6 Minutes 10 Seconds Or 27 Seconds

Had a great weekend in Sacramento even if the weather was pretty crappy. It was cool and foggy the whole weekend. Great for running, but not so great for sightseeing and race spectators. The marathon was very well organized. The expo wasn’t huge, but it was nice. They had several good seminars throughout the day Saturday. Unfortunately I was only able to sit in on one of them. My wife and I were out walking all over. I think we walked at least three miles probably more. I met Catra Corbett at the expo. She is an ultra runner and cross-fit fanatic. I sometimes read her blog for inspiration. I have set numerous PR’s this year in part because she inspired me to push myself harder than I used to think was possible.
The race went pretty well for me. I slept great the night before. Woke up about 4am, ate some pretzels and a hammer gel for breakfast, got dressed and boarded the bus to the start at about 5:15. There were plenty of port-a-potties at the start area. I managed to make use of them twice with very little waiting. I bagged my warm-up suit and then got back on the bus until about 15 minutes before the start. I had a little trouble finding the 3:30 pace runner, Lee Mckinley. By the time I saw him there was no way to get near him, but I was only about 5 yards behind him. After the start I didn’t see him again until about mile 2. I finally caught up to him around mile 3. I started to pull away from him around mile 8 or 9. He caught and passed me around mile 18. I tried to keep up with him, but just didn’t have it. Still, I felt pretty good up to about mile 21 when I started to tighten up a little. I kept pushing though, tried to stay positive. All through the race I kept telling myself “no stinkin’ thinkin” anytime I started to have negative thoughts. I slowed a little in the last 5 miles, but kept pushing. I ended up with a 3:31:26 finish time, cutting another 6 minutes 10 seconds off my PR from a month ago. Ok, I’m a little disappointed about missing a BQ by 27 seconds, but I’m pretty happy with my performance. I ran the first half in 1:44:20 and the second half in 1:47:06. Right after the finish I was sure I was going to throw up and my wife says I looked pretty bad, but I feel pretty good now about 10 hours after finishing, no major aches or pains.