When the alarm sounded at 4:30 I rolled out of bed and stumbled into the kitchen for breakfast. After some orange juice and a couple of pieces of toast with marmalade it was time to get dressed. By 5:00 we were in the car and heading toward St. Paul to catch the bus to the start line in Minneapolis.
Before the race we attended the ecumenical worship service at Augustana Lutheran Church. I was the guest speaker and shared a message with the congregation of around 200. I challenged them to consider whether they were running from, toward or for something. Acknowledging that we do all three but that running for something in both the race and in life is by far the most satisfying and best way to run.
After the worship service Jenny and I took off our sweats, kissed and headed to our respective starting corrals. I was feeling great and was really hoping to break the 3:30 barrier by running fractionally under an 8:00 minute pace.
The gun sounded and we were off, I quickly settled into what felt like a comfortable pace which turned out to be exactly the pace I was looking for. I headed through 5k in 24:43, right on target and with 49:33 at 10k I couldn't have been happier with my pacing.
It was a beautiful day, clear skies and a cool crisp morning with only a very light breeze. Absolutely perfect conditions to run in. I was thrilled to be running and was soaking in the environment around me. They say the Twin Cities Marathon is the most beautiful urban marathon in the country, it's true.
By the time I reached the halfway point I was still feeling strong and right on target for a 3:30 finish, I was relishing in the day running about 40 seconds ahead of the 3:30 pace group. At mile 15 I had lost a few seconds and was averaging exactly an 8:00 minute mile.
Then somewhere between miles 15 and 18 the wheels started to come off. By the 30k split (18.641 miles) my average paced had slipped to 8:05 from this point on it was a serious slide into oblivion! My 20 mile split was 2:42:40 which is about an 8:08 average. While this may not sound like much it meant that I had given back about another minute over 1.4 miles.
I was really starting to slow, my stride was shortening and my muscles where tightening. I was beginning to feel a little dehydrated. It was getting warm out and in the early miles the cups at the water stops weren't very full. Could I hold on? In a word, NO! I was quite dehydrated by now and was trying to drink plenty but drink it slowly to keep it in and the next 4 miles took me 49:05 to complete, that's a 12:16 pace, unbelievable! Well, not quite unbelievable but at least I only had 2.2 miles left at this point. I could hardly run, after a few steps of running I felt like I was going to lose the contents of my stomach so I slowed to a walk taking another 32:30 to run/walk the final 2.2 miles.
At least it was a beautiful day for a walk with temperatures getting into the mid-70's by the afternoon. Oh well, it's the first time I've had a marathon disaster like this, it may not be the last, time now to look forward to the next adventure!
Thanks to Molly, Heidi, Katy, Milt, Barb, Mum, Dad, Clare, Michaela, Kendall, Eric, Kelly, Julia and others for coming out and cheering for us on the way.
Recent Comments