I seeded near the back of my corral. When the race started, the pace felt very slow. Like, so slow that it actually takes more energy than moving faster. So I tried to get a little running room and get ahead of people. I didn't think I was going very fast, but the first 10K was way below my goal pace. I was intending 7:14/mile, but I had been going under 6:25/mile. I still felt good, though, so whatever.

The next several miles were relatively flat, rather than downhill, so I thought my pace would slow. However, I stayed in the 6:30s for all these miles. Once I got to double digit miles I decided not to be concerned by the fast pace anymore. I had banked about 10 minutes against my goal time, so even if I had a huge fade in the later miles I could afford it.

Crossed the halfway mark in 1:25:25, just 20 seconds slower than my half-marathon PR.

In mile 14 my body started to feel some fatigue. I had to regroup a little bit and get back on schedule with eating. Between 15K and the halfway point it is easy to get distracted and forget to eat and drink. I grabbed a banana and some gatorade and a gel and some twizzlers and was back on track. My stomach was full for a couple miles, but I was able to get my energy back.

At mile 16 I started climbing the Newton hills. The first 3 felt fine, but the last one made me struggle a bit. Still, my pace did not fade very much. The miles with hills were 7:10, 7:03, 7:11, and 7:25. At this point a sub-3 marathon was all but guaranteed.

Miles 22-24 were downhill and then the rest of the course was flat. To be honest I don't remember much about these miles. I was basically counting down and trying to focus on the crowds in order to distract from the quad pain that came during the long downhill. My pace definitely slowed, but all I had to do was damage control. In fact I was still going way under goal pace, but I was just banking time more slowly than before.

Crossed the line in 2:56:23, almost 14 minutes faster than goal pace and almost 10 minutes faster than my PR (which had been on a downhill course). Not too shabby 2 days after an Olympic tri on the other side of the country. Clearly the moral of the story is that the more I torture myself, and the less I prepare, the better I do.

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Mile laps:

1,2: 12:42 (6:21 each)
3: 6:23
4: 6:15
5: 6:38
6: 6:31
7: 6:27
8,9: 13:09 (6:35 each)
10: 6:40
11: 6:39
12: 6:38
13: 6:36
14: 6:45
15: 6:52
16: 6:44
17: 7:10 (Hill #1)
18: 7:03 (Hill #2)
19: 6:56
20: 7:11 (Hill #3)
21: 7:25 (Hill #4)
22: 6:38
23: 6:55
24: 6:41
25,26: 13:45 (6:53 each)
0.2: 1:28

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5K splits:

5: 19:44
10: 39:51
15: 1:00:20
20: 1:21:09
25: 1:42:01
30: 2:03:49
35: 2:25:52
40: 2:41:10

This wasn't so good. No jogging. No stretching. I was about 20th in line for a massage, but I decided I should meet my family instead of making them wait. Unfortunately they never saw me pass them since I was going so much faster than expected, so they stayed on the course waiting for me for 90 minutes after I finished. I stood in the family meeting area all that time, looking pathetic in my little mylar blanket. Photographers started sneakily taking my picture, so I must have been looking bad. Standing in one place for so long made my muscles really tighten up, so I'm still doing the pigeon shuffle.


Maybe my quads in the late miles, but it wasn't nearly as bad as other marathons.