Well the cannon goes off and I am on my way. Sort of. Due to my tardiness, I am at the very back of the crowd. The difference between the clock time and my net time is 1:27. I finally got to the timing mat, but I am still sort of bottle-necked with a bunch of 10+minute runners. I tried to pick my way through the crowd, but it was slow going for the first mile or two.
As we are heading out of town, there is a guy standing in front of his condo in a chicken suit. He is doing a bunch of "mock" stretches. He is standing next to a table, but instead of water, it has 6-8 cans of Lite beer and he has another can of said beer in his hand. This was great, because it made me laugh and really loosen up and start to enjoy the race after the tumultous start.
I finally see a mile marker at mile-3. I check my watch and the time is 23:10. I am actually relieved that I had managed sub-8 while trying to run through the crowd, and only 10 seconds slower than my goal pace for this first 3-miles!
Mile-4 7:15. There are a few seconds in the bank. The field continued to thin out and the course detoured through a neighborhood on the coast. One of the more enjoyable miles in the race.
Miles 5 and 6, 7:30 and 7:44. Now the course is starting to get hilly. I am sticking to my plan of walking the waterstops and alternating water with gatorade.
Miles 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11. 7:35,7:44,7:21, 7:31, 7:16. Feeling strong. Glad to be putting a few seconds into the bank now and not feeling that they are going to end up biting me later. Continued taking water breaks although the overcast weather is kind to all of us. Stopped at a port-a-potty for a 25-second "natural break" after the 11-mile marker. It was well worth the investment and my 12-mile split didn't suffer too badly 8:06. I am now beyond 1:30 into the race.
My nutrition plan also included taking one gel at every other water stop starting at the first water stop after 1:30. I did some reading somewhere on the net the week before the race and someone had stated that only the "newbies" carried nutrition during marathons and you never see the "veterans" do this. This only made me a little self-conscious, but I brought 4 gels with me.
Miles 13, 14, 15, and 16 through coastal Cumberland and Yarmouth. Beautiful country out there, some more rolling hills, but nothing too major. Remained on or below pace 7:19, 7:32, 7:39, and 7:26.
Half way between mile 16 and 17 is the biggest and longest hill of the run. I latched onto two guys that seemed to be looking strong and paced off them. Then essentially dragged me up that hill. They were cool about it, I thanked them and was happy when my mile-17 split was only 7:47!
Things continued to go as planned through mile 18,19, and 20 markers 7:25, 7:30, and 7:13 splits, although I was a little nervous after Mile 18 that I still had another hour of running left :( .
I took a gel every other stop, approx every 20-25 minutes X3. I made a real bonehead move after taking the third gel, when I went to throw out the empty gel packed I also tossed my last full gel pack as well! Oh well, I laughed it off and prayed I would be able to get by on the calories I had taken already. During mile 20, one of the dudes, I had latched onto at the monster hill started to pick up his pace so I started to chase him. I also was able to deceive myself into believing that "hey, it's just a 10K from here"
Miles 21-22 was a roller coaster. I started to feel the effects of the long run. I depended on other runners to keep my pace up and was starting to feel beat up. splits were 7:36 and 7:48.
My watch said 2:46 at this point. I had heard that one of the guys I was running with wanted to qualify for Boston and he was 38 yo, meaning he needed to finish in 3:15. I calculated that if he did the last 4.2 miles at just under 7:00/mile, he could make it with a small kick at the end. I wanted to help him and maybe get a 3:15 myself so I told him to follow me. I finished mile 23 in 6:52! Perfect!! Except that mile put me over the edge! My hamstrings started to sieze up and my quads were screaming!!
Mile 24 split was 7:54 and I felt as though the last 2 miles were going to be insurmountable. I wanted to walk, I moaned out loud a few times, which I have NEVER done before. The othe guy took off with a girl doing a relay. I was so jealous of those fresh legs.
When I saw my mile-25 split was 7:55, and my total time was up to 3:09, I really started to believe that I would fail to finish in 3:20 and qualify for Boston.
Only 1.2 miles left!!! No matter how many times I told myself this, it didnt seem to help. I pushed, then slowed, pushed, then slowed. For most of the last mile, I wanted it to be over more than I wanted the BQ. As I made the final turn and saw the clock was 3:19 I was relieved in more ways than one. I heard Rhonda call out to me about 50 yards from the finish. I gave her a smile and "thumbs UP!"

Train better.

Tried to "walk it off" but I was too cramped. I grabbed some food and water and just sat down in the grass and stretched for about 10 minutes. Then walked the .25 miles back home.


Maybe limited marathon specific training.