:-)

Well, I have been avoiding this all day.  I am very disappointed with myself.  Good or bad I need to own up.  I figure if I at least write this out I can learn some things.

So, here are some highlights/comments on some of the different sections of the race.

Early miles 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 : Everything seems fine, my left foot was hurting a little on the ball of my foot just behind my little toe and the toe next to that.  But everything seems fine.  Seemed good. If anything, I felt like we were a little fast for those miles.  Reality now back at the office looking at the splits we were at most 25 sec ahead of schedule.  And that was spread over the 7 miles so not one mile to fast.

Middle miles 8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19 : This started with Veyo.  In hind sight I struggled up Veyo, and that was the start of the crash and burn.  At the time I thought, "cool, I made it up Veyo in ok time."  Looking back I think wow I was breathing harder than I should have been.  I hung with Hauns32 and group for the next 3 miles or so, but shortly after the aid station at 11 I found it very difficult to stay with them.  I faded.  I made one or two attempts to get back to them, coming close (two stides back) for about 10 15 seconds, but couldn't hold it.  This is when I knew 3:15 was gone.  At mile 15 I had my first sign of things to come.  The day would be one of scrap the time goals and just finish.  I've always told people that I would crawl on bloody stumps to finish, no DNF! 

Early in 15 this is the routine my race became: run as long as I can, calves would cramp up, walk for 20-30 seconds, run again.

Late miles 20,21,22,23,24,25,26, finish : I would think my calves where getting better and I would try and pick up the pace just a little and they would cramp immediately. About mile 20 or so I could see blood coming through the top of my shoe.  Lovely!  Proves to be just blister on top of blister on top of blister.  Should have used my other shoes.  Opted for these shoes because I had more miles in them, felt like they were broken in more.  Oh well, those will heal just fine, that pain is very temporary. 

The finish line was right there, I was in the bleacher section and my calves got charlie horses, I couldn't move.  I wanted to curse!  I was glad to be able to not fall over.  In hind sight I find it kinda funny how with the one step I could take I went closer to the fence so that if I started to fall over I could lean against the stupid fence.  15 - 20 seconds of massaging the charlie horses in my calves stopped and I made my way across the finish line.  Stupid calves.

Feelings of failure and letting people down were very strong.  (still are).

SOOOOOOOoooooo, I'm holding to the fact that I finished, I overcame a lot of muscle cramping and I came in 3 min and 20 seconds faster than my previous marathon best.  I will have to think about all this for awhile before I make to many more decisions about lessons learned.  Some of my thoughts are about being more serious about the training, better quality training, being realistic about what training I am doing compared to the goals I am setting.  Outside distractions, how they effect training/races and how they can effect the training and goals.

Lots to think about.  :-)

Have a great day!

********* Oct 6 ***********

Feeling better about things, I'm finding the positives.  I did PR, I did persevere through what was a tough run for me.  I am thinking I will continue to try for a time that will give me the BQ.