My official time for the 2008 Denver Marathon was 4:02:55. I am a tick disappointed as I was shooting to break 4 hours, but overall the race went well. As I was timing my run on my nifty GPS watch, I came in at 3:59:16, but the official time is what really matters. So... the next time I run I need to be at least 3 minutes faster!
Here are my splits: Mile (1) 9:19, (2) 8:35, (3) 8:33, (4) 8:49, (5) 8:24, (6) 8:34, (7) 8:40, (8) 8:39, (9) 8:50, (10) 9:00, (11) 8:18, (12) 8:35, (13) 8:50, (14) 9:00, (15) 8:44, (16) 8:34, (17) 9:16, (18) 8:54, (19) 9:09, (20) 9:21, (21) 9:43, (22) 9:43, (23) 10:01, (24) 10:29, (25) 10:39, (26) 10:16 (.23) 2:25
Prior to the race I made a last trek to the restroom. That put me at the back of the field for the start of the race and the first three miles were like running through a human traffic jam. I felt good up to the 22 mile mark and was right on pace for @ 3:55:00. However, it was at mile 22 that I started to feel really fatigued. I slowed down a bit, thinking I could regain some energy, but the opposite seemed to happen. My body enjoyed the slower pace and requested that I run even slower. Silly body, I still had 5 miles to go!
At that point I was pretty whooped and I was just trying to hang on. My right quad felt like it was cramping a bit so I started throwing down a ton of fluids (more than normal), to try to prevent this and it made me a bit nauseous. Looking at my watch, I determined that I needed to run the lat 2.2 miles under 24 minutes to break 4 hours, so that is what I pushed towards.
After I finished the race I walked around a bit and grabbed some water. My body was pretty much done, but my leg never did cramp. However, I was pretty sure I needed to rid myself of all the Gatorade I drank over the last 4 miles. I found a secluded bush, hurled for the first time in probably 10 years, then felt much better.
Right after the race I had no desire to run another marathon... EVER! However, I feel good today (legs are a bit sore) and another marathon sounds like a good challenge. May take my best persuasion skills to get my wife on board with this.
The best that I can tell, I lost about 8 lbs during the race. But not to worry, here is all that I ate/drank later that day.
- 1 bag of peeled apples
- Starbucks Venti Double Shot
- Starbucks Venti Coffee Frappucinno
- 2 big glasses of Chocolate Milk
- 1 Bowl of Frosted Mini-Wheats
- 1 Chipotle Burrito w/ chips and guacamole
- 1 large Iced Tea
- Chocolate Shake
- Mint Chip Shake
- 1 Banana
- @ 1/2 gallon of water
Glad I set this goal. I think that I am as healthy as have been in a long time. What is next? Not exactly sure, but I do want to hit the 1000 mile mark for the year, which I should hit if I run consistently over the next 10 weeks, and next May I would like to run the Bolder Boulder under my age - 43:00.
- This Week: 26.2 miles
- This Month: 91.4 miles
- This Year: 898.5 miles
- Lifetime: 5003.9 miles
