey excuse factory but I picked up food poisoning on Friday night and let's just say the pipes got cleaned out and I felt like garbage all day Saturday and I even considered throwing in the towel...but deep in my heart I always believe that if you commit to something you should do it (plus I paid them my $60!), so it was game on.
I wonder what I could have done if I hadn't gotten sick but we'll never know so what can you do? I think at best I would have a little more in the engine but it would not have made one bit of difference with my IT bands.

I had a plan to go out at what I thought was a reasonable pace based on my 1/2 mary times and recent 10-12 mile training runs. I took a good minute off my 7:30 and below pace and set my sights on 8:30's. The race started and I felt fantastic, mentally and physically. Everyone's spirits were high and we were through the town of Bath and into mile five in no time at all. My H.R. was loping along in the mid to high 140's and if I had to rate my exertion I would say it was around a 5 on the r.p.e, just an easy jog at a conversational pace. Ran with Jim from Bath, who I met on the course, all the way to Savona at mile nine. There he backed off saying the pace was a bit too much for him...I think I was around 1:13 or so through here. The first sign of trouble came here as my IT bands started to let me know that they weren't pleased with what I was doing...this came as a shock to me as I had done 11 at 7:15 pace with no pain at all in training.

Took a few deep breaths and just owned the pain, and said to myself this pain level is level one. If the pain stayed here and everything else was fine then I would have a great race. I was very pleased with my gear choices and I did not have any blisters, rub spots or irritations anywhere on my body and I often focused on this fact...focus on the good and ignore the bad.
My family/support crew was supposed to meet me at the halfway point and it was here that I was going to ditch my arm warmers, h.r. band and pick up my Ipod...ran through the tiny town of Campbell with no crew in sight! Turns out they got stuck in traffic and I wouldn't see them to about 19 or so.
Ran the middle third in around 1:23 so about eight minutes slower than the first third but still not all that bad. At this point I was mentally alert and my muscles weren't cramping but my darn IT's had turned my knees and hips into a burnin' ring of fire, as Johnny Cash would say. Caught up with my brother and I asked him for my IPod and I literally crawled inside of it and just tried to lose myself in the music. Can't say enough about the spectator support and I was trying to lift up my fellow athletes as I passed them (at a snails pace) and I was trying to draw strength from the millions that were now passing me.
Somewhere near twenty I had to start the walk/shuffle thing and I definitely lost all hope of finishing in under four hours and I began to wonder if I was going to have an Oprah marathon of around 4:30....looking back I suppose this means that mentally I was still there as I was still able to do math and think about times and splits right up until the end. I've got to say that I had zero issues with my g.I. system dispite being ill the day before and that was a blessing. I think I hit my targeted gel and hydration points perfectly and had no bloating or cramping.
Around mile 23 I was joined by my brother who knew I was in the hurt locker and he proceeded to Richard Simmons my slow ass to the finish. A big thank you to him for having my back. Those last few miles were just an exercise in short term targets..make it to the stop sign, the dog peeing on the fire hydrant, etc. I knew I must have looked and sounded like crap just by the expression on his face when he looked at me! Every time I would start shuffling I had to grunt, the pain was so bad. But as my wife (who is as tough as they come) says..you paid for it and signed up for it so shut the f up!
Great people out on the course including mega cowbell guy at the bridge on the bike trail around 24 (he had an industrial cowbell and was standing just in the tunnel so the echo effect was unreal) and also props to portly cow bell guy on the bike who was riding around all day encouraging everyone. I remember one well wisher saying "only three miles to go!" and smiling at me..I wanted to say to him, might as well be thirty at this point!
Despite the discomfort I had a wonderful time and will be back to try this distance again.....after actually training for it of course! That's one more off the bucket list....

train for it

coke and a hot dog, with some peanut butter cups. And a couple of cold beers!


Totally undertrained


Nice job by all.