Alright, lemme break it down for you. First, let me mention that I trained the least for this marathon compared to all other 5 run before. What that basically means is that I logged less miles over the specific training cycle. Normally, I get in at least one 18 miler and one 20 miler before tapering. This time, my long run was 16.25 and I felt that this alone could really hurt my race outcome.
Heading into the final 2 weeks of the race I was run down, traveling, and basically feeling like I wasn’t even sure I would finish the darn race. So, I really did not know what to expect from my body. Mentally, I was feeling so much better than a month or so ago so i was super thrilled with that part, but physically I wasn’t sure what to expect.
As you might have read though in the earlier post, when I woke up on race day, I KNEW I was ready and I knew I would have a good day. Here are the mile breakdowns:
Mile 1: 8:45
Mile 2: 9:43
Mile 3: 9:41
Mile 4: 10:03
Mile 5: 9:31
Mile 6: 10:23
Mile 7: 11:00
Mile 8: 9:23
Mile 9: 10:29
Mile 10: 10:26
Mile 11: 9:47
Mile 12: 10:04
Mile 13: 11:17
Mile 14: 9:46
Mile 15: 9:58
Mile 16: 10:00
Mile 17: 9:40
Mile 18: 10:32
Mile 19: 10:21
Mile 20: 10:05
Mile 21: 10:13
Mile 22: 9:54
Mile 23: 10:22
Mile 24: 10:10
Mile 25: 10:17
Mile 26 + .2 = 12:44
OK. Here is where it gets tricky on my “official” time. I was wearing my Garmin, which is where I got my mile splits from, however, i noticed my mile markers on Garmin did not match up with race mile markers. Usually not a big deal because often it is pretty close. But, it was not close this time. When I completed the race, my watch read: 26.61 miles, 4:28:01. So that is .4 more than official race of 26.2. When i looked at my watch for 26.2, I was at 4:24. My RACE CHIP time was 4:28:10. Hmmm…what to do? Well, considering my Garmin has been off before, but never by that far of distance, i’m gonna split the difference and say I finished in 4:26. How does that sound? Fair?
In my age group Female 35-39, there were 742 runners. I was #171 out of 742. Not bad.
I’m cool with it! Like I said, a few days before the race i wasn’t even sure i would be able to finish. Comparing this time of 4:26 to my best of 4:19 is interesting. I trained less and didn’t fare too much worse. I wonder what i could have done had I got more miles in….lots of info to consider going forward. I did notice that for rest of day and next day, I felt the best I had ever felt after a marathon. I wasn’t nearly as sore or as fatigued. And I almost want to whisper this, but it kinda “felt easy”. Maybe it’s because I was “home” and feeling so awesome and loved. Maybe it was because it wasn’t in the damn heat and humidity of the south. Maybe it was all the Peets coffee. Maybe it was the Pacific Ocean breeze. Maybe it was “Rocky” on the iPod. Or maybe…it was just one of those days.
Thanks for reading. Thanks for cheering. Thanks for the support. Means more than I can say!!
Cheers!
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