Raw capture race report

Just jotting down what happened in the race. This is a raw capture a better race report will follow.

The race began on an uphill that I didn't feel due to the adrenaline of starting the race. I had a lot of frustration with the paces of the others I was corralled with and the tension of the first 30 minutes until the Key Bridge was palpable. Around Key Bridge I felt the group loosen up a bit. I think I felt great going up the Reservoir Road hill and when we crested the hill I started to act up for the crowd whooping and slapping hands.

I ran through Georgetown feeding off of the energy of the crowd. I flew through the gauntlet that funneled us towards the Kennedy Center and Tidal Basin. I think the first signs of fatigue started to show going down Hains Point. I walked through water station at the half marathon point. It was then I broke contact with the 3:30 pace group. I gave a good chase for another mile and a half, but I broke then. I took a bathroom pit stop and resumed chase, but at 30 seconds a mile slower a pace. Then the cramps began. From mile 16 on I started having hamstring cramps that caused me to stop and walk every other quarter mile.

The Fourteenth Street bridge was littered with bodies. Many people had to stretch out cramps or walk. Some sat on the side and in the middle of the road, others were slumped again median barriers. Overall, this bridge is when the negative splitters caught and began to lap those who like me "blew up" in the latter miles.

I was in full retreat going back to the finish point. I powered through cramps that I walked from before, but I couldn't fight the pain any longer and walked again within a half mile of the finish line. The cruelest thing of all was the sharp 65 foot vertical climb over the last .2 mile of the course. I got it together enough to pretend to run the last of it out, but the hill made me feel I was moving in slow motion.

The clock read 3:56 (my chip adjusted time was 3:54:48). I had struggled to PR (personal record) by about 4 minutes. I planned to get 3:45 at minimum and thought 3:22 was within reach in training. I was exactly on pace through the half marathon point. I got through half at 1:44:14. It was a tale of two half marathons the first an ideal one for my goal that I didn't think took everything out of me and a second where I struggled mightily to fall off pace by almost 30 minutes.

I don't want to be a bummer. I PR'd. I conquered some mighty hills, but I want to do more. I will be looking for some answers. I am not finished running marathons.

Post marathon blues...

I was on top of the world for a day and a half after running my first marathon this Sunday, but now I am analyzing and eager to get out and run again. I think the post-marathon blues is setting in.

I did not meet my goal for my first marathon. Don't get me wrong. I think its great to join the 26.2 club and plan on putting my first car sticker on my car EVER because of it, but I wanted to prove I was faster. I ran 4:03:27. Not bad by my peers opinions, but I actually don't personally know any other marathoners. My forum friends are encouraging, but some of them are so fast. I thought I was one of them.

I am fit, I am 6'4" and 184 lbs. I can run fast. My fastest mile was 5:20. I have run a lot of miles, well at least I ran all but a few of the workouts in Hal Higdon's Novice I marathon training program. Why couldn't I get the predicted 3:30:00 marathon?

Well, to be honest I told myself that I would be happy with under 4 hours, and that is why I am not happy. I trained like a mad man and felt awesome going into the marathon. I found myself well ahead of the 3:40 marathon pace group with only 12 K left, but I hit the wall and it took an hour for me to cover the last 5 miles. I tried to gut out mile 21 and hit an 8:44 pace for it, but slammed down hard afterward.

Oh well, I am waiting for the tenderness to leave my right calf and plan on a 3 mile recovery run tomorrow. After that few low mileage weeks, while I look for a good training plan to get me at least a 3:50 marathon. I have changed my expectations because I feel that if I had merely run the more conservative pace at the beginning I would've had more to give at the end. I will focus on negative splits because I almost never can do them.

I have got another marathon October 10th and I expect to improve.