Ran it with my friend. I use the hal higdon 26 week program with cross training and followed it somewhat putting in only 3 long runs over 15 miles. That seemed to be enough.

My run overall was good until mile 14 where I left my friend to use the bathroom. My HR was around 140-145 during the first half of the race which is where I wanted it to be. He took off going too fast so I had to run pretty hard to catch him and finally caught him going over the big bridge. After that my HR never returned below 160 unless I was walking. Around mile 22 I cramped a little bit but some people on course were handing out little courage drinks which I took a few of them. My friend shook his head at me and I said I'm fine. Overall I felt very comfortable the whole race and enjoyed the time I got to spend running with my friend who hadn't done a marathon before.

If I was running for an actual time rather than with my friend, I would have trained properly and I also would have followed my HR (though I did until I had to catch him). I wouldn't have eaten as much on course as I did either since I was feeling a touch bloated after the race.

I went through and drank some chocolate milk and had a banana. We walked around for a bit afterwards and then went back to the hotel.


I wasn't racing for time. I was doing the race to support my friend.