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Flying Pig - my first marathon

TryScott's picture
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started by TryScott on May 4, 2008

My strategy was to run with the 3:40 pace group, if I felt good, for half of the marathon. If I still felt good at mile 13.1, then I was going to slowly increase my pace until the finish. To qualify for Boston (3:15), I would have to run at 7:26min/mi. There's no way I was going to run that, but I am curious to know if I could sustain that pace for a mile or two after mile 20.

Started with the 3:40 pace group, but I don't remember seeing them after the 1st mile marker. Somewhere around mile 8 I found the 3:30 pace group. It must of motivated me because I ran the next 3 miles faster than 7 min/mile. I caught the 3:20 pace group at mile 12, and I stayed with them until just after mile 18.

Maybe I should of stuck to the plan of running with the 3:40 group for half the race. Maybe I should of started with a 3:20 or 3:30 pace and kept it. Maybe I should of trained more, tapered better, not rode my first century last Sunday, or maybe it's supposed to hurt that bad. Anyway, my quads got really tight, and it was becoming hard to run at mile 18. I stopped to stretch, and I walked, but neither helped. The 3:30 pace group that seemed so slow when I saw them at mile 8, was a lot faster at mile 24 when they passed me.

You may notice that the distance on my Garmin is not 26.2 miles. Aside from margin of error, there was a detour because of a fire that happened the night before. Last Sunday I did my first century ride, and I missed a loop that caused me to only ride 93 miles. I consider the marathon detour my punishment.
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Even though I didn't stick to my plan, which probably caused me more pain than I needed, I'm really excited about the result. It was great weather, the crowd was great. My mother, father, wife, child, and brother were all there. Am I doing it next year? No way! There's too many other marathons that I want to do. Chicago, Marine Corps, Disney, maybe even Boston someday.

TriSooner's picture
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TriSooner posted 8 weeks ago.

TryScott wrote:
Maybe I should of trained more, tapered better, not rode my first century last Sunday, or maybe it's supposed to hurt that bad.
Wait, what? With all due respect my friend, a century the week before the marathon was dumb. That was your problem: 100% certain of it. So, was a random century worth not qualifiying for Boston? Priorities!

Ironman Germany (July 6, 2008)

FlashRedGLS1.8T's picture
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FlashRedGLS1.8T posted 8 weeks ago.

All I'll say is that a 7:51 pace for a first marathon is excellent. You get bonus points from me for that! Especially for that elevation change in the first 1/3 of the run.

TryScott's picture
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TryScott posted 8 weeks ago.

TriSooner wrote:
Wait, what? With all due respect my friend, a century the week before the marathon was dumb. That was your problem: 100% certain of it. So, was a random century worth not qualifiying for Boston? Priorities!

Last week, my priority was triathlons, and I wanted the bike workout. In hindsight, I should of did an easy 8 mile jog instead. Qualifying for Boston was not one of my goals this year, but it sure would of been nice.

gfd's picture
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gfd posted 8 weeks ago.

Congrats. A 3:32 a week after a century and during tri training is great. Boston is definitely in your future.

Marine Corps is a nice course to qualify on.

autoload's picture
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autoload posted 7 weeks ago.

Wow Scott! You come a long way since last year!