My goal was to pace miles right around 10:00 even, knowing that 10:15 would put us at 4:30. Every other mile we'd take short walk breaks for fluids and the occasional gel.

The race started out well and we were chugging along right on pace. Most miles were coming in right around 10:00 or a bit under with every other mile being 10:20 or bit more for the fluid/gel breaks. I felt pretty confident for the race since the wife looked pretty strong and was keeping an easy pace with me. We came though the half mary point at a little over 2:13 so I felt pretty good at that point.

With 15,000 half mary runners the race really changes at the half way point. What was 18,000+ runners for the first 13 miles is now down to a little over 3,500 runners... much different feel. I was a bit worried about this because my wife really feeds off the energy of the crowds. But it didn't seem to affect her too much, we were still on pace doing well. The next 5 miles (13-18) all came in at an average of 10:17. The only problem was that by 17 or 18 she was starting to struggle. The sun was out in full now and the temps were in the upper 70's. We both knew that finishing wasn't a concern at all, that would happen, but her goal of 4:30 was starting to come into doubt.

Mile 19 was 11:07, and mile 20 was 11:04. Doing some quick math in my head I figured that all was not lost, but we would have to get back to 10:15-20 if we had any chance of doing 4:30... the last two miles ate up any cushion we would have had. Unfortunately it was not to be, the wife didn't have any more umph left in her and she was content to run as well as she could to get to the finish.

The remaining miles were all in the 11:30 range, but we kept running and still managed to finish in 4:38... nearly 22 minutes faster than her MCM 3 months earlier and finally slaying her nemesis marathon!

Not too much. I think that we paced well, took in the right amount of fluids and nutrition. A bit cooler temps, and maybe a little more time to prepare and I think she would have met her goal.

Walked around for a bit, did some quick stretching on site and then walked back to the hotel. Had to hustle, since we needed to shower real quick and check out by 12:30. Not the best post-race warm down, but you gotta do what you gotta do sometimes!


A bit of the heat and a little lack of proper preparation.


A fun race overall. This is my third time doing this one and will likely do it again. My wife finally got the full in the books after her two previous attempts, so that in itself is a win.