Question of the day today was “So how did you do at the marathon?
It went well, but not as good as I had hoped. I went out too fast, hung on until 16 miles (1:57 for 13.1) where a MANDATORY ‘pit stop’ added 2.5 min to my time, and caused my legs to start locking up. I never got the momentum back, and slowly started to disintegrate. The 4:00 pacers passed me while I was in the loo, and I managed to hold the 4:15’s off until 22.5 miles, where a 1.5 mile gradual uphill did me in. I managed to salvage a PR with a 4:21:49 watch time, but this was definitely not the race I wanted to run. I had plenty of energy, fueling/hydration felt spot-on, HR seemed in line with effort, but my hips/ITB seemed to give up the race right after the 13.1
The weather cooperated. A pretty nasty little cold front blew through Sat. night, and left wet roads and fog behind, but NO RAIN. Temps started in the upper 40s but with the fog it was quite warm. I dressed in a singlet, shorts and a long sleeve tech shirt, and cotton gloves. I dropped the tech shirt just inside the 1st mile, pulled the gloves off about 8 miles in. I never the temps except when the course turned into the wind. For the most part the course is well sheltered from the on-shore wind, so when there was a breeze, it wasn’t for very long. Had there been an off shore breeze, extra clothing would have been required!
It was an ugly PR, but a PR still and my 2008 streak stays complete. I learned that I need a LOT more practice in my pacing, and need to push myself a wee bit harder on my longer runs. I also need to work on core (esp hips and low-back) and find some new stretching techniques.
Official times:
Team Name City,State 9.2 Mi HM 22.3 Mi ChipTime GunTime
Greg Bassett Basking Ridge,NJ 46 M 30 1:25:03 1:59:08 3:38:20 4:21:33 4:23:27