I entered this race hoping to improve on my BQ time. If I could finish under 3:10 I could register on day one. I started out feeling good. I ran with Neil and we had a similar game plan -- run about a 7 mpm pace for the first half and then hold on to something below 7:30 to the end. The first part of the plan worked out really well. At the halfway mark we were a few seconds under a 7 minute pace.
The second half of this course is kind of difficult. It flattens out and has a few uphill stretches. I lost Neil at about mile 15 and started slowing down. By mile 20 when I saw my wife, I knew that 7:10 wasn't happening. So, I just kept running as fast as I could and kept telling myself that Neil is somewhere behind you and if you let him pass you, you'll never hear the end of it.
I finished with a time of 3:22:19. Not a PR, but my second best marathon and a good effort. My legs were in a lot of pain immediately after, but about 30 minutes later, it went away and I was ready to go home and watch the Cougars beat Ole Miss.
One thing that went really well is that I didn't have the gut ache that I experienced in my last few marathons. I made sure I sucked down the gels slowly. I think that's what was giving me the gut bombs -- dropping a whole gel in one shot.
Now I wait two weeks to try to get into the Boston Marathon and hope that it hasn't filled up by Wednesday morning.
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