2:29:06!!!! Pocono Marathon

Steve and I headed to the OKC airport early Thursday morning where we met Josh.  Our Flight was at 6:00 AM.  We landed in Newark, NJ at 12:30 PM eastern time.  From there we headed to NYC!  We spend Thursday and Friday night in NYC.  Saturday we picked up Chris from the airport and drove to Stroudsburg, PA.  After the race on Sunday, we drove back to NYC and caught our flight back home on Monday.  First, I want to talk about NYC then I'll talk about the race.

After checking into our hotel, which was only blocks from Time Square,  we headed to the Empire State Building!  The Empire State Building was the highlight of the trip for me!  We went to the observation deck on the 86th floor.  Here are a couple of pictures and I posted a video on facebook.

Josh and I decided to go for a five mile run and it turned into seven, because we wanted to make it to the Brooklyn Bridge.  The coolest part about this run is that I found $100 on the side walk.  I really cracked up these girls when I was looking around to see if anyone was looking for it!  My run the next day was exciting for other reasons.  Steve and I ran in Central Park, which is amazing!  The bad thing about the run is that we ran by a crime screen with a dead body.  The body was covered but you could tell that it was a body.  Anyway both my runs in NYC were eventful!

Friday, We took a ferry out to Ellis Island and Liberty Island.  The Statue of Liberty is massive!  That night we ate at Bobby Flay's restaurant.  It's was very good!  After the meal we headed to the Yankee - Red Sox game at Yankee Stadium! 

Saturday, we picked up Chris and headed to the race in Stroudsburg, PA.  Sunday after the race we went all over NYC.  Downtown, Chinatown, Little Italy, and the Brooklyn Heights Promenade.  In Chinatown we got awesome ice cream and massages, Little Italy had amazing pizza, and the Promenade had breathtaking views of the Manhattan skyline, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Statue of Liberty all light up at night!

Okay, now about the race!  Josh, Steve and I ran the marathon.  Chris had planned on running the marathon but didn't due to injury.  He was planning on moving to the half but there was only a relay.  The race found him a partner, but the next day at the race when he finished the first half she was not there.  haha!  I guess the rain scared her off.

At the start it was 60 degrees and raining.  I like it a little cooler but I could handle this.  The goal was top 5 and sub 2:30.  The main thing was to go under 2:30!!!!  The race took off and I hit the first mile in 6:10, only 27 seconds off the 5:43 pace I needed to run. haha!  That was bad considering it felt like 5:40 pace.  The next couple of miles were better but I was still slower then the pace I needed to run under 2:30.  Around mile six I caught the 7th place runner.  We ran together for two miles.  He asked me what I wanted to run and after I told him he told me I only needed to run 5:41 pace the rest of the way.  He must have been a math genius!  About that time I took a cup of water instead of Gatorade, which I had taken at all of the other stops.  It seamed to give me a boost and everything started to feel easy!  I came through the first half in 1:15:10.  I was worried because I was slower then goal pace and I had been told by everybody that the second half is much harder then the first.  But I was feeling good!  The second half was flying by as I was hitting high 5:30's for my mile splits.  I passed a couple of more runners on the way to the finish  When I crossed the line in 2:29:06 in 5th place,  it felt amazing!  Both goals accomplished!!!  I then went and got my camera to get pictures of Josh and Steve finishing.  Josh finished in 3:09:18 and got 58th.  He had just ran the OKC marathon two weeks before or he would have ran better.  Steve put on a show finishing 71st in 3:12:21!  This is a huge PR for him and qualified him for the Boston Marathon!  The whole trip was an awesome experience!  Now I'll get some rest and then start preparing for my next race.

See you on the roads,

Matt         

Way Behind!

Okay folks, I have been a total bum with this blog.  The plan was to post a blog about each race.  Sorry, that has not been happening.  I have three races which I will tell you about below.

On April 4th, (yes, I know this is May) I ran the 5000 (5k)  at the University of Texas in Arlington.  I ran in the second heat and finished 5th with a time of 15:56.  It was a pretty good race for me.  I went out pretty conservative and was actually in next to last place for most of the first mile, but like always people started to fade!  Anyway, I was happy with a sub 16.

April 10th, I ran the Redbud Classic in Oklahoma City.  They have a 5k and a 10k; I ran in the 10k.  It was a hot and humid day for this time of year.  My hope was to run a low 33:00.  As we took off there was a group of about 5 of us.  Two of the guys I didn't know, but the other two were Johnathon Pillow, who ran for the University of Tulsa and Casey Kreger, who is the grad assistant at Cameron and one of my former athletes.  I just tucked in behind Casey and Johnathon, because we were running into a headwind.  Between the 2 and 3k marks Johnathon and I began to pull away.  Casey ended up dropping out of the race.  I know he was fit enough to stay with us but he was just having a bad day.  The first 3k was at a pretty easy pace and made me think that I would be closer to high to mid 33's then low 33's, but then we really began to pick up the pace and came through the 5k in 16:48.  Right after 7k the 10k runners and the 5k runners meet and run on the same road for about a half a mile.  This was terrible, because this was the 5k runners at the back of the pack and they were covering the whole road.  We had two motorcycle cops that were leading us that got on the left side of the road and would hook that horns so people would get out of our way.  The only problem was that some were wearing headphones and some would get out of the way for the motorcycles but get back in my way!  One lady that had headphones on didn't get out of the way so the cop had to slow way down.  I went to pass him and ended up hitting his mirror with my arm!  Crazy I know, but I was okay!  Once we got out of that mess the police officer pulled up beside me and asked if I was okay and apologizes.  In all that mess I managed to get about a 20 meter lead with a km to go.  I really thought this would be enough, but boy was I wrong!  Johnathon had one of the craziest kicks I have every seen!  He passed me with about 50 meters to go and there was nothing I could do.  But I was happy with my time of 33:06.  It's not a PR, but that time made me believe that I would have a shot at one at the Kansas Relays.  In Kansas the 10k would be on the track, at night (cooler), and not at the end of a 130 mile week.

April 21st, KU Relays!!! This is an amazing meet!  I have been bringing my team here for the past couple of years and this would be the first time for me to jump in a race.  I was a little nervous at first because this was only my second 10k on the track and I was seeded 37 out of 41 runners.  Flotrack was there broadcasting the races online, so if I bombed everyone would get to see :)!  The race started at about 9pm.  It was raining, but the temp was great about 50 something.  The plan was to start out in dead last, because the last thing I wanted to do was go out to hard.  The plan didn't work, because there were a couple of other guys that had the same idea.  But it worked out well, because now we had a pack that all wanted to run negative splits. We slowly moved up throughout the race hitting 79 and then 78 second laps.  At the 5k our pack had picked a couple people off and came through in a 16:20.  At that point our 78's become 80!  We had two laps of 80, but I didn't want to leave the pack and fight the wind and rain myself.  Then all of a sudden we got lapped, which is bad, but it worked out well for me.  I jumped on the the back of the second group of guys that lapped us.  Then those 80's started to drop again.  At this point I was catching a ton of guys that had went out to hard!  I ran my last 2 miles in sub 10:10 and the last mile in sub 5.   I felt amazing and had to much left.  22nd  place out 41 and an 8 second pr 32:20!  This was a great confidence booster for the Pocono Marathon on May 15th.

I promise after the Pocono Marathon I'll have a blog up within days of the race.  Thanks everyone for your encouragement!

See you on the roads,

Matt