Notes
Pretty happy with this race!
My main goal was 2:02, but my stretch was 2:00 .... and I was really hoping the 2:00 was within reach, since I've been training at those paces the last few months. I came awfully darn close ... and while it would have been nice to get below 2 hours, I am still extremely happy with how the race panned out and my results (plus it gives me a solid goal for Fargo now, one I know now is reachable).
As I had feared, the race was very crowded. I knew it wasn't wise to weave too much, but I really had to do quite a bit of it to stay on pace, particularly the first few miles. Through mile 9, I probably had to veer around at least 5-6 people or groups each mile to stay on pace. But --- I had been expecting this so it didnt throw me and I just put my head down and did what I had to do.
My plan was to do 9:20 my first 2 miles, then 9:10 for miles 3-9 -- then see how I felt at mile 10. If I was dragging by then, I knew I could drop as low as 9:30 and still hit my 2:02 goal. But if I had still had some strength left, I could hit my 2 hour stretch by dropping to 9's.
I ended up feeling fairly strong in my early miles, and I accurately forecasted that it would be tough to drop to 9s in those tough later miles ... so I purposely ran just a tad faster in some earlier miles to try and bank a little time. I know in general "banking" is not a wise move, but I did it in a fairly conservative manner... and it proved to be a good move. When I hit mile 9, I felt strong enough to not need to drop to 930s, but not strong enough to go to 9:00 either.
By mile 12, I was really struggling and stopped 2 times to walk .. only for a few seconds (and one was a water stop), but it was definitely very tough. I felt fine aerobically and even energy-wise wasnt too bad --- my legs just started feeling leaden. I really had to dig deep mentally and just push. I started counting steps, which is something I have done in training runs, so that mental prep defininitely paid off. By the time I hit the last mile, I got a kick, knowing I was almost done (at one point I looked at my watch and couldnt believe I was managing to get down below 9!).
Running in was a ton of fun. The winner of the marathon was coming in at the same exact time as I was finishing, so the crowds were going wild.
Key things I learned:
1. Dont plan on droppiong speed too much in those latter miles. A moderate slow start followed by a steady pace is probably the best bet for my next race (for flat courses anyway), and if I'm able to kick in the last 1.1 or so, great.
2. My main weakness in this race was my leg strength in the latter miles. I need to ensure I continue to build up more strength and start doing weights.
3. Mental prep is very important! I handled it pretty well this round, and need to continue to make this a key part of my training.
4. Reallllly gotta learn to not walk through water stops. I tried to not walk the first time and ended up with gatorade all over myself. I decided then to go ahead and walk the others, but I made them as short as possible and I didnt stop at all of them.. I think I skipped several.
5. Doing long runs with fast last miles really paid off ... no way I could have pulled that speed at Mile 13 without that training.