Well, I have been training for 4-5 months for this race. Hired a coach and I think he got me really prepared for the race, almost 1000 miles running this year, much more than in previous years.

Final strategy was to run somewhere between an 8:45 - 9:00 pace. I had done the Army 10 miler a few weeks ago and ran that at an 8:21 pace and that was a breeze, had plenty left in the tank, felt great the whole way.

For some reason all day I just didn't feel "into it" like I should on a race day, had a cold all week and some chest congestion but nothing major. I kept waiting to get into a running groove and just cruise along. I figured the last 10k or so would be tough so I was going to cross that bridge when I got to it and run my race and hopefully I would be able to push through that last 10k to meet my goal.

Well I never did get into that groove and didn't have to worry about the 20 mile mark nearly as much. Once in Haines Point around mile 11-12 or so I just couldn't keep it going anymore. HR wasn't too bad, no aches, pains etc, just body wasn't putting out the horsepower. If makes any sense my HR was in Zone 2-3 but my RPE was zone 4-5. Pace went from 8:45 - 9:00 - 9:15 - 9:30 - who cares I just want to finish the race.

Had to walk a few times but not for very long as I know what happens to my body when I walk on a long run, it starts to tighten up and won't go at all so tried to keep it moving the whole rest of the way.

Course was super crowded for the entire 26.7 miles (not sure where the .5 came from) both runners and spectators everywhere and on every part of the course.

Was awesome to see Sam, Karla and the kids when crossing over key bridge, I can't believe they were out there for the whole time. It's wonderful to have such great family and friends.

Was kind of depressing when the 3:45, 4:00 & 4:15 pace groups passed me. By the time the 4:15 pace group passed me in the 20's some where I was on complete auto pilot just willing myself to finish the race.

Been talking it over with Sam since the race was over and I can't quite figure out what went wrong other than I just didn't have a good day. Going to talk to Lowell tomorrow about it and see if he has any ideas.

I was obviously happy to finish as this was my first marathon, but kind of dissappointed because I felt like I really trained hard to make my goal and fell really short. Feeling great today (day after) which is even a bit more depressing because I didn't even seem to push my body hard enought to be miserably sore today.

LOL, not sure, couldn't do much else, maybe just try to have the race on a day where I feel great?

shuffled along with the masses to get my blanket, medal, coin, food, etc.


ME!




Seemed like it took forever to get anywhere. After you crossed the finish line, wait in line to get blanket, wait in line to get medal, I skipped the post race picture because there was a line.

Line to get food. shuffle along to get through the crowds, then what seemed like another mile walk to get to the family meet up area. There was a 30 minute line to get the finishers coin as well.

Now that is the way everything seems in my head, remember just had kind of a crappy race so in reality it could have been fine but 24 hrs or so after it just seemed overly crowded.

The crowds were amazing out there. Never seen so many spectators at a race. I think at one point they were 10 deep, and they were on every part of the course.