In the week leading up to my first road marathon I was extremely busy with an corporate audit at work. This even included a late night with beers. I did my best to get back on track but, that damn wagon seat must be greased because I keep falling off. Thursday thru Saturday I made sure to hydrate and stay as focused as possible but, on what? I don't even know how to run a marathon. My training up to this point was way off track and I just wasn't getting the quality long runs or tempos that I should have. So how did this all turn out?
I was up nice and early Sunday. I limited myself to one cup of coffee compared to my usual 3-4. I lightly hydrated with some HEED and we headed out. I got a great parking spot as a volunteer hooked me up at the finish line as we dropped off Natalie's massage set up. The wind coming off Erie was awful and it was only about 45 degrees. I met up with some Tri Team members and ran over to the start line. Now where do I line up? 3:10 seemed too fast but, 3:20 maybe did too. I just didn't know and now I had to pee again. I was feeling quite anxious at this point. So I lined up in a 3:15ish area and decided to run my race as I felt. I wanted to take the first 2 miles out easy. People were flying by. Old women with walkers were dusting me. By mile 1.5 I had to make a pit stop, and here's were everything changed. I came running out of the porta-jon figuring I was way behind the 3:20 group so I was trying to catch up. My mile splits dropped down to 7:00 and I felt great. I got 6 miles out and I could see the 3:20 group so I thought. I held the pace and mile 11 I ran up behind them. Turns out these are the 3:10 guys. I am sub Boston pace and feeling good. What a day. However, I told myself just to run. whatever happens does. I ran through mile 13 where Patrick was pacing the last half. I just wanted to stay put for awhile and hang with him. I felt great but, I knew this couldn't last.
Fast forward to mile 20...
Here it goes. All at once both IT bands locked. I started a loping stride to stretch out. It was working a little but by the time I got to 23 I had to stop twice and stretch. My hamstrings were cramping and it was all about pain. I just wanted to be done. No fun. Frank and Jody biked up and kept me company for the last few miles...That's all?
Well my title is The Failed Success. What that mean? Well I went into this race naive and blind. I ran very well. I showed discipline, I came to understand why long runs are important and I paid for it. I wasn't qualifying for Boston today, not in my first marathon attempt. I am not upset at this. I realized I was off pace and I let it go. I'm not here to get hurt, I'm saving that for Ironman. So as 3:10.59 ticked by there was a rookie marathoner 5 minutes 7 seconds away death marching towards a Failed Success. What a great day. 3:16.06
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