Illinois Marathon race photos and lessons learned

Here's some pictures from the half... I think my favorite is the one in the upper left where I'm just entering the shot, leaping through the air at full stride, ready to kick on some foolz :) (tip: you can click on the photo if you want to enlarge it... just in case you really wanted get a good look at my ugly mug)... Also, here's some post race thoughts and lessons learned.

At a medium pace: I felt a brand new kind of pain during the half. It wasn’t the throbbing behind your eyes pain you feel during a faster race like a 5-10k and it wasn’t the “my legs are so tired they don’t work no more” pain you encounter at the end of a marathon… This pain was unique because it was gradual, annoying, and not quite ignorable (like an itch you can’t quite reach) which would have been tolerable except that it lasted for over an hour… Now normally, I don’t mind the pain so much (it’s just part of racing, in fact in a strange way I kind of enjoy it), but since this experience of pain was unfamiliar to me it made it more difficult to process… This helped me identify a gap in my training! All my runs are either fast for short amounts of time (tempo runs at 5k-10k pace for 20-40 minutes) or slow for long amounts of time (Long runs at MP+)… what about the middle ground?

Boston Qualified?: Double my Sub 1:35 in my half and you get sub 3:10 for a marathon aka BQ!!! So now at least I know what Boston Pace feels like… not so bad… for the first 5-6 miles at least!!! Yeah, I have a ways to go… but on the other hand I did come into my half-marathon recovering from a small head cold, and I did have some extra energy to screw around during the race, and I do have about 15 more pounds I could stand to lose, and I do have 5 more months and about 800 more miles of training I’m going to have under my belt before Chicago… oh well, I think I better let this one go for now… but interesting none the less… very interesting…

Strength training: The fact that I'm more sore from doing 13 push-ups in the end zone after the race then I am from running the actually race itself can mean only one thing: Time to get back into the weight room and do some strength training!

Death of Superman: Sadly I think its time I retire my superman shirt… First off I’m finally starting to concede the point the technical fabrics are indeed much better suited for running apparel then cotton and not just some scam created by athletic wear companies… Secondly, as I’m getting faster and subsequently racing harder I’m enjoying the attention the shirt brings me less and less… It used to be that I’d be running and a spectator would shout “Go Superman!” or “Looking good Superman” and then I’d smile and wave. One time at a race there was even a little kid who actually thought that I might be Superman and was super excited!!!... Now a days, when I get to mile 12 of a half marathon I’m in no mood for antics… Spectators are shouting “Let’s Go Superman” every 20 feet and I’m thinking “F*ck off… leave me alone… this sucks! When is this going to be over?!?”… I know, I know… not very Superman-like at all… Was that Kryptonite flavored Gatorade at that last fluid station or something?