For my first marathon, I had a pretty good race. It would have been better if it wasn't for the side aches, but I finshed, made my goal of beating 3:10 and can't really complain about anything else. The first half of the race was awesome. Easy running. At the half I was at 1:29. Fastest I've ever had that split. I met up with a few guys I ran with in previous races and also at the training run. We a little group pacing off of each other and took some turns pulling when the wind got strong.

1. Not take in so much water so soon.
2. Taper longer. I only tapered for 9 days and I dont think my legs were 100%.

When I crossed the finish line, I was so pumped I made it. Perma-grin! My fiance met me at the finish and we went to walk a little bit. I was somewhat dizzy so I sat down for a while, did some walking and stretched the areas that started to tighten up. After about 5-6 minutes of crossing, people that I knew started to roll in so I started talking to them for a while. After approx 15 minutes of finishing, I drank a mixture of HEED and Recoverite. An hour later I had another Recoverite drink while we were waiting for my mom to finish.


1. Having a full stomach. By mi 18-19 I had a full stomach and couldnt get anything else to go through me. It felt like everything in my stomach was sitting there. Thats about the time when my pace started to slow down too.
2. The wind. For the whole race, we probably ran 6-7 miles directly into a 10-15 MPH wind.


The whole event was put together so nicely. At the last 6 miles they had a band or some type of entertainment to help celebrate the wall and get everyone motivated to keep going. That was great. They had tons of volunteers all the intersections that we crossed were being controlled by a policeman. People were all over the course cheering for everyone. And you can't beat beer, brats and music at the finish line!