Rock 'n' Roll Marathon

Smart Rachel! Good luck, all. [FE = Forumite Encounter]

Faeron, whom you might remember meeting briefly at the post-70.3 dinner, is Rock 'n' Rolling. She's on BT, too, same name.

Scallopini - driving the course? Brilliant! I actually never thought of that. Thank you for the idea!

 Question: I haven't run a marathon since 1977, when I did the Holyoke Race of Champions. I ate candy most of the way, and ended up 2nd man on the 3 man team that won the N.E. Junior Marathon Championships. I was 15. I am now 46. What is the word on eating candy during the race?

 Alternatively, what will they be feeding at the Rock n' Roll, and what are you each bringing to eat during the race?

 The FE encounter sounds great. Count me in, as long as I can bring a non-running guest who's with me.

Alex Lightman 

I was planning on 3 or 4 gu's, and taking advantage of the accelerade on the course.  I'll have to look out for the team in training people though. 

There were some people handing out miller lite around mile 23 of my first marathon and I have to say it was the best miller lite I've ever had.  I only had a few sips though, it was a little too bubbly for running with , plus I was a little iffy on the open container rules in Honolulu.   If you're slow like me and out on the course for quite a few hours a couple sips of cold beer is nice (if you're 21 of course ), more than that would probably make you sick. 

I went down yesterday and got my packet because I'm getting a friend from LAX at 2:30 pm and wouldn't make it otherwise. Took my four hours to drive down.

 I drove the course, and sort of wish I hadn't. It took 90 minutes just to drive it! I can answer any specific questions, but I thought I'd mention that mile 8 to mile 10 is 100% uphill as it goes through Balboa Park. My goal, since I haven't trained specifically for a marathon and haven't run anything longer on a road than 10K, is to do the race in 5 hours.

If anyone has any ideas about how to set one's pace, I'd appreciate reading! My first 10K, in Santa Monica, was 60:31. I did the Tough Topanga 10K (still no times from that, a week later) and then the Brentwood 10K in 58:05 chip timing. The Macmillan running calculator says that if I can do a 10K in 58:05, I should be able to do a 4:31 marathon, as long as I specifically trained for it. I didn't.

 For now my intention is to do Miles 1-8 at 10 minute mile pace, then walk uphill 8-10 at 14:30 pace, then run again at 10:30 pace to Mile 20, which puts me at mile 20 in 214 min, or 3 hours 34 minutes. Then I try to run/walk a 10K in 1 hr 25 minutes or less.

 I bought a Garmin 405 at the expo. They've been sold out at the places I looked. At the moment I'm trying to fiddle with it, now that I've charged it up, and I'm going back and forth about wearing the heart monitor. On the one hand, I sure would love to have the data. On the other, I'm concerned about chafing, and the instructions say not to wear the heart band with someone other than cotton, because static electricity can short it out.

 So, three questions: What time should I shoot for? How should I plan my pacing? And is it worth wearing a heart rate monitor for a first marathon?

In case it makes any difference for the heart rate monitor, I'm 46 and 215 pounds (lost 50 pounds in the last four months, 55 of it fat, while gaining 5 lbs of muscle. I have 49 pounds of fat left, and 23% body fat, and I'm aiming to get below 10% body fat by Sept. 7. Cheers)