I was on the fence about how hard to go out. I ended up lining up behind the 3:20 group. After a couple miles I realized he was going to fast. It was sort of crowded in the beginning which was probably good to prevent me from going out too hard. I brought 6 Gus with me. My shorts have tiny pockets I could fit 2 in each and then I just carried the other 2 in my hand. I took them all. Jet Blackberry 2x caffeine. I realized half way through it was warming up quite a bit. I could feel the salt on my face. From that point on I started grabbing fluids at every aid station mostly and even dumping a lot of water over my head to make sure I didn't overheat. I usually drank a couple sips of gatorade and then water.

I crossed 13.1 in 1:39:14. I still wasn't working too hard. I saw the 3:20 pacer way up and was wondering what the F he was doing so far ahead. Right around then I told myself the rest of the race probably wasn't going to be very fun. Then I sped up a little. I had a good stretch from 13-22 where I passed tons of people and reeled in the pace group to about 50 yards ahead. A surge at mile 21-22 cooked me a little and I could feel myself start to fade fast. I was really going for it knowing I had to drop the hammer to get <3:20 but then realized during mile 23 I was burned my last match. I had to back off. Even though it wasn't all that slow the last 3 miles. It felt slower for some reason. I think I was just annoyed. I was happy to lay it out there though. I think all the miles in October (283 miles) really paid off. Allowed me to push all the way to the end and really not get too tired until late. I didn't feel like I was working until about 15 and then it was just a regular tired kind of feeling all the way to 23 before finally my body was yelling at me loud. I tried to pull a Jens and say "shut up legs and do what I tell you" but it just wasn't happening.

Split Time
1 7:34
2 7:33
3 7:24
4 7:38
5 7:28
6 7:25
7 7:30
8 7:48
9 7:27
10 7:48
11 7:18
12 7:31
13 7:39
14 7:38
15 7:41
16 7:21
17 7:28
18 7:55
19 7:24
20 7:42
21 7:29
22 7:29
23 7:43
24 7:52
25 8:13
26 8:22

Good race. First time really feeling like I was trying to race a marathon after the first one I did I felt slow the entire time. I've seen good improvement in September in October in my running. I was annoyed after Ironman Lake Placid and told myself it really wasn't worth doing anything like that unless I could actually run a decent marathon to begin with. I'm going to keep working on it and think I have a lot of room for improvement still. I'd like to get down closer to 3. Going to take a bunch more consistent work over a year or so but I think it's doable. I saw the big benefit of running 60 and 70 miles a week over just a few weeks so if I hold that for a longer period of time I think the benefits can keep coming. I'm just not as good naturally at running as I am on the bike so have to stay vigilant to improve.

There were a lot of people in our group. My wife was doing it and a bunch of friends. I went to pick up my gear bag and then walked back to the finish looking for Shelbie. Around 4hrs I knew something must be wrong. Finally I saw her and she was basically crying as she hugged me. Her knee gave out at mile 16 after having given her issues the past couple weeks. She fell down. Got back up, tried to keep going. Wasn't working so she had to turn around and walk all the way back. I felt so bad for her. I suddenly didn't really give a sh*t at all about my race. She was dong well and coming back strong after having the baby. She crossed the halfway mark running 8:00 pace and then felt something pop a little further. We are going to see what we can do to get her healed up because she likes running too much to not be able to do it anymore.

We went back to hotel and didn't linger after that. We were back in Connecticut by 4pm or so.

Nothing. I got a cold and some bronchitis was starting so I finished a Zpack off on Saturday. I was on the fence if I should take it so close but it was the smart move. I felt a lot better.

Walked back to hotel.