26.2 today
2653
Ran OKC this morning. Got there yesterday, did the expo thing. I got to meet and had my picture taken with Shannon Miller. (From the ATL 96 Olympics) That was the highlight of that...other than that, just the usual expo crap I never pay attention to. Went to go eat lunch - beer and pizza...delicious! (And before you ask, I *always* have beer and pizza the day before a race. Don't knock it till you've tried it, because you don't know what you're missing out) Obviously I'm not the fastest but I've always performed so much better drinking the night before...and I've tested my theory on several occassions.
The goodie bag had free admission to the OKC Memorial, so headed that way. That memorial was awe inspiring. Just approaching it...you see the magnificence of it. Looked at all the stuff attached to the fence. Went inside, took some pics, then went to the museum. I have to say, of all the museums I've been to, that was the only one I've actually been completely engulfed in. It told all the history. OKC as a whole doesn't have a lot going for it, but if you're ever in Oklahoma, you MUST go visit it. At the end of the tour they had a guest book, which I signed my name and as a comment put "Now I have something to run for tomorrow". Ended up going to a friend's friends house and had a pasta dinner, and crashed at another friends house.
Blah blah fast forward to the race. Weather was supposed to rain, but it held out. Was humid and hot at the beginning. I initially wanted to go in at a 10 min mile pace, but had been training lately at a 8:30-9. (I knew a 10 would be sustainable the whole race) For the first 13 or so miles, ran at about a 9-9:15 pace and felt great! The heat got to a lot of people...by mile 4 my shirt was soaked in sweat, but I felt really strong. Then we hit the lake...we ran to the lake going due west, turned up the lake for a 1/2 mile going north, then went down one side of the lake going south. Going north the wind was at our back...running south it was all headwinds. 25+ mph headwinds.
As a sidenote, this is my 3rd full marathon, and the 3rd consecutive marathon that has had 25+ mph winds. I swear, it's a curse.
So from about mile 14-19.5 it was running directly into this headwind. My pace dropped to 9:45-10. Still felt really strong. Mile 21 hit, started running up a street that lasted through mile 24. The wind felt even stronger here. The wind just sucked the life out of me. I don't think I ran more than 3/4 of a mile without having to stop, and when I did run, it was 10-10:30. I can take hills, I can take heat, but I can't seem to overcome the wind. Mile 24-the end was relatively flat with some downhills. The wind made me hit a wall and ran/walked the rest of the way, running the last 3/4 mile in.
My original goal was a 4:35. Set my Forerunner to a 4:30, and knew 3/4 of the way through I was way ahead. That 21-24 hurt what would have probably been about a 4:15, so ended up doing a 4:25:10, which I was happy about. (Knocked 19 minutes off my PR) Again, I'd just like to run a damn full without fvcking winds completely screwing with me. I honestly think it's a curse of some sort. This is my last full till the fall. Have one more half coming up, so going to take the summer and train harder/get faster. I feel like I've made a lot of good progress over the past year, but still have a lot to learn and still have better times ahead of me
And this was by far and away, the best spectator course I've run so far, half or full. There were spectators lined up pretty much everywhere. The finish line - there had to have been well over half a mile full of people lined up cheering you on at the end. (19,000 people registered, only 2500 of which did the full) I was blown away by that.