marathon
i ran the marathon today (a whole marathon - i am still amazed!) with a couple of goals in mind, all of which i succeeded at:
- complete the marathon
- run at a steady pace (i did exactly 9:00/mi the whole time, according to my splits and the clocks i paid attention to)
- break four hours (3:55:59 chip time)
- be able to walk across the graduation stage three hours later (tenuously...)
i learned a few things! most interestingly, i finished with surprisingly much core energy still to spare; instead, my quads started falling apart around mile 19, and i had to ignore their screaming the rest of the way. so, maybe more long training runs are in my future, to get my legs better used to doing that so i can do it faster. also, the miles after 14 are the hardest ones to stay motivated for, especially if nobody's running them with you.
mile 22, the exact moment i knew i was going to succeed at breaking four hours - eyeing the pace runner that i slowly caught up to, traded words with, and eventually passed and lost track of. (thanks to renshaw, whom i was in too much pain to notice, for the photo!)
congrats to everybody else who ran one or both halves!
- complete the marathon
- run at a steady pace (i did exactly 9:00/mi the whole time, according to my splits and the clocks i paid attention to)
- break four hours (3:55:59 chip time)
- be able to walk across the graduation stage three hours later (tenuously...)
i learned a few things! most interestingly, i finished with surprisingly much core energy still to spare; instead, my quads started falling apart around mile 19, and i had to ignore their screaming the rest of the way. so, maybe more long training runs are in my future, to get my legs better used to doing that so i can do it faster. also, the miles after 14 are the hardest ones to stay motivated for, especially if nobody's running them with you.
mile 22, the exact moment i knew i was going to succeed at breaking four hours - eyeing the pace runner that i slowly caught up to, traded words with, and eventually passed and lost track of. (thanks to renshaw, whom i was in too much pain to notice, for the photo!)
congrats to everybody else who ran one or both halves!