Ran with Jszat. Plan called for us to run 655s thru 14-16 miles together. time could vary somewhat depending on how we felt but try not to get crazy. there were a few times that he would say to me "hey, do we really wanna be at 630 pace right now??" so that helped alot to keep me in check! Missed the first mile split which kind of irritated me a bit, but not much, second mile was excellent tho (13:46). roundabout mile 4 or so a guy catches up to us and asks us what are goal was and we told him that it was about 3 hours, give or take some..........he said cool so we invited us to join us (cool of us, no?) well, that happened to be one of our fastest miles that we ran so i think the guy faded........crossing mile 5 we wanted to be at the 34:00, but we ended up at 33:56 which prompted joe to slip into his east german coach mode and completely fly off the handle and yell at us.......the looks of the people around us were priceless!!! also top notch was the lady who said to us "hey its great danes!! Go get 'em great danes"!!! i wanted to go back and POLITELY explain to this lady that the pic on our shirts was in fact DONKEYS and NOT great danes but joe wouldnt let me. bummer. little bit after that joe got the encouragement of the day from some bystander who just said "go guy" rather unexcitedly i might add............about mile 10.5 or so we both felt ourselves picking up a bit and then realized that the half marathoners (bless there hearts!) were probably picking up cuz they were getting close to finishing, so we settled back down......past the split off thru the industrial loop and we hit the half way point in 1:29 even. perfect!!! little bit after that i started hitting a great stride and rythym and just went with it, there is where joe and i parted ways, thanks joe for a great run!!!!

One goal i had was to hit 17 in 2 hours because that would basically secure my BQ (3:20:59)leaving me 9 miles to complete in 1:20:29. At mile 18 i was at 2:01 so well ahead of pace. 19 came and went and up came the "wall". good crowd and i was feeling great still so i gave the "wall" the double finger salute to the roar of the crowd! (heard a little snicker after that, found it later it was the wall coming for revenge!!!) 21 came, 22 came then about 22.5 or so, uh oh, cramps in the hammies and upper calfs......ugh!!! spent about half of the next mile trying to walk it off in my best speed walk impersonation, tried taking my last gel, tasted like crap, tossed it.....DTFU'd and started a slow trot again.........aide station in sight, whats that i hear??? ROOT BEER??? man that sounded great and tasted even better!!! one more guy passed me and i decided that i would stay as close to him as i could. did that and ended up passing him about mile 25ish or so and into lambeau i went. out of the bright sun and into a dark tunnel......not good on the eyes!!! then out into the bright sun again!! that lap went really fast! into the concourse of the stadium and then outside again, left turn and there's nashers and other literally jumping up and down cheering me in!!! gave it all i had and crossed the line very pleased!!!!

final stats

first 22 miles ranged from 6:39 - 6:54, miles 23 and 24 combined in 16:24 (dam wall came back for vengence!), 25 was 7:46 and the last 1.2 was 7:33.

only thing i would do different would be to pack some endurolytes. was going to but because of my old age i forgot!!!

walked thru, got medal, shirt, cup of water, cup of gatorade and a banana, grabbed one bottle of water as well and then went over by nashers and the others.


was concerned over the final three weeks of training that my leg wouldnt allow me to go and compete at the level i wanted to (been having problems with what i think turns out to be either a strained or slightly torn soleus). because of my leg the last three weeks worth of runs have been hit or miss, when leg was feeling good i would kinda go harder to make sure i got at least good intensity in. when leg was hurting i would slow down or just cut the workout short. well no issues on race day at all and actually think that strategy helped heal the leg to be honest. overall tho there is no way on God's earth that i will complain at all about this race. sure i wanted to go sub 3 but i know in my heart that i gave it all i had out there on the course and that i also know that the next stand alone mary i do, will be sub 3!


loved this race and the course! definately a big feel about it. loved the fact the the aid stations were every 1.5 miles and that every mile was marked pretty clearly. really helped in breaking up the course into different sections!