Kid RPM (co-worker) told me…”if you would just improve your eating habits, I’ll bet your running would improve.”  If you know me…you know I’m not the poster child for eating right.  My idea of dieting is 2 slices of pepperoni pizza instead of 5.   My favorite food is anything made of dead cow, dead pig or ice cream.  And my most favorite time of the day is “treat time”…One Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich and a Mike’s Hard Berry Lemonade.   So to say people are surprised, when they hear I run marathon distances is an understatement. 

The weather at the start of this race was on the cold side and the weather man had been calling for rain much of the week.  My goal other then trying to stay dry and warm was to run a time close to what I had run a few weeks earlier.  I figured I had a good chance of repeating that performance.  My legs had been feeling good, I had no injuries to deal with and I was able to eat pretty well prior to this run…..even having spaghetti two days in a row!   

During most big runs the organizers or a local running club will have runners leading pace groups to help other runners meet their finishing time goals. While walking to the starting line I pasted the 2:30 pacers and settled into my spot near the 2 hour pace group figuring I would hang in this area for the start and then work my way towards a 1h 50m finish.  At some point I also caught a glimpse of the 1:45 pacers as they walked to their starting point, I even fought off the idea of just running with them, figuring I was not in 1:45 shape….yet.  My best Half time was 1h 49m 53s.  My long term goal was to run under 1h 45m but not today.  

And the gun went off...    

My plan was to run an 8:30 pace for the first half of the run and pick it up the second half.  And by mile 3 I figured something was up….

Mile 3, 24:48.85 for a pace of 8:16 per mile:   During the first miles of my runs I’m able to figure out if I’m running or laboring.  And today I could not believe how fluid my leg turn-over felt.  My feet glided over the pavement not flopping and pounding their way down the road.  Absent was almost all sound of my shoes hitting the asphalt.  And to top it all off….my energy reserves felt great.  “Maybe there is something to eating right…..”    

Mile 6  48:49.30 for a pace of 8:00 per mile: And the turn for home.  At this point I was feeling great…my legs had plenty of zip left and my breathing was not labored.  Making the turn for home at 6.5 miles I figured it was time to turn up the pace and go for something special.  And it hit me…”I wonder where the 1:45 pace group is?”  

Mile 10  1:20:10.65 for a pace of 7:50 per mile: With three miles left to go my legs were beginning to feel a bit heavy, but I knew that I had to keep up the push.  I would have hated to waste a good effort up to this point on a late race crash.  Or bonk as us runners call it….to bonk sucks!

At some of the tiring or boring parts of any run I normally try and play some running games in my head, either disassembling one of my cars part by part or counting backwards, and if I’m really tired or bored solving complex math problems (2+2 = ?).  In a race I try to catch the next runner in front of me.  Today, my sights were set on that “next” runner…then the one after that and the next etc etc etc.  This little game paid big dividends today, I was able to keep up my pace and actually speed up towards the end of this run.

Mile 12  The unspeakable happened…..I caught up with the 1:45 pace group.  As I past these guys I motioned to them “I’ve worked all race to catch you guys”  And the lead runner replied…”and you picked the best time to catch us…at the end of the race.”  This little pat on the back filled my sails with some extra wind to make a solid push for home.  I focused in on the ground in front of me allowing my legs to take over, and in my best attempt to climb the hills like Lance Armstrong I was determined to leave the 1:45 pacers behind me.  It would have really sucked if they caught me back….LOL.

Mile 13 and the last .10:  At this point with the finish line insight, breathing, running and the pains of the last 13 miles were gone.  The only feeling left is the impact of my feet hitting the ground and the thought of how can I make this faster.  Whether I was really spiriting is questionable but I sure left like Carl Lewis.  And at last I was done…..NEW PERSONAL RECORD!

Place and Chip times: For the records, the weather at the start was mostly cloudy, 48 degrees F, 87% humidity, and calm wind.

There were 107 finishers in the Male 40 to 44 age group and 1365 finishers in the 1/2 Marathon division.

My overall finish place was 213, my age group finish place was 25 and my gender finish place was 175.  My time 1:44:11.60/a 7:57 pace per mile.

3M time was 24:48.85 for a pace of  8:16 per mile
6M time was 48:49.30 for a pace of  8:00 per mile
10M time was 1:20:10.65 for a pace of  7:50 per mile

My GPS watch had my finish time at 1h 42m 44s