Wanted to finish in 4 hours. Started with a goal to stay between 9:10 and 9:20. First half of the race had more of a tail wind then the second half. I ran with Steve who I met at the Y until mile 20 and I was right around 9:18 - 9:19 and feeling good. I ate 6 gels and 12 cups sports drink alternating at each water station except I skipped the last one. Had a slight urge to pee around mile 10 but not much after that. I picked up at mile 20. I had some mild joint/muscle soreness up until then. At mile 22 the quad pain set in and I felt like all my glycogen was gone. I was able to push up the hills to maintain except one small steep one during mile 25 but the downhills were killer and I thought my right quad was going to tear. Averaged around 8:32 mile for the last 10K mostly into the wind.

Run more training miles. Averaged 20-23/wk this winter with longest run of 16.4 at 8:26/mile pace. Should of ate a gel or bar pre-race but it was cold and my stomach was uneasy. Probably should have took 3 water cups at some stations.

walking


Glycogen stores. Fierce headwind coming up college road for 2-3 miles. I probably started a touch too slow. My goal was to come in around 4 hours feeling as good as possible. I needed more longer training runs. Should have ate 15-20 minutes before start as well. Its possible I could have averaged 8:45/mile or so the whole way and not felt any worse. I just read some interesting stats. Most non-elites in the top 100 in marathons do NOT run negative splits. I was at 2:01:17 at the halfway which is around 9:15 pace.


I will see how the year goes from here. 26.2 may be just a bit too long for me and end up hurting my summer triathlon's and 5k runs. Perhaps adding an extra 6-10 miles/wk over the winter will let me finish a marathon without my legs falling off. I may try that next year or just run the half instead of the full this time of year. Overall a good experience. Just as painful as going all out in the half marathon, but a totally different kind of pain i.e. my muscles will either rip or stop contracting and spasm any second type of pain.