I ran with the 3:30 pacer for the first 8m. He was faster than what he had put on our pace bands but since i felt like I was running the appropriate RPE I stuck with him. Once we hit the hills his intensity did not change. When I hit threshold HR this early in the day, I knew I had to back off and let him go. I was ok with it. The hills were hard but I felt like i stayed within myself for the remainder of them. Once I hit the descent, I found myselt anywhere between 7:20-7:40 pace and even that felt fine. My quads were taking a beating given the steep descent but I tried to stay loose. My HR was a little higher than what we had set, but not outrageous so I kept going.

I realize I don't have a clue how to drink water on the fly. I tried to drink at 2m and got maybe an 2 ounces. This is the first marathon where I did't wear a fuel belt so I decided that I'd better walk a little to get in enough H20. That seemed to work fine and while I lost time doing it, I felt like I made it up once I got going again. I also took a PowerBar Gel Blast at every station just like training.

I was feeling good and by the time I hit the 20m mark, I was sporting an 8:04 pace. I know this is the place where things can go south so when I started feeling a little crappy, I promised myself it would pass, started thinking about my mantras and kept going. I was slowing down some and I was walking a little longer during those water stops and starting to feel bad. The last 3m were solidly in the pain cave. My back was tight when I got up in the morning and now it was tightening up even more. I also felt light on calories despite taking in the right amount. Not sure if that was because I didn't hold food from the day before or I had been a little overzealous on the front half of the course. Either way, I was in trouble. I kept doing the PR math in my head. My pace at 24m was an 8:44 and told myself to get moving or I was going to lose the PR and that pissed me off. I was running crooked because of my back sort of veering to the left, but trudging my way to the finish line. There is a hill right before the finish and I was bound and determined to get it over with. I crossed the line knowing that I had gotten the PR and my 4th BQ. Very happy! Found out when I got back to the hotel that I also was #1 AG 45-49. Since I am basically leaving this AG in less than a month that made me happy!


not be sick with a cough, not get food poisoning two days before the race.

I believe I left something out there the last 3m. I need a little more grit to keep me strong when my brain is screaming at me to slow down or stop.

really need to figure out this back issue. I had a similar problem for part of the IM bike and all of the IM run last year. I thought all of my TRX/core work would have solved the problem, but apparently it didn't.

Hung out with Paul, Kathy and my good BT friends Kim and Linda.


The Oakland Running Festival is a well run event. The course was tough, but managed well.