Beautiful forecast for race day – 30 degrees at the start and 45-50 degrees at the finish, sunny, with minimal wind. Only 575 people ran the marathon, so it was a small crowd. My plan was to run 8 min and 20 sec miles which would put me one minute ahead of pace at the halfway point. One of the reasons I had picked this race was because even though it’s a small race, it had pace groups, which I thought could be helpful. Turns out the 3:40 pacer usually paced the 3:20 group and I could tell he was a bit nervous about pacing slower. Well, he took off at the start and took the group at about 8:05-8:10 pace through the first five miles.

At mile 3, I decided I would rather run by myself at 8:20 pace than run 10-15 seconds per mile faster only to blow up at mile 20. This meant that for basically the entire race I ran by myself - and by myself I mean the pace group was about 30 seconds ahead of me, I couldn’t really see anyone in front of them, and I couldn’t hear anyone behind me and there was really no passing going on. I was nervous about that at first, especially since it meant I had to deal with the minimal wind myself, but the couple times I passed or was passed, usually the person was making weird breathing noises or grunting or something. I decided it was much less annoying to run by myself.

Anyway, during the first 10 miles, I just focused on running 8:20s and resisted the urge to catch up to the pace group. My homemade pace band fell off at mile 2 so I also spent a lot of time calculating what time I should see at each mile marker to stay on 8:20 pace (as all of you know, this takes A LOT of concentration when you’ve been running for a while….). I crossed the halfway point at 1:49 flat, EXACTLY on 8:20 pace, although I think I ranged from 8:10-8:22 a mile over the first half, so my splits weren’t perfect. My mental assessment at that time went well – breathing and heart rate were good, stomach felt good, and legs didn’t hurt too bad yet. I was drinking water at every aid station and taking a gel (Honey Stinger) every 5 miles.

From 15-20, I just took one mile at a time, and just tried not to slow down. This is sooo the no-mans land of marathon racing. You know that at any point, you could start to feel like crap, and you definitely feel far from fresh. I really tried not to focus on how many miles I had left, just focused on the next mile. At mile 20, I was still on 8:20 pace exactly at 2:46:30 or so. At this point I started to get a bit giddy and emotional, because I felt pretty good and hadn’t ever made it to mile 20 with a minute cushion. I really had to force myself to concentrate at this point and not think about the finish line – 6 miles is still a long way to go. Also at this point, I FINALLY caught the 3:40 pace group, who had slowed down a couple seconds a mile. I ran with them for about a half mile but then realized that I had more in me than the speed they were going – see ya 3:40 pace group! (they ended up finishing about 45 seconds behind me).

Miles 21-24 were pure concentration. JUST. GET. TO. THE. NEXT. MILE. MARKER. I think I had a couple 8:30s in there, but at that point, I was perfectly fine with that. Quads were screaming, but I could keep them moving, so I took that as a good sign. From mile marker 24 to the finish I was in full out elation and on the verge of tears of joy. Mile 26 was at 8:15 pace (!) and I realized that I had the potential to come in under 3:39, so I “sprinted” the last 0.2 – according to Garmin, the pace was 7:40 for that last 0.2 – I guess I had something left! I crossed the finish line in a glorious 3:38:59!! Second half of the race was run at 1:50, so a 1 min positive split – the perfect race!

Splits:
1 – 8:15
2 – 8:34
3 – 8:07
4 – 8:19
5 – 8:24
6 – 8:20
7 – 8:15
8 – 8:12
9 – 8:16
10 – 8:20
11 – 8:18
12 – 8:17
13 – 8:20
14 – 8:13
15 – 8:19
16 – 8:18
17 – 8:18
18 – 8:20
19 – 8:22
20 – 8:22
21 – 8:19
22 – 8:31
23 – 8:34
24 – 8:25
25 – 8:21
26 – 8:16
0.2 – 7:41 pace

I would definitely recommend this race - the advantages of a small race (easier logistics - parking at the start was fine, gear check had like 50 bags in it, no crowds to weave through), but with the perks of a larger race (pace groups, great aid stations and volunteers, well organized). Combined with flat course at a good weather time for SW Georgia, its a great race!



Absolutely nothing.

Not a big race, so no real expo or pre-post race activities. If you are into shirts/medals/swag/big crowds, you will be disappointed. If you choose races based on PR potential, this is a great one.