Sunday, May 15, 2011

2011 Pocono Marathon Post-Race (short review)

(Full Review coming in a few days)

The short story:  I now have a new PR for the marathon distance:  3hrs 21mins (approx)!  I'm very excited about this result.  I was hoping to beat 3:39, and MAYBE 3:30.   Check...and Check!  Woohoo!

The slightly longer story:  I am also a bit disappointed.  I was on a strong and confident 3hrs 15min pace until mile 22.  I was actually looking to qualify for Boston (needed a 3hrs 15min 59sec).  Then I bonked really hard.....epic-ly hard....tragically hard.  A switch flipped...and I simply could not keep my pace, no matter how hard I tried.  I screamed at myself, yelled at the people next to me, and shouted various mantras, (i.e. "stay fierce", "..not to yield", "stay strong"), but I was simply out of glycogen.  There are several reasons for this, which I will go into in the full Race Review (to follow in a day or so).  I will say that I did NOT go out too fast....but rather various other small things led to me fuel running out a few miles too early.  Like I said, I'm moderately upset about this.  This was probably my best chance to qualify as the course is mostly downhill, the weather was cool and wet, and next year the qual times get chopped by 5 minutes....making it even harder.  Oh well.  It was not meant to be.

Like I said though, in spite of this, I'm super excited about the time.  I shaved 18 minutes off of my previous PR.  That's over 40 seconds per mile faster.

Longer review coming soon.... (going to rest now)

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