Myrtle Beach Marathon 2009

1st marathon.. I went out real hard and just tried to hold on for the finish.
MILE 1 - 6:27 - I didn't want to go out too fast but I knew that if I could get ahead of that 7:15 pace then I would need that extra time at the end. It is easy to run this mile fast because even a 6:27 feels slow when you are near the front and everyone is running 5-6 min miles. The ocean of runnner's kind of sweeps you along. MILE 2 - I got tucked in behind 3 runners, two tall guys and a scrappy shorter guy with yellow nike's. At this point I realized how cool that watch is because I could see my pace when there was no clock.
MILE 3 - 18:45 - Waved to Lorena and laughed because I know she missed the photo opp due to the late flash of the camera as we passed.
MILE 4 - H20 - no walk - I felt good heading toward the beach because of the two taller guys in front that would be sure to block any wind. Unfortunately I didn't verbally express my plan and as soon as we hit the staright-away these guys took off with scrappy. I noticed they had green bib numbers and were only running the half-marathon so I was not disappointed.
MILE 5 - 32:00 - Wind was noticeably becoming a factor. I tried to draft a guy that was running with his friend, I soon found out that they were alternating positions as he called back and asked his friend how he was doing and if he wanted to switch yet. This worked for about a mile, then I decided to take off my shirt and that seemed to help with the wind.
MILE 6 - H20 / POWERADE - no walk - Disappointed as I spilled red powerade all over my face and hand because of trying to drink while running, it was sticky, 6:35 -6:45 pace. I periodically looked at my watch to ensure that my pace was in this range, if I saw it move to 6:50 then I would kick it up a notch.
MILE 7 - 8 - I got passed by some professional looking runner's and I asked what their goal time was and they said 2:45/2:50. I knew I was ahead but this was proof positive. I said "Damn, I'm just trying to qualify" the guy said to just keep it up and I will have created a "buffer" for the end. I was thankful he didn't say what he was truly thinking, which was probably that this guy is going to bonk halfway.
MILE 9 - I have moved to about a 6:50 pace on my watch and I passed scrappy with the yellow nike's as he appeared to be slowing down considerably. Definitely had a blister forming on my left big toe.
MILE 10 - 1:05:42 - H20 - This is 13 seconds faster than I did the 10 miler in St.Louis so I felt good but a little concerned because of the unknown. Normally during my training runs I ate Gu @ 10 mi. & 16, but I remembered something Cody told me and it stuck. He said not to eat unless I had to because I should use my Glycogen (fat storage) until that is nearing empty then Gu. Once you Gu then your body burns Gu and you must keep Guing til the end. Plus, this would allow me to eat a Gu @ 12 then still have an emergency Gu on me. I knew they had race Gu offered @ 16 & 24. MILE 11 - I began to regret not eating because I was not sure of the next H20 station and you must supplement the Gu with water to prevent sickness. This went away like other doubts and fears similar to the peaks and valleys or highs and funks during the run.
MILE 12 - H20 - GU - walk and ate - The guy next to me had his own Gu and he stopped while eating it and I did the same.
MILE 13.1 - 1:27:23 - My PR for the half and I felt good other than a sore toe but I was thankful for no blisters on the bottoms of my feet. I got passed by a blonde who I later recognized as being the winner of the female's when I saw her in the paper today; had I known she was going to win then it probably wouldn't have bothered me as much it did at the time.
MILE 14 - H20 - walk and drank 2 full cups - I think in hind-sight the Gu had made me very thirsty and I was mentally struggling with the idea of only being halfway done. I did check my watch and realize that I was over a mile ahead of my Virtual Partner which made me feel a little better.
MILE 15 - My first wall.. pace is right around 7:00-7:05 on my watch, crazy guy passed me at a solid pace and claimed he was feeling great and was just riding the high. I said to him remember the good times during the bad. Somehow forgot to heed my own advice here while I remained in a funk, but doable.
MILE 16 - H20 - Gu - walk and ate - new flavor Gu that I had never tried is what they handed me, it was good and I was off.
MILE 17 - WIND - WALL, I was not in a good place mentally, no other runners around - alone, wind off the coast was standing me straight up last I checked my pace was 7:30 and climbing. I hit the wrong button and reset the watch so it was blinking in a different mode.. I should have used the LOCK feature on the watch. Pissed off I couldn't fix it and run at the same time - I decided to just suck it up and go... no watch from here on out. It crossed my mind to throw it on the beach but it is way too nice a watch to do that, shows you where I was mentally. Hind-sight is Lorena mentioned maybe the Gu they handed me had Caffeine and it dropped me off hard, not sure cause I didn't check. Caffeine can be used effectively from what I read but I only used it in the Gu near the end of my runs during training.
MILE 18 - POWERADE - I drank half of a mini powerade bottle while walking thru the station, made a left off the coast only to face a slight hill. Still hurting and mentally distraught as I focused too much on the 8 mi. left.
MILE 19 - I met a guy Jeff, from Canada, that was in a similar place, he claimed he started off way too fast and was hurting. This was his first marathon and he wanted me to pull him to the finish. I told him I started too fast, it was my first, and I was hurting just as bad. He did say something that stuck because I had read it prior, "if it were easy then everyone would do it." I asked him about training in Ontario and he said it was cold, then I realized I was slowing him so I told him to go and don't worry there are peaks and valleys, this happens to be a valley for me. MILE 20 - 2:18:37 - walk 3 cups water and Gu - I used my emergency Gu and was excited finally could see a time since my watch "broke." I remember yelling "LET"S DO THIS!!!!!" and Jeff ahead of me turned around and gave thumbs up.
MILE 21 - The high from mile 20 had worn off and the biggest and only hill was upon us.
MILE 22 - 2:34:30 -H20- Jeff states only 4 miles left, great ONLY 4 miles he said again sarcastically. I remember thinking ok, 4 more 9 min. miles and I'm there, I can really do this. Then broke from Jeff on another guys pace as he was passing us. I began a mantra in my head - "the pain will go away but the memory lasts forever" this I repeated over and over and somehow kept up with this guy side by side for 2 miles. We had to be doing 7:30 pace.
MILE 24 - 2:49:40 - H20 and Gu - walk and ate half Gu - I lost that pace guy at the H20 station and geared up for the final 2 miles. I was thinking I could do 2-10 min miles but knew I wanted to finish strong, plus, I couldn't feel what a 10 min mile felt like and I had no watch. I was confident I had it at this point.
MILE 25 – Some people walking, blew my mind because we were almost home…
MILE 26 - I reached down deep and sought for a pace that I had been saving for the last mile, ready to give it my all and sprint the last mile I searched my reserve tank and said let's go... but nothing happened, again I said c'mon let's move.. yet my legs didn't respond so I conceded to the pace I was moving. I began to think about that .2 miles on the end of 26.2 and I calculated that if I was running a 9 min mile then .33 would be 3 min so .2 probably takes me 2.5 min more or less, either way it occupied my mind for a time.Then I made the final turn and saw my time and the rest is history.
Clock Time 3:08:00 Chip Time 3:07:40 BQ!! 46th OverallRace Results