I was sort of harboring thoughts of getting a BQ time, but with only 5 weeks to prepare this was not going to happen. Still i went out at a pace that would give me a shot at BQ if i felt right after mile 14. However, my 13 mile split was at 1:38, and after that I decided to simply keep the overall average pace under 7:50. I had weird stomach cramps after eating a stinger waffle at mile 15... Clearly felt like a carb overdose. I had to drop the pace a little to calm the stomach down. It got better after mile 19, but by that time I was cooking in the 85 degree temps that picked up after 9am. The last 5 miles had almost no shade and all asphalt running, so it got pretty warm. I ended up running side by side with a 50-ish guy from Chicago who kept trying to drop me but we were head to head until the last 500 yards where I sprinted to beat him by a few seconds.

If i was running this purely for time, i would have run the first half at 7:45 and then up the pace. As it is, this was sort of an intended reslt.

Not much, hugged the family, crawled back to my car, changed and had some coffee and bagels with my support group.


Somehow i can never quite get enough time to train for a marathon. I end up with 5 -6 weeks of a compressed schedule and the results so far have been quite mediocre. Maybe the LA marathon 2013 will be a change to that.


Here is the thing. The race was laid out in a way that provided maximum support for the half marathon that ran simultaneously. After mile 14, the spectators were not to be seen until maybe mile 20 or so. The drink stations were there and manned with an enthusiasm, but running through the toughest stretch of the race without any support was a bit of a downer.