Race morning was fun, because I got to ride to the race with Lorena and Dani, who were both doing their first marathon. They were both jacked up, but nervous! lol! I told them both good luck and headed my own way. As I headed to the line they started to name some of the favorites for the race over the loud speakers. It was pretty cool when they announced my name and said I was from southwest Oklahoma! As, I'm trying to get in to the elite corral; Joan Benoit Samuelson and some other runners were right behind me trying to get in the corral too. A worker opened up the gate and then this dude ran over and started yelling "hold on this isn't going to happen!". We told him we were elite and he let us in, but I wanted to be like dude this chick won a gold medal when I was like 4 so you better hold on! Anyway, Joan wasn't the only star I saw. Lance Armstrong also ran in the half. He walked right past me and a couple of other guys and said I better get behind them so I don't get run over. By the way, I beat Lance. He ran a 1:22.
As the race started off I felt okay. It was a little hot at about 62 and pretty humid. After I hit the first 2 miles in 5:37 and 5:38 I knew I was done, because it felt about like 5 flat pace. I told myself let's just slow it down to 5:45 which is my marathon pace. Nope that didn't work next thing I know I'm struggling to hold a 6 min pace! At mile 6, I wanted to drop out!!! I almost stopped and waited for Lorena, so I could just run the marathon with her. The reason I didn't is because at that point I didn't even know if I could make a full marathon. Then I thought I could just slow down and run with Lance. HAHA However, I begin to think he would be coming by me any second. I went on and finished in 1:18:33, which is 5:59 pace. I got 12th. For being sick not bad. I think I could have been top 3 in better circumstances, maybe even pulled out a victory!
After I finished I took a sec to recover and then ran about 3.5 miles to mile 21. I got to see my cousin Jennifer run by and she finished in a time of 3:50. It was pretty cool to sit there and cheer on all these runners running by! I expected Lorena to come by with the 4:15 pace group but she was about a minute ahead of them at 21. I ran the last 5 miles with her and it was so fun. She got faster each mile! She never hit the wall and ran a marathon the way it is meant to be run!!! Lorena finished in 4:12:50! She must have a really good coach lol!
Even if the race didn't go how I wanted it was a lot of fun!!! Now I'm back at it and getting ready to hit up some crazy mileage to prepare for May!
See you on the roads,
Matt
