1. Respect the distance and be patient with the training. I think I layered on too many different aspirations in October-volume, frequency, long runs and speed work. I suffered in November with knee/ITB issues. The layoff served me well as these things did not re-emerge during the race. But, re-assessing my goals and expectations would have been best. For the record I said all the right things out loud but my internal dialogue did not change-integrity

2. Respect the distance and remain patient, there were opportunities to have more fun that I bothered to have because I was too focused on trying to "salvage my time" I had a reasonably good first half but paid for it.

3. Respect the distance and stick withe your plan. I trained with 1 minute walks at each 1 mile split- I skipped this for the firs half and took only a few brief walks at aid stations because I cant drink and run, also to fumble with a Gu pack-other than that I was running

4. Be aware-the first half I was running with mostly half marathoners and would frequently forget that and end up "racing" people who were only doing half what I was

Final results: 5:07:59, 3404 over all of about 6000 for the full marathon



Train smarter-avoid injury

I was warm but very "loopy" at the finish, headed in to the bag drop area for my t shirt, medal etc, I had my "burrito wrapper" blanket but discarded it inside, after I exited the building to look for my wife the hypothermia hit and i even had a spell of dizziness-a huge plate of pancakes given to runners was consumed in about 45 seconds and my mind and body began to work better but I had allot of trouble walking. Poor wife had to drive my pick up in the rain out of South Dallas-none of those things make her happy.


Poor choices during the run and a disastrous November