Woke up at 5:00am in prep for the 7:30am start. Started the day pretty normal with a walk up and down the block and some coffee. I was a little worried because I was dealing with a bit of indigestion from garlic the night before... nothing terrible but more than I've been having lately. Maybe it was just nerves but my biggest concern for the marathon was GI issues so I was uber conscious about it. After a 2nd cup of coffee and about 5 nervous trips to the bathroom I thought I was okay. As I went out the front door to head to the race the weather was 68 low and it even sprinkled a bit. It was also windy. Despite all that it didn't feel too horrible. I think I was in race mode and more tolerant to conditions than I normally would be,
Got out of the house at about 6:50 and parked my car a few blocks away from the starting line at about 7:10. It's really nice not having to deal with big city logistics! Leaving the car, I felt like I better use the bathroom 1 more time. I saw some porta-potties up the block so I jogged to them but they were part of a construction site and fenced off... then I jogged down to the race start area and there was a line of about 20 porta-potties with a bunch of runners lined up outside of it. 10 minutes to race start I was in line, but luckily it cleared out fast. I finished up quick and headed to the line with about 5 minutes to spare. Saw a buddy I run with sometimes and went to talk with him a bit. He was doing the half-marathon. I lined up about 20 feet back from the start. Maybe 50 people ahead of me.
They started the race and we were off. Took about 7 seconds to move across the start mat. Final results use gun time so maybe I should have started up front but I feel like I can hold myself back better if I stay back a tad... the plan was definitely not to gun it from the line.
I took off at what I felt was easy. Some of the people ahead were going pretty slow so I passed quite a few people in the first couple hundred meters. My watch said I was going 6:50 pace so I eased back just a bit... not even sure how accurate the start was per my GPS. Peoria is no Chicago but there's enough buildings that it seemed to have some effect. My watch hit the first mile split about 75 meters earlier than the actual marker. Went through the 1.25 at 7:14 pace and by then I was settled in.
For the first few miles I had several runners in my general vicinity. One guy had what I assume was his dad biking along with him. Seemed questionable... Someone call Marathon Investigations! There was another younger guy in a Bradley jersey who turned out to be in the marathon kind of shuffling along... shuffling along at a 7:10 pace that is and he slowly pulled away. Also a couple of women who were running the half marathon. We were all going about the same pace +/- 10 seconds but I didn't really try to run with anyone and just tried to find my own rhythm.
At close to the 2 mile point we went up the big hill. I just tried to not expend any more effort than I had to. I was worried about the hill but it didn't effect me much. First water station was at the top of the hill so I dumped the first cup of water over my head and splashed a bit of Gatorade into my mouth before dumping the cups in the trash. (side note: I probably went through 25 cups and I think I got 24 of them into the trash can).
Once up the hill there's about 5 miles through some of the nice older neighborhoods in Peoria. Flat part of the course and a really nice area to run. There were quite a lot of turns but there were volunteers at just about every intersection. Also quite a few people outside of their house cheering. I just focused on cruising at my pace.
About 4 miles in there was an electronic speed limit side. It was reading 7 to 8 MPH for the runners coming by. I couldn't resist and did a quick surge to stride past it. Not sure what it registered.... was hoping for 10 MPH... Wondered if I'd regret that move later on but sometimes you just got to have fun. Continued to weave through Bradley and then past Bradley park. Good support through the neighborhoods... then finally the course kicked out of the neighborhoods on back onto main street. At about mile 7 it was back down the hill. I grabbed a GU at the aid station and carried it for a little while. Eventually I opened it and tried to suck some of it down. It just about made me choke. At that point, I decided to give up on the GU and just rely on the Gatorade to get me through.
With the downhill I hit mile 7 and 8 at 6:55 & then 7:01. Then it was time for a section through lower Peoria. Good support through those neighborhoods to plus a ton of nice kids outside of the high school at the water station helping out.
