This time I was serious to do 4:1 all the way from the start. While it was hard to do it from the beginning in the crowd, I managed without tripping anybody up. So from the beginning this passing people and getting passed was going on at nauseum.
Things were going as per plan for the first 3.5 hrs and I was thinking of cranking it up at the end. Sure there were highs and lows, but the pace stayed constant and I felt great.
Around 3.5 hr I noticed first signs of pre-cramping in the quads and limited the run time to 2min. After a while 2 min was too long and dropped it to 1 min. At the Runaway Bay turn around, with only few kms left, I couldn't run anymore. Every attempt was resulting in almost total lock up. This was the end of running till the finish line.

Crossing the finish line was dissapointing knowing I had a good shot at PB and while time is usually not my goal, walking/limping like this is not what I planned.

First, I wore a t-shirt from a 10k race in Poland... Somehow I thought this would be OK since all the text on it was not in English. WRONG. You can't fool the Gods this easily. So the myth lives on and I won't make this mistake again.
Second, this Endura drink was new to me and it tasted awful. Maybe I wasn't drinking enough of it.

Nothing. Walked to the exit, picked up the medal and t-shirt, met my wife and the Little One, played in the park for a while, had a coffee and drove home.


The cramps (caused by the t-shirt and awful Endura drink of course).

I guess I should maybe say that inadequate training had something to do with the cramps, but I felt perfectly fine afterwards and, as I write this the next day, I feel no signs of running a marathon yesterday whatsoever! In fact, if it wasn't for not wanting to look like a freak in my wife's eyes, I could go for a longish run today...


Great race, a bit more quiet than the big Chicago Marathon, people are more focused, less fun/crazy activities, but fantastic venue and very well run event.