The weather for the Newport Marathon was spectacular. Little foggy at the start… but seeing the bridge jutting from the fog… not to mention the boats with their masts fading into the distance over the bay made for a wonderful start.
Because of the limited number of entrants, it was easy to get near the start. My wife dropped my off about 15 minutes before the start of the race and I managed to get through the porta potty line once before the start. There was hardly a breeze… about 50 degrees… just a perfect morning. Would it be a perfect finish?
I really didn’t have a particular pace in mind. I told my wife best case 4 hours… most probably 4 hours 15 minutes… bad day 4 hours 30 minutes… and if I don’t show up by 4 hours and 45 minutes to start looking for my dead body on the course. I started out with what was conformable… about 8:50 per mile.
I bought 3 GU packs at the package pickup. I usually eat something on a long run… but never GU. I known… never change anything for the race… but I did it anyway.
The first part of the marathon flew by. Actually… the race pretty much did until about mile 17… when I started getting stomach cramps. Now… I have NEVER had stomach cramps in all my running… so this was something very new to me. I tried slowing… but it didn’t help. I think the GU was getting me.
My pace stayed a bit slow through about mile 20… when it dropped another minute per mile. By mile 21 I decided that marathons were ridiculous and tried to come up with a plan how I could keep myself from trying another. I considered gnawing a message into my arm and then rubbing the last of my strawberry GU into the wound… in the hopes of creating some type of tattoo… but alas the last of my GU was turning my insides into knots.
Now… I wasn’t hitting the wall like in Portland… I hydrated well… I was just suffering the repercussions of weak training. Three weeks prior to the marathon I got a nasty cold that caused me to skip a few runs… and I think I just didn’t train hard enough or have enough miles to allow me to keep pace the last 6 miles, and I was getting passed left and right. Bummer. Sigh.
I crossed the finish line at 4:14… marathon 3 under my belt. Will it be my last? Maybe. I have said that before though. =) I still want to run… I like it… I enjoy it… but oh those last six miles…
2 comments:
Congrats again! You pushed through and made it through those 6miles! You are an inspiration so thanks!
Ouch. That was ugly... It's amazing that you made it through. When you are ready to run another one you will know. Don't push it... Recover well...
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