Right around this point I got passed by a woman moving pretty fast who was doing the half. As she passed me I told her good work. I felt like she came up on me pretty strong but pretty soon after passing me she slowed down. She got about 20 feet ahead but then I started reeling her back in. I wasn't going faster but she was slowing down. I was on her tail for a bit but didn't want to be on her heels. I passed her back at mile 9 and didn't see her again.
Mile 10 had a turnaround point and a timing mat. At mile 10 I was at 1:12:37 which is 7:16 pace. I did a self assessment and didn't feel all that great. I was getting hot, my HR was in the 160s, and I had just ran a 7:25 split for the 10th mile. Mile 11 things got easier and I realized I was running downhill. I also realized that the last couple miles had been sneaky uphill. As I headed back towards downtown I started to feel better and by mile 13 I felt pretty good again and with some more downhill sections I hit a 6:57 mile and came through the halfway point at 1:34:53 (7:15 pace).
Mile 14 was back towards the hill and I was starting to catch the guy in the Bradley jersey. He had slowed way down. I was worried about the uphill but took it one step at a time and it really didn't have the much effect. The water stop at the top of the hill was welcoming and after some more water in the face and some Gatorade I kind of got a surge of energy.
Mile 14-18 were interesting. I still felt okay but I was starting to hurt a little bit. On the other hand I figured I shouldn't feel totally fresh more than halfway through a marathon. Also, I was starting to feel hot and was anticipating the next aid station for water and Gatorade. For a couple mile a cop car and a couple motor cycles were right ahead of me leading the way. I wondered, am I in first place right now? I didn't think I was but figured I was at least near the lead. There was a lot of winding though neighborhoods and I could see someone coming up on me pretty fast. I thought, here we go, some real talent who is planning on negative splitting and is about to blow by me. The guy finally went past me but he was wearing a relay bib as he was part of the marathon relay. That explained the strong pace. He wound up passing me and putting some distance on me but then he wound up slowing down and I wound up getting closer and closer. I never caught him before his leg was over but I got within 20 feet I think.
The second time through the Bradley park neighborhoods was less fun. With 10 miles left I was counting off mile by mile. My pace was actually a bit faster... more like 7:08 then 7:15. It wasn't really intentional but just felt like the right effort to be putting in even though I was starting to hurt. Someone shouted "you're in 5th place". My dreams of being in 1st were crushed ;). then back on Main street towards the 20 mile mark. The wind picked up and it started to sprinkle a bit. I thought it might actually rain which would have been welcome at that point but it held off. It was supposed to be windy the whole race actually... winds around 12 MPH but with the direction of the wind and the neighborhoods blocking most of the wind it really wasn't too bad. If anything the wind helped dissipate heat for the most part... definitely none of those several mile sections straight into the wind like I have during my standard long runs in the winters.
Mile 20 was back down the steep hill. That marked the first sign of real trouble for me. I tried to keep the pounding to the minimum but the hill really tore up my quads. At the bottom of the hill I was no longer just running on tired legs, I was now running on damaged legs.
Miles 21 and 22 I was struggling. Things were no longer fun and even though there was only a 10K left I was questioning if I was going to have to stop and walk. I ran a 7:11 and a 7:20 for these miles but I'm not sure how. I really felt like I was slowing down. At 22 miles I was right about 2:40:00. Now I'm thinking "am I hitting the wall right now?"... if I can put in some 10 minute miles for the next 4 I'll run 3:20... that would be respectable. I just focused on keeping running for as long as I could and holding good form. I got to the 23.1 mile point (10 mile point on the first loop) at 2:47:51 after a 7:56 23rd mile.
I really thought I might be done, but since then like the previous loop I started heading back downhill and started feeling at least slightly better. I ran 7:30 for the next mile which really isn't that far off my targeted 7:15 pace. At the 24 mile mark there was a volunteer holding 4 water bottles. I think he was carrying them over to some other volunteers. I ran over and basically grabbed one right away from him. He was kind of surprised since the water wasn't supposed to be for runners. To my defense I didn't really realize that it wasn't for runners until I was right up by him... I was a bit delusional at this point. I also really wanted that water.
