Well, I told arc918 I’d have a race report after my first marathon, so here it is, finally.

On 11/20 I ran the St. Augustine marathon in St. Augustine, FL. I picked this race since I started training on 8/1 using a 16 week program that ended on that weekend. Plus, Florida in November sounded pretty nice. I got down into St. Augustine early and ended up driving the course a couple days before the race. Except for having to go over and back a couple bridges, the course was as flat as a pancake.

The race started at 6:15am, so I woke up around 4:45 after falling asleep a little after 2. I rarely get more than 4 hours sleep before a big race, so this wasn’t anything unusual. I decided to have the same breakfast I had when I won my half marathon in September, a Gatorade and a glazed, chocolate covered, custard filled donut, yum . My hotel was about 1.25 miles from the start line, so I left the hotel at 5:30 to walk to the start line.

It was still dark and the temp was in the low 60’s at the start. I was hopin’ the sun would stay down as long as possible. My goal was to run a 6:15-6:20 pace for the 1st half and come back at around 6:45-7:00 for the 2nd half and finish under 3 hrs. I had only run two races since I began training, a half (1:20:44) 8 weeks into training and a 5K (16:38) 5 weeks later. I was guessing at what pace to run based on those 2 races and my recent tempo runs. Come to find out, I was little too ambitious and overconfident for what I should run.

The first 6 miles I ran in the front with 3 other guys. The pace felt very comfortable and we were chatting up it, although, the other 3 guys did most of the chatting since they were from that area or had lived in that area before. I didn’t feel like I was pushing the pace at all so I just ran with them. At about 6.5 miles, the eventual winner started to pull away from the group and I knew I shouldn’t pick up the pace, so I let him go. One of the other 2 guys decided to go with him, so it was just me and another guy running together in 3rd at that point. I felt good at the 10 mile mark (1:02:27, 6:15 pace), so I was still feeling pretty confident about my race. I reached the 13 mile mark (1:21:33, 6:16 pace) and realized I was starting to have to push it a little harder to try and keep up the same pace. Once I hit mile 15, I realized things were transitioning from not-so-good to bad. I could definitely feel my pace slowing. Once I hit mile 17, things went from bad to let-the-suffering-begin status. I think mile 19 was where I took my first 30 second walk break. At that point I began reassessing what my goals were, which, the only one that mattered was to just finish and get this race over with. I noticed that I was getting a blister on the outside of my left foot, which partnered up well with the blister behind my big right toe that was a work in progress since mile 10. During mile 25, I realized that the only goal I could aim for, besides finishing, would be to get a BQ time, hence the sudden drop in time in the last mile or so. I was able to hit that goal and finished in 3:08:59. I was 10th overall and 1st in my age group.

Looking back now, I think I would’ve been fine going out in a 6:45-7:00 pace for the first 10 miles or so. The last long run I did was a 23 miler that I ran easy and completed in 2:50 (3:15 marathon pace), so I thought if I ran hard, I could easily break 3:00. Overconfidence bit me in the *kitten*. I know I ran a really good time for my first marathon, I just didn’t like how I got to that time nor the fact that I could’ve run a lot faster. This race would definitely go down as one of the worse ones I’ve ever done. I think arc918 might have mentioned something about not going out to fast , but obviously I didn’t know what too fast was and now I do, 26.2 miles too late lol. The worse part was the walk back to the hotel. It took me 65 minutes to walk/shuffle the 1.25 miles back, although, that does include one pitstop on the way there. My legs have never been in that much pain/soreness. It took about 5-6 days for the soreness to work its way out. I'm looking forward to doing better in my next marathon.

Mile splits:

6:20
6:25
6:16
6:17
6:15 5 miles
6:09
6:04
6:09
6:16
6:16 10 miles
6:20
6:21
6:25
6:32
6:41 15 miles
6:48
7:07
7:17
7:43
7:56 20 miles
8:20
9:31
9:21
10:05
9:31 25 miles
8:23

Official results:
http://chiptimes.com/images/files/static/571OverAll.htm