Staying hydrated was the biggest concern for everyone, so the course had aid stations every mile or so with water and Gatorade, thank you Jesus for that one! I drank at every station alternating water and go-juice. Sometimes a whole cup sometimes just a few sips as needed. I had a serving of shot blocks and one gel. Probably could have used another gel along the way.

I wanted to start with a 10:50 pace and be able to stay strong and have some negative splits at the end. When the horn blew at 6AM sharp the field went out fast, I hung back and ignored everyone passing me. I was shocked when I got to the one mile mark and saw I was at a 9:25 pace! I slowed down, but was still at under 10:00 when I got to miles 2 and 3. The hilly terrain and hot temps took care of some of the extra speed I had later on, although I did force myself to slow down even more. The nagging soreness in my groin muscle got pretty bad at a few points, but I concentrated and pushed through, I had no plans on walking any of this race. Got through half of the aid stations running slow but later on decided walking a few steps would be OK while I drank my stuff. Miles 8 and 9 were the worst, they were the hilliest and I was hurting. Then along came mile 10 and at that point I was reminding myself it was only like doing a 5K, I pushed even harder. Before the race I had lowered my expectations to 2:30, but at mile 11 when I saw how well I was doing and realized I could come in before 2:20, I pushed harder. Nothing like pushing when you are completely spent; adrenalin is an amazing thing!

The emotions I went through went from one end to the other. Just a year ago I was not even a runner and would never dreamed of doing this, never mind making plans to do a full marathon. I ran as hard as I could the last hundred yards and cried the whole time. I was elated and extremely relieved. Within a few minutes I found my friend Ginny and realized I could barley walk! My groin muscle was screaming at me. Soon we found Audrey and some other Pacer runners (my local club) and then I ran into Karen from BT. Everyone had great races; it was good to see so many smiles! I am already looking forward to doing this again.


I think I peaked in my training too early. I had a foot injury from biking and had to let that heal which cut short my serious training and made for an overly long taper. I could not have done anything differently under the circumstances as the foot injury would have made the race impossible. Also more hill training!

I could hardly walk, I hobbled around some and did a bit of light streching, which helped.


Training and experience.


I would do this race again. I wish it was at a cooler time of the year, but the course was nice, there were tons of volunteers and the police did an excellent job along the course.