cymru66

Race report will follow in the next couple of days, but for now just wanted to post race stats courtesy of my Garmin Forerunner 305. It was a perfect day for a marathon - temperatures at the start were cool but not cold, the sun shone for much of the race but wasn’t too intense, and the absence of any wind made for very pleasant conditions. The web site description of a “fast, but rolling course” is totally accurate and it seems like there are no flat sections whatsoever. It’s not a killer course, but it is quite challenging when you’re used to the flatlands of Virginia Beach.

My plan was to go out at 6:45 pace and see how long i could hold it.

Just like at the Shamrock Marathon 6 weeks ago, I somehow found myself with a deficit to make up at the halfway mark. I’d tried to push the pace early on but must have slacked off in the middle miles, and despite running miles 8-13 at a pretty good pace with Sarah from Arlington (4th female in the Half), I was down a minute or two on my goal. Also wary of the rising temperatures, I’d taken on a lot of water in the first half of the race, and now found myself desperate to find a port-o-john. Thankfully at the 15 mile mark I found one, and after a 40 second pit-stop I pressed on, finally able to concentrate on the task ahead. After some quick mental arithmetic at mile 16, I figured I was looking at a 2:58 unless I did something drastic. Nothing was really hurting, I still had a Hammer Gel to take so it was time to make my move.

Running past mile 17 was tough. Harry Grove Baseball Stadium was on my left, and there in the parking lot was my MINI. Knowing how hard the next 9 miles were going to be, it would have been so easy to take a slight detour and end the race……I wondered how many people would think the same thing as me. Anyway, that’s the not the way I wanted the marathon to end, so I pressed on, well aware of the lonely miles ahead.

Next time check was at 20 miles - 2:14:30. I remember the clock time but couldn’t estimate a finish in my head, so I just put my head down and tried to quicken the pace. I had 3 guys not too far ahead of me (did any of them look like they were in my age group??), and from what I could work out, the lead female ahead of them. I was confident of catching the guys, but the lady looked strong and confident. I couldn’t see anyone else in front of her and there wasn’t anyone close behind me either - as predicted the last part of the race was going to be lonely.

I picked off 2 of the guys quite comfortably. One was trying really hard to maintain his pace and break 3 hours. I met him after the race and am happy to report he held on and broke 3:00 for the first time. He was a happy guy! The 3rd guy was a little more difficult to shake off but it did help a couple of miles go by pretty quickly. Somewhere around 23 (I think) I passed the lead female and tried to offer some encouragement. She didn’t look as strong as I initially thought and wondered if she’d be able to hang on to the finish in 1st place (she didn’t). It was getting really tough for me as well now. All I could do was run from water stop to water stop and use the volunteer’s support to spur me on.

Into the last mile now and I hear footsteps approaching. I feared it was one of the 3 guys coming back at me, but the “R” on his back meant he was a Relay Runner and part of a team. We exchanged words of support and I dug deep trying to hang on to his faster cadence. Two more “hills” (save the best for last Race Director!) and the stadium was in site. I hadn’t bothered to look at my watch for several miles and was expecting a finish time around 2:57. As I “breezed” past the 26 mile mark and entered the stadium, I was stunned and surprised to see 2:54 something on the clock. With a quick left turn and a sprint to the finish I couldn’t believe I’d broken 2:55 - a second marathon PR in 6 weeks!

Official time: 2:54:51
Overall position: 11th
Age-group position: 1st

My initial comment “race report will follow in the next couple of days” is now redundant - I seemed to have got carried away with my latest post…….thanks for hanging on for the conclusion!

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

 

Frederick Marathon Prediction

New world record set at Frederick Marathon

Decisions, decisions…which Spring marathon for me?

 

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 30th, 2006 at 9:08 pm and is filed under Running. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.