Shoes & Gear my Challenge blog post last week when I said, "finishing so strong in Milwaukee gave me a big boost of confidence, so I might even try to run sub-3 in Baltimore." Well, I did give it a shot, but I ended up over 13 minutes away from that mark. Honestly, though, I have to say that I'm not disappointed about the time I ran at all.
Not knowing how my legs would react to the extremely short rest (there were only six days between my two marathons), I decided to just go for it and run the first mile as though I were shooting for a sub-3. I clocked a 6:45, right on schedule, but I was feeling terrible. My breathing was hard – partly, I think, thanks to the hill in the first mile and the high humidity – and I just didn't feel that it would have been possible to sustain that pace for another 25 miles. So, I dropped way back. Mile 2 was a 7:13.
The race was fairly uneventful, and I finished strong with my 26th mile being my fastest of the day. The 3:13 and change that I finished with wasn't my fastest marathon (actually, it was my 25th fastest marathon), but it wasn't my slowest either. It filled in another state on my marathon map and provided me with She Raced 18 Horses in an Ultramarathonand Won. She Raced 18 Horses in an Ultramarathonand Won okay.
One of the highlights was running into an old friend from New York out on the course. As I stepped out of a porta potty around mile 4, she spotted me and said hello and then chatted with me for almost a mile before we went our separate paces. I continue to be amazed at how small the running community can seem at times.
My legs felt dead when I went out for an easy run at lunch today, so I think that's my body saying that I need to rest a bit more. As Jeff pointed out recently, 26.2 Health - Injuries, even when you're not running your fastest. I need to make sure that I'm healthy and ready to run with all of you RW Challengers down at the Marine Corps Marathon in eleven days!
Robert is the former Executive Producer for Runner’s World Online. He has run over 60 marathons with a personal best of 2:52:11.
