Quote:
Originally Posted by Chief Rum
How do you feel about how you did? Congratulations on finishing!
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Training for this event was non-existent, so my primary goal was to traverse the entire 13.1 mile long course and cross the finish line on two working legs. And I succeeded.
I used the first couple of miles as my warm-up, I adopted a 2/1 pace where I would slowly run for two minutes and walk for one. I programmed this into my Garmin so it would alert me of my intervals. This discipline is the one thing that kept me sane throughout the course. Otherwise I probably would have over done it early on and not have the gas to finish.
The course itself was long and flat. After about two and a half miles we detoured off the main beach highway for three miles for a small climb, but it wasn't very difficult. Back on the main highway, we continued on north until about mile 8 where we would turn around for the five mile home stretch.
I wasn't expecting the strong headwind at the turnaround. It made the last few miles difficult, but also made me want to finish more urgently. I dropped my head and pushed through.
Mile 9. My hamstrings started to go out. My pace slowed down by a minute.
Mile 10. Just a 5k distance to go. I tried to run the remaining 5k, but my legs were just on fire. I just maintained the 2/1 pace.
Mile 11. I turned around and saw a school bus following about 200 meters back. Thinking it was a sweeper bus picking up the slow folks to reopen the streets, I picked up my pace for fear of possibly not finishing the race. I looked at my new Road ID bracelet and read out the last line. "DLF > DNF >> DNS" Damn it. I WILL FINISH THIS RACE!
Turns out it wasn't a sweeper bus, but just parking shuttle bus just passing through.
Mile 12. I could see the finish line. I tested my legs, and with about 3/4 mile left, and fueled by what little spectator crowd that remained, I was able to kick it into high gear all the way to the finish line, arms raised for the photographers.
Finish: 3:51:05
Pace: 17:38
Overall: 15140 out of 15447
Men: 5992 out of 6066
M 40-44: 954 out of 960
{edited to add the pivotal Mile 11}