Well when they said Go! I knew there was probably going to be problems for me later on. My stomach had tightened up as soon as we started to run. GRRRR! WTF! I had used the bathroom about 4-5 times already this morning and everything was so to say "coming out solid" so I'm not sure what the deal was. Either way I knew it probably wasn't going to turn out great.

Our pacer had told us the first mile we would run possibly 5-10 seconds slower just to make sure we didn't get caught up in the start of the race "sprint". We ended up splitting I think like a 6:55 or so...so much for 5-10 seconds slower. I was feeling fine. Heart rate was only in the low 150's and my legs didn't even feel bad at all. The stomach was still making me wonder what would happen and I secretly was putting hopes that by 7-10 miles in it would be a complete afterthought! I ran the half last year and paced off this group for 6 miles then took off. This year it seemed A LOT of people were running with us. I figured either there was a lot of fast runners or people who had no clue what they were doing. Turns out they had no clue because within 8 miles or so we had reduced over 1/2 the people who had started with us.

I think they really need to get more water stations next year. The start temp was around 53 or so but by the time I finished it had easily warmed up into the mid 70's. Every two-2.5 miles for water isn't enough when you have this many people running! I had to change my plans when I took a gel somewhat so that I would have some water to wash it down with. Either way I kept on going!

The first 13.1 we turned in a 1:31:52. A tad fast but he said that he liked to have a :30 second cushion for the second half. At around mile 13.5 or so it was like a switch going off in my legs. Literally one minute I was running real loose...the next my legs were cramping up in the quad area...OMG NO!!!! I really attribute this to the stomach and dehydration I would say. I did bring some salt pills with me and had only taken 1 during the first hour. At around mile 15.5 I was still with the pace group but told myself to back off otherwise it would be an epic blow up.

It was mentally tough to watch them slowly gain on me after running with the same 8-10 guys for 15 plus miles but I chalked this up to just not being the day I wanted. There went my dreams of qualifying for Boston! Either way I trooped on and my legs continued to get worse. By mile 18 or so I was miserable. I had taken another salt pill and gel again. My schedule was to take a gel every twenty minutes starting at around 15 minutes into the race. It worked in training!

By mile 20 I knew it was going to get ugly. I had hit a wall or two by then but had been able to "run" through it but, those thoughts of never doing another marathon had already creeped into my head... Around mile 21.5 with no warning at all my right hamstring/quad locked up. I about fell onto the ground and was reduced to standing there screaming in agony from the pain. There were some guys roofing a house nearby and they probably had a good laugh from my pain. After about 30 seconds or so I started to take slow walking steps to try and get it to work out. Eventually I turned that into a slow jog. I think that mile was a 10:30 or so. Slowest I had by over a minute I believe. I made it to the next aid station and walked through it and downed two salt pills and as much water as my stomach could handle at this point.

After that it was a battle to just keep on running. I ended up walking two more times for short distances and was passed by the 3:15 pacer group. Demoralizing for sure but, they were having a far better race than I was. In the end I almost locked my legs up again just before Memorial stadium. When running down the hill before you turn in I tripped due too my left calf cramping up and almost biffed it. My usual sprint across the field was turned into a labored hurtful "jog" across the finish line. Once I stopped moving my legs locked up and I just stood there shuffling towards the end zone.

My sister had come and found me. She brought me back to the rest of the family and we talked for a bit. I told them I was ready to go and keep moving. So we made our way out of the stadium and I took one look at the massage lines and just shook my head...

Not sure. They say Hindsight is 20/20 and if I knew it was going to get this bad I would have moved myself to the 3:15 pacer group and just ran with them and finished a good 5 minutes faster. This was my first stand alone "marathon" outside of Ironman. It was different and had more walls to be broken through than the IM one did. Overall I finished and that's what counts. There are a lot of people out there that can't even do this race. I'm just glad I can run!

Walked to the car and we drove back and started some beer and showers.


Stomach issues and dehydration.


This really is a good race. Just wish there was more aid stations. You have 20k runners...no excuse not to have more!