This was my first marathon so my number 1 goal was to finish. My second far-fetched goal was a 3:30 marathon (8:00/mile). I started off very slow and hit the first mile in about 9:40. The second mile was a little faster at 8:30 and I ended up settling in at about 8:15-8:20 pace so 3:30 was out the window but that was okay. The aid stations on the course turned out to be a huge problem. There wouldn't be one for 3 miles and then there would be 2 within a half mile of each other. Also, some stations had 2 people working frantically and others had 20 people. The spacing made it difficult to take a gel ever 30 minutes.

Enough bitching, back to the race. The 1st half went perfectly. Jo kept popping up at various points on the course cheering us on with the BT sign. I came through the half at about 1:50 and was completely relaxed and really was cruising along. A small problem was that there was only about 300 marathoners and 2000 halfer's so once I went by this point, I was all alone. Not wanting to travel the next 13 miles by myself, I saw a couple of guys running together about 1/2 mile ahead. I did the next two miles at about 7:45 pace (tough to tell since most of the mile markers were wrong as well). During this stretch, I also had to take a gel w/o water since it was about 3 miles between stations. It went down fine however (Powergel strawberry/banana rocks). I eventually caught the two guys and ran with them for the next few miles. Unfortunately they decided to take a break at one the of the aid stations so I was on my own again. It wasn't until about mile 19 that I had the first signs of trouble. My right leg started cramping a little bit and then my left thigh really tightened up. I remember reading on here that there will be low points during the race and this was definately one of them. I took another gel and just stayed relaxed. My pace was about 8:30 at this point. but mile 20-21 was the hardest yet and I slowed to about 9:10 pace. However, I started to get a second wind and caught up to two people who were running at a nice pace and managed to latch on to them for the next few miles. That lasted until about mile 23 when the wheels started to fall off and I just lost all steam. Now it was just a matter of not walking. I saw Glen and Jo twice near the end and then Aaron a little before the finish which really picked up my spirits. Rounding the last corner was awesome and I cruised home high fiving anyone that would stick there hand out.

I may have gone a little hard miles 14-17 but other wise I think I did all that I could

Just trying not to fall down. Glen was kind enough to take my chip off as there was no way I was going to be able to do it. I grabbed a water and stumbled towards hotel to get warm.


The fact that a maraton is 26.2 miles. If it was 20 miles, I clearly would have gone faster :)


The spacing of the aid stations is a real problem and the misappropriation of the volnuteers at the aid stations was also a problem. Maybe it had something to do with the weather the night before but who knows. It was also be nice if they had food on the course but this is a low budget race so you can't ask for too much. The volunteers were terrific and the course is very scenic.