"20 miles of hope, and 6.2 miles of reality". I've heard marathon described this way, and it just about sums up my first experience with the full marathon.

Being my first attempt at the 26.2 mile monster, my primary goals were (1) to finish; (2) to finish strong enough to be running; and (3) to finish without injury. These goals were certainly met. Now, as we all know, it's hard not to go into a race without a specific time-oriented goal in mind, and for us (me, Mike, and Marty) it was to try to get under 4:00. Marty brought along a pace chart so we knew at every mile where we stood in relationship to this goal. Hence, the 'hope' for the first 20 miles (when we were on pace) and the 'reality' of the last 6.2 miles.

The first couple miles of the race are on local roads in order to thin out the pack before entering the trail. Running as a group there was plenty of light-hearted banter as we warmed up into the run. I took my first split at mile 3 and realized we were doing an average of 8:36 min/mile. So far, felt good and right on pace with just a little room to spare.

The next 10 miles or so the three of us just ran as a group, much like our training runs, talking and joking as we settled into a comfortable pace. Starting at the 45 minute point I began taking 1 serving GU every half hour and maintained this through the entire race, drinking Accelerade whenever I felt like it. We broke pace only at the aid stations, long enough to drink water/gatorade. With every mile that passed we took splits and checked our progress against the pace chart. Somewhere in there a volunteer was calling out paces (mile 10 I think) and we were at 9:06 - just where we'd need to be to get under that 4 hour mark.

At the 1/2 marathon point I dropped 2 empty bottles and picked up 2 full ones (thanks to Mark and Christine). At the 1/2 my time was an even 1:59 - I had a 1 minute surplus at the halfway point. Not much to work with, but we were still on track.

The turn-around point was at mile 13.5 and the slight uphill grade now became a slight downhill grade (though it was so slight that I don't think it made any difference). From the turn-around point to the 20 mile mark the race progressively became more challenging. The 3 of us spread out and ran alone at times, only to all catch up with each other several times. Not much conversation ensued, especially as we approached the dreaded 20 mile mark. Interestingly, however, some of our best splits were in the miles between 12 and 18 and if we factor in the brief walking at aid stations we were moving along fairly well. Still hopeful, as we were maintaining our pace.

Once we crossed the 20 mile point Mike commented that we had entered "unchartered territory", or something to that effect (our longest training runs peaked out at 20 miles). It was during the 20th mile that I started to mentally drop out of the quest for the sub-4 hour race and began to focus on simply finishing the race. Our split at 20 miles was exactly what the pace chart stated we had to be to hit 4 hours, meaning that the next 6.2 miles we had to hold (or beat) the current pace. Mentally, I could not convince myself to do it. Blisters, cramps, and overall fatigue started to take their collective toll and I finally had to allow myself some occasional walking breaks - limited to 25 paces and no more than 2 per mile (including aid stations). Mike and Marty kept going ahead, and by mile 23 or so, they were far enough ahead that I could no longer see them. I was running nearly alone at this point and simply willing myself to keep going to the next mile post, next aid station, whatever I could find to keep myself running.

Between miles 24 and 25 we exited the trail and headed to the finish line on local roads. These roads included some steep hills which, after 3.5 hours of nearly flat running, seemed like mountains. I actually welcomed hills (we train in a hilly area) but my hamstrings did not, and I nearly had one seize up at the top of the hill. I hadn't run this far to drop out due to a hamstring pull, so I stopped and massaged and stretched it and kept going.

The last mile seemed endless, and was mostly uphill (this is a new course this year and the end is a little punishing after all the flats). Finally I saw the entrance to the school and the finish line and I knew I had made it. I crossed to see the clock read 4:05. Mike and Marty had crossed the finish line together just over 4:02 - narrowly missing the 4 hour mark by 2 minutes.

We just stood around (freezing!) for a while and absorbed the fact that the three of us had just completed our first marathons. There was no real dissapointment that we didn't come in under 4 hours, we all seemed to agree that we left nothing out there on that course. It was all spent, and then some. Walking back to the school to collect our gear was pretty comical - this race defined a new level of post-race pain for all of us.


I would not have done much different in how I approached this race on race day. I would have liked it if I could have stayed more mentally focused through the last 6 miles but I think this is a product of conditioning and training. I followed a beginner's marathon training plan (Hal Higdon) in which the focus was on building up enough endurance to complete the race, and I stayed pretty close to the plan. Looking back at the plan on Hal's web site I think my race went as well (or better) than would be expected on such a training plan.

Wrapped up in a heat blanket, drank some gatorade, hobbled back to the school to retrieve my water bottle filled with Endurox R4 and consumed 2 servings (24 oz). Drove home and hung Xmas lights the rest of the day - though I was quite slow going up and down the ladder!


I believe that I am still limited by base endurance on the run. Continuing to work on base level endurance through regular, long runs is probably the most likely way for me to increase my speed in this event.

That being said, I think a secondary limiting factor for me is tempo - looking back at my training log I see my mid-week tempo runs, ranging from 7 to 10.5 miles, were run at nearly the same pace as my long, slow runs. I probably should work on running at a slightly faster pace over these middle-distance runs in order to get used to running at a faster pace for longer times.


This event caps off a year in which I did my first Olympic Distance triathlon (May), swam 4.4 miles across the Chesapeake Bay for the first time (June), ran my first 1/2 Ironman triathlon, as a duathlon (Sept), and ran in my first marathon. This was my first full year in triathlon and related sport events (2003 was only a partial year) and I pushed myself harder and farther than I ever thought possible.