knew that in order to even have a chance at sub 1:50, I had to be well into mile 7 at the one hour mark. There was a timing mat at the 10k point. My time for the from 10k was 50:34, which is a 10k PR for me (so now I have to find a 10k to do after the marathon next month to see if I can go sub 50 in a 10k). I reached the 7-mile point in 57 minutes and so change, and at this point I knew sub 1:50 was possible, but still not definite. Mile 8 things started to hurt, I had been maintaining a 7:58-8:20 pace the whole race thus far, and it was starting to wear on me, my quads were aching from me pushing them to work so hard. Mile 9 I took my second gel (first one was at mile 5) and still maintaining this pace was menacing, I told my body to hold on just a little while longer, we'll stop soon. Mile 10 my Garmin said 1:21 and some change and I was starting to get worried and a little upset. I had been pushing so hard up to this point, and my pace had fallen a little, at this point I had a 50/50 shot a achieving my goal.

Mile 11 I was hurting, quads, calves, just revolting at me for forcing them to push so hard for this amount of time. All I could do was stare at the ground and keep moving, and not give in to my body's desire to slow down. Right after mile 12 my Garmin revealed 1:42 and some change and the panic started setting in, I was in so much pain from pushing I didn't think my body would be able to get to the finish line before the clock would strike 1:50. I was in agony, this time not from an injury, but from pushing myself to a run pace I have never sustained for this long a period of time before. Once again I stared at the ground and told myself I am stronger than this, and no matter how much it hurts I can handle any pace for 1 mile. My Gramin was .10 of a mile ahead of how the course was marked, so I had to account for that as well.

Got to mile 13 on my Garmin, but with the way the course was mark, I still had .20 to get to the timing mat at the finish line, which is what matters. It doesn't matter what my Garmin says, what matters is what my time is on the official results. At at mile 13 I was at 1:47 and some change, and I knew I would make it, but I was in agony getting there because all I wanted to do was stop, but had to run just a little longer in order to do so. Finally, the final turn to the finisher's chute came to view and all of a sudden the girl directly behind me wanted to sprint to the finish. Since I had red-linned and maxed myself out the entire race I had no sprint left in me, I felt as if I had practically sprinted the whole race as it was. I let her go, and crossed the finish line in 1:48:27. I did it!

Nothing

Put compression sleeves on and drove 2 and a half hours home


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