The water as a huge pick me up!!!! First off it was ice cold vs that room temp water at the stations. Also, it was way easier to drink from the bottle than from the cups and the ice cold water on my head really helped cool me down. It gave me just the boost to get from mile 24 to 25 in 7:35.
Right at mile 25 my left forearm started cramping up. Of all things to cramp?!? I thought, hey... at least it's not my legs! I tried to shake it out and ran with my left arm tucked in like a chicken wing for a bit. It kind of loosened up a bit.
Right around mile 26 my right leg started to cramp. I thought... hold it together, almost done.
The 26.1 mile point was at 13 mile point for the half marathon. At that point you either turned left and finished or would keep going for the 2nd loop. The volunteers said marathoners run straight, half marathoners turn. The course map wasn't marked very clearly when I studied it so I thought maybe I had to run one more block... I chatted with the volunteers a bit... "so I need to run one more block and then turn left?"... after a bit of discussion I realized that they thought I had only ran half so were trying to send me on another full 13.1 mile loop. I almost cried... lol. "but I already ran 26 miles I pleaded"... finally we agreed that I should turn left and finish along with the half-marathoners.
Heading towards the finish line I put on my best smile (I thought) for the photos and tried to pick up the pace. There was a woman finishing the half marathon up ahead of me and I wondered if it was poor etiquette to go sprinting by her... but on the other hand I was literally running more than twice as fast as her so what am I expected to do here?!? I passed her with plenty of space to go before the line.
Immediately after the race I was pretty trashed. I used the food ticket from my bib to get my bag of snacks... a granola bar, bag of potato chips, 2 fruit snacks, and some animal crackers... and proceeded to ravish the food. I had chip crumbs all over myself. Also drank two bottles of water.
After sitting for a couple minutes I got up. I must of looked distressed because someone asked me if I was okay. Also I was soaking wet from all the water I was dumping on myself plus the sweat (it was in low 80s by the end of the race). I said I'd be fine in a little bit.
I made my way to my car. the couple blocks from the starting line now seemed like a loooong way!!! Then I found that untieing my wet shoes after a marathon might be on par with the difficulty level of actually running the marathon. I changed my shoes, shirt, shorts, socks and was starting to feel better already. I removed the beer and whiskey shot ticket from my bib and went back to the finish line (actually I drove half the way back to the finish line where I had seen closer parking).
Got back to the race and had my shot of whiskey and a Coors light in honor of my late father-in-law. I then hung out and cheered on some of the finishing runners up until about the 4 hour mark,
Then I went to the awards table to look into awards... and found out I had finished 2nd Overall! Also, I was the #1 Masters runner (actually the guy who won it was also a Master's runner but since he got the overall award, the master's prize falls to me). Supposedly the award is a nice model Whisky Barrell which is going to be custom engraved and mailed to me. Should be pretty cool!
Spent the rest of the day laying around in a stupor and feeling like crap. still feel like crap now... mostly because my quads are trashed. I don't think I'm injured so hopefully in a few days I'll feel a bit more normal. Until then, I'll just need to take it easy.
Final Stats:
3:11:27
7:18 pace
2nd Overall
It's done! After a 12 year hiatus I finally ran another marathon. 28 minute PR. I was worried about the heat and wind but I don't feel like it hurt me too bad. Could have been a little more fun in the cool but not sure how much faster I could have gone. My HR was at 164 by the last mile so it never really took off. The real limiting factor was my legs. More cumulative training and more long runs should help with that. 7:15 pace felt easy until the end when it suddenly didn't... Not quite the 3:10 I had hoped for but I'm completely satisfied with my effort. I don't think I could have done anything any different.
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