Marathon #3 - 4:07:40 (9:28 pace) Results
Date - March 31, 2012
Location - Jackson, TN
Weather - mid 60's starting out at 7am, 74 when finished at 11am.
Conditions - perfectly setup, well rested from 2 nights before (only 4-5 hrs night before), drove 1.5 hrs to Jackson race morning. Oh yeah... and baby got some new shoes! Bought the 22nd, broke in twice before raceday - calves/glutes sore after the first long run (Sunday 8-miler with MRTC).
Report: Got pretty nervous before starting out. Legs felt a little shaky and weak - not sure if it was the car ride, nerves or the caffeine. Ate a yummy flat waffle while sitting in the car waiting (Momma and I enjoyed watching other runners' warm-up strategies... as well as their outfits!). Walked up 10 til. Temp was perfect. Downhill start off at the Union University campus. Within the first mile I had found another runner from MRTC so we chatted for a few miles and discussed strategy. He was hoping for 4:15-4:25 but was keeping a sub4 pace at the time so to avoid going out too fast we kept around 8:40. Took first water at mi. 3 - by this time the jello feeling my legs had going on had begun to wear off. From that point on I got water at every stop. Felt really good throughout the first 10k. We had 2 more similar paced runners join us - Lisa, a lady from Memphis, and an older guy from middle TN with the plan of finishing so many marathons before he turned 50. His pace was steady & his stride was seemingly perfect so I tried to stick close by. He picked up the pace (or ours slowed down) shortly after halfway and he pulled away. Needless to say, the 4 of us carried on several good conversations for those few miles (around 10-14) - this drastically helped time pass. Besides my first half (thanks to Sabrina) I hadn't had anyone to run a race with. Definitely helped with motivation and having the company of similar paced runners sure didn't hurt either!!
I got some side stitches around 17/18 but didn't last long. Felt a little icky after a Gatorade+water+Gu stop... possibly a little much sugar?! Ha. Never... Slight knee pain also began to kick in around 17/18 so I shortened my stride and focused on leaning forward. This helped drastically - pain slacked off. Lisa and I left Kevin at the water stop on mi. 18. We stayed within talking distance & switched positions on/off through mi. 24, encouraging each other when we got caught up. About mile 21/22 I had what felt like blister pain forming on the inside of the balls of both feet - oh, this made me almost freak out! I knew I hadn't come this far just to have blisters slow me down!!! All the stories about runners messing up by not properly breaking in their new shoes first started to haunt me and gave me a feeling I would be looking at quarter-sized blisters when it was all said and done. I tried to land on the outside for the next mile and eventually it got better... that or I just got delirious and forgot. Guess I didn't hit my wall til about mi. 22 - legs became tired/heavy at that point. Lisa grew some wings at mile 23/24 and took off leaving me to my air drums and the sound of "boom boom pow" blasting from my ipod. Before long I had caught back up with the 50yr. old with a couple miles to go - he yelled out "great job!" That was very encouraging, especially considering the back country roads we'd been on all day weren't exactly lined with cheering spectators. Roadkill, however, was a different story. I saw Lisa in the distance on small hills returning to campus 24-25. Knowing her pace had been dead on with mine all morning I tried to keep her in sight. Walked once/twice at every mile for the last 3 but only for 20-30 sec max. This was a MAJOR improvement from St. Jude walk time back in Dec. That race I struggled to get started back after a walk but the quick breaks actually fueled me this time. The last couple miles twisted through residential areas and led back to Union. Went down a long hill then up a long one to round the campus corner at 25/26. I started looking for momma and finished up with
Overall my pace didn't get too bad choppy til mile 18. It slowed down at 20, 22, 24 (picked up after water stops). Tried to stay consistent with effort up the few rolling hills - felt good about this. Gotta work on solid consistency towards the end. 19 was the longest run I had done in training - would like to get this to 21.
Garmin stats on Strava
Nutrition: Water at 4,6 and every even mile. Took a gu every other stop (4 mi), electrolytes and SportLegs once per hour.
Recovery: 24 hrs after, soreness in hips and slightly in calves - wore compression sleeves. Next 24 hips gone but calves more extreme. By Monday calves were still slightly sore, but very minimal - gone by Tuesday. I was very excited about the fast recovery this go around! 7-miler on Wednesday felt great.
I got some side stitches around 17/18 but didn't last long. Felt a little icky after a Gatorade+water+Gu stop... possibly a little much sugar?! Ha. Never... Slight knee pain also began to kick in around 17/18 so I shortened my stride and focused on leaning forward. This helped drastically - pain slacked off. Lisa and I left Kevin at the water stop on mi. 18. We stayed within talking distance & switched positions on/off through mi. 24, encouraging each other when we got caught up. About mile 21/22 I had what felt like blister pain forming on the inside of the balls of both feet - oh, this made me almost freak out! I knew I hadn't come this far just to have blisters slow me down!!! All the stories about runners messing up by not properly breaking in their new shoes first started to haunt me and gave me a feeling I would be looking at quarter-sized blisters when it was all said and done. I tried to land on the outside for the next mile and eventually it got better... that or I just got delirious and forgot. Guess I didn't hit my wall til about mi. 22 - legs became tired/heavy at that point. Lisa grew some wings at mile 23/24 and took off leaving me to my air drums and the sound of "boom boom pow" blasting from my ipod. Before long I had caught back up with the 50yr. old with a couple miles to go - he yelled out "great job!" That was very encouraging, especially considering the back country roads we'd been on all day weren't exactly lined with cheering spectators. Roadkill, however, was a different story. I saw Lisa in the distance on small hills returning to campus 24-25. Knowing her pace had been dead on with mine all morning I tried to keep her in sight. Walked once/twice at every mile for the last 3 but only for 20-30 sec max. This was a MAJOR improvement from St. Jude walk time back in Dec. That race I struggled to get started back after a walk but the quick breaks actually fueled me this time. The last couple miles twisted through residential areas and led back to Union. Went down a long hill then up a long one to round the campus corner at 25/26. I started looking for momma and finished up with
Overall my pace didn't get too bad choppy til mile 18. It slowed down at 20, 22, 24 (picked up after water stops). Tried to stay consistent with effort up the few rolling hills - felt good about this. Gotta work on solid consistency towards the end. 19 was the longest run I had done in training - would like to get this to 21.
Garmin stats on Strava
Nutrition: Water at 4,6 and every even mile. Took a gu every other stop (4 mi), electrolytes and SportLegs once per hour.
Recovery: 24 hrs after, soreness in hips and slightly in calves - wore compression sleeves. Next 24 hips gone but calves more extreme. By Monday calves were still slightly sore, but very minimal - gone by Tuesday. I was very excited about the fast recovery this go around! 7-miler on Wednesday felt great.
