I had a hard time leading up to the race trying to figure out what I wanted to do. Ever since I've gotten a HR monitor I've been trying to run in zone 2. I also wanted to try and finish in under two hours. The way I've been training I didn't think the two things were going to mesh. I never really figured out how I was going to approach the race. I thought that if I ran at the top end of z2 or maybe creep into z3 that I would have a shot. That didn't exactly pan out. I've had a cold since last Thursday that I've been conveniently been ignoring. Sunday morning I was a bit worse than the previous days but what was I going to do?

Anyway, I hadn't run 500 yards before my HR was already way out of control. I wasn't going extremely fast but thought I'd try to slow down and see if I could get it back into z2. I slowed down to BARELY a jog and it was still a close to z3. During this time people were passing me left and right and I felt like it would take me 5 hours to finish. At that point I basically tossed caution to the wind and took off. I was running at a pretty comfortable pace and didn't feel winded or tired or anything but whenever I'd look at my watch it told me I was in the 170's. After that I just ignored it. I started drinking water fairly early in the race and that's something I normally don't do, but because of my condition I thought it would be helpful. At about the 1/2 way point I started sucking down a GU pack. I think it gave me a little boost and gave me something to concentrate on during the longest uphill portion of the course. I also spent a lot of time watching the runners behind me making there way to the turning point because my wife was running as well. I finally saw her and we gave each other a wave and a smile.

One neat thing about the race was that in between mile 8 and 9 it took us up and around a residential area and the road went right past my friends backyard. He and his wife and kids were hanging out and cheering on the runners. I yelled up at him and told him to grab me a beer. He laughed and they all started yelling up a storm and it gave me some good energy. I yelled up and told him my wife was about 25 minutes behind and I found out later they gave her a great big cheer as well. It was nice as they were the only people out cheering on the runners. It really is amazing what a little encouragement can do for your energy level.

After that point I figured out that I was right on pace to finish at about 2 hours. I concetrated on really trying to pick up my pace on the down hills and just keep on plugging on the flats. With 2.2 miles to go I had about 22 minutes to go acording to my watch but decided I need to pick it up in case my watch wasn't correct. I was so close that I really didn't want to regret not meeting my goal. The last mile for sure I gave just about everything I had. I knew I was tired and I knew I was exerting a lot of engery but I went for it. Unfortunately at that time I heard a ton of sirens and saw and ambulence and fire truck pull up and stop about 20 yards in front of me. I then passed a man that was lying down in the grass with people all around him. I hope he was ok, I never heard anything.

Right after this I heard on a loud speaker that all the runners needed to move to their left. It turns out the marathon winner was passing us all and headed to the finish line himself. I heard the announcer welcome him in as the winner. I finished a few minutes after him and ended up meeting my goal!

It was really quite amazing to see the marathon finisher cruise right by me and finish his race before me when he only started a 1/2 hour earlier. Crazy stuff

Try not to be sick and pick different clothes. It was 43 degrees at 5:30 and I was cold. When we were picking up our race bibs the day before it was windy and a bit chilly so we thought that tights and a long sleeve running shirt would suffice. We froze in the morning and then during the run got to hot.

I grabbed a water, recovery drink and an apple. Stretched and waited for my wife to finsih.


Besides being sick I had to pee at about the 1/2 way point. Because I wanted to break 2 hours I didn't go because I thought that the extra time would ruin me. I think I guessed correctly although it was on my mind a lot and probably didn't help me out.


I think this was a great event. I had never done a 1/2 and had never been a part of a race this big, but I thought it went very well. There was a lot of parking, a lot of shuttles and a lot of volunteers. Overall I think it was very organized for what could have been chaos!