So had a few days to let the weekend sink in. Legs are pretty shot - my quads are screaming, calves are sore, and left ankle still has slight shooting pains from stepping in that pothole in mile 11 but I can hobble around better today :) Still on a high from the BQ, and talked with Ken last night about the race in detail. These are a few things I was most pleased about this race:
1) Battling through the tough start and settling into a great rhythm. First 3 miles through the city almost had me in a state of panic, with all the turns and the mob of runners. I never felt that great and the pace felt a lot faster than it should of. When we got north of downtown is when I fell into place, and the next 15 miles felt like I had run 3.
2) Sticking to the pace group. When I finally was dialed in, there were so many times when it would have been easy to have just broken away - I felt THAT good. Albeit, our pace group was probably faster than it should have been, but the low 7's we were hitting felt soooo easy. From previous marathons, I know that feeling and it was best to stay put even though I probably could have gotten away with it. My main goal first and foremost was 3:10 and the BQ - if I had taken off and flamed out in the end, I don't think I would have forgived myself.
3) Having Crystal and Shane there the entire way. Granted the first half of the race, I fell 5-10 seconds behind them at many points, they were always right there and was probably the key to this race. Obviously, there is HUGE comfortability in running with your training partner, and Shane and I have run enough together as well that it is almost a security blanket to have them around. I think my most favorite run this training segment was the 22 miler we all did in late August - just had a blast out there with them :) Was awesome getting to work with Shane in the later miles, ridiculously helpful mentally and physically, and one of my greatest thrills was to meet him right after he had crossed the finish line, ask him if he got it, then get the nod.
4) Even splits/Overall Negative split. Can't believe that all our 5K splits were within 18 seconds of each other. Even more in disbelief that I negative splitted the marathon - that is pretty much the ultimate goal to do that in a marathon (run the 2nd half faster than the 1st half), and was pretty stoked to accomplish that. 1:34:29 first half, 1:34:17 second half - how's that for consistency?!
5) Battling the last 10K. Felt ok on the first couple miles, but legs were certainly starting to leaden after a bit. Last 2.2 miles was a battle with myself, physically and emotionally. I took great pride in having my fastest mile split be the last mile, and not having to stop once during the race. Just executed the race plan perfectly :)
Thanks again to everyone that followed and supported me, a HUGE thank you (and congrats) to Pat, Crystal, Shane, Tim, and Ken for all being there in Chi with me as I continued my PR streak running with you guys, and a special thanks to my sister Anne for taking care of all the logistics of the race, putting Shane, Tim, and I up in her condo, and being our transport from start and finish. She alleviated all the stress beforehand for me, and made it 100 trillion times easier, allowing me to relax and focus on the race. Always a thrill to see her out there cheering us on - I couldn't have done it without her, she gets as much credit for this as me :)
So awaiting confirmation to my entry to the 115th Boston Marathon, which should come sometime in a month. Over the next week, I need to reaccess my future goals in running, as I am pretty sure I have run my last competitive marathon. The initial thought is to focus on speed right now while keeping a base going through the winter, then transition back to higher mileage sometime in early 2010.
I started this blog in April to track my training and progress towards the goal of hitting 3:10:59. Still in shock that it happened, and I guess I thought about ending my blog career but what fun with that be? So I will continue on, tracking my winter training, then make a few physical changes to the title and track my training for Boston! As for now, some low mileage, slower runs to let my legs get back to normal, and resting on my laurels for a while enjoying this great accomplishment :)
Deena and I
Marathon Expo
Friday night shenanigans
Prerace
Anne and I
BQers!!!!
Postrace champagne (we pop champagne, we make the champagne rain!!!!)
Postrace celebration :)
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