Although I’d been walking rather stiffly on Saturday, I felt pretty good once I got running again. So, I began to pick up the pace and pass people, despite not having warmed up. Did the first 2 miles at 8:40 pace and continued to speed up a bit from there. I enjoyed running on a bike path through forested areas far more than running up residential streets. At every spot where a road intersected the path there were cheering fans. Also lots of little kids out there hi-fiving racers. I made a point of trying to hi-5 as many as I could – including one girl who kept re-appearing further up the course with her Dad. :) At the 10k mark I realized I was only 10 seconds behind my time from Saturday. Definitely going too fast. Slowed up a bit and hit the 10 mile mark with an average pace of 8:20, but was already starting to feel tired.

I realized, I must have spent a lot of time running the numbers in my head. Every couple miles I’d be recalculating what my average pace was. Oh well. The runners had spread out a bit. I was never running alone, but there was plenty of space to move around. Continued to hold an 8:20 pace and hoping I wouldn’t fall apart. I was dreading the last 4 miles as that was where my pace had plummeted the day before. Hit the halfway point in 1:48 flat, 3 minutes behind my time from Saturday. Not bad... but that puts me on pace for another BQ... probably too fast. After 17 or so miles I had slowed down to 8:40 pace. The going was getting tough. Amazingly, my HR wasn’t too high, but my legs just felt tired, and a lovely knot had been forming in my left calf since mile 3... well, really since mile 20.5 on Saturday.

There were a few short, steep downhills as we ran on city streets. Mile 19.5 I passes a Stewarts food mart with a sign advertising “Half Gallon Ice Cream Sale”. Mmmmm... ice cream!! Temps were creeping towards 70 and my stomach was rumbling with hunger. Fooooood!! Ice cream!! That’s what they should have at aid stations... ice cream!! But I kept running. Hit the 20 mile mark and figured that if I held the 9:00 pace I had slowed to, I would finish in 3:45. Not bad, since I’d been thinking I’d run 3:45 on Saturday and 4:00 on Sunday! We were back on the bike path, so the running was nice. Aid stations were 2+ miles apart, and the last several were poorly organized, such that they didn’t have cups ready to hand to runners. WTF? Not happy about that, since I was living off the land – I carried no food or drink with me. Kept running mile marker to mile marker, checking my pace at each. 1 mile to go... woohoooo!! I realized I had been going a bit too easy the last few miles and kicked the pace back up near 8:00 and passed more people. The lack of hills made the last few miles much easier. Hit the 26 mile mark and was running all out, flying towards the finish.


Push a bit harder near the end if it's flat.

Finished faster than I had planned so Tom was just arriving at the finish area as I crossed the line (no pic!). Hung around after to watch Tom’s friends finish. Then went back to Tom & Karen’s house for a shower, then they took me out for lunch.


A marathon the day before, perhaps?