2007 ING Georgia Marathon: 3:15:56

10:36:41 AM: Finished in 3:15:59 after a first half of 1:33:36. Definitely went out too fast and paid the price. Also had stomach issues and couldn't take on calories for a long while late in the race. It was a snotfest and I have to believe that the cold took its toll but from a sensory perspective it wasn't too big a deal. Quads were in a lot of pain from mile 21 on. Downhills hurt the most. Connecting muscles between quads and core felt fine. Slight dehydration late in race slowed me down but I did manage some surges. Heat was a factor but didn't cause an explosion. Overall happy with the effort. Saw Remling near the end... thanks for the "Go Reger!" One "Go Joe" around mile 6 but not sure if it was directed towards me or someone with Joe on their number. About fifteen "nice shoes" and one "hey, it's Johnny Knoxville."

02:05:32 PM: I did hear Danielle and Keith shouting at the finish line. Off to my right with about 100 yards to go. Thanks guys! Danielle also fills in the 6 mile mystery... it was Olga and Eduardo!

02:12:23 PM: Average heart rate of 165bpm. Using my max heart rate of 188bpm from the vo2 test a few years ago this is 88% of my max... a solid effort. But I've seen 194bpm in workouts since then so I'm going to use 195bpm as my max which means I held 85% of max for the race... still a solid effort. No real crash at any point in the heart rate chart... which makes sense... the heart/lung thing wasn't my limiter today. Seemed to be more leg and stomach limiting me.

07:59:56 PM: They posted the full results online. I was 103rd overall out of something like 4340. 92nd male meaning that 11 women bested me. 33rd in my division, whatever that means... I can't tell... it looks like there were 1022 males aged 30-39 but I'm listed 35th on that list... maybe my division is males 30-34 which would mean that only two males aged 35-39 beat me (but that doesn't seem likely).

Next Day: Ok, so it's the next day... let's see if I can put a few more details down. Woke up at 4am. Out the door by 4:45am. Parking wasn't very well marked, maybe because I was so early. I ended up getting the best lot though. It's just south of the starting line. But markings to the starting line were poor so I walked south for five minutes and as the neighborhoods deteriorated I realized I should turn around. Made it to the starting line by about 5:25am. Few runners. Lots of volunteers setting up the lighted balloons. Speakers being set up. It was very cool being there so early. I took a seat in the little park and people watched for a while. Slowly people showed up and the excitement built. By 6:30 I decided to go pee and got into a big line. I decided to have some coffee and I carried a Red Bull with me to the start. My thinking was that the caffeine would boost me over my cold symptoms. When I made it back to the start after my pee it was packed solid. Luckily I knew the shortcut directly to the start and didn't try to push my way through three blocks of runners. I jumped the fence within fifteen feet of the start.

I was worried about my cold, not having run in a few days. I didn't know how my body would react. I also hadn't researched the course much to know what they'd offer at the aid stations. I had fourteen gels and some cliff blocks on me at the start. I asked somebody and they said there would be gels at miles 11 and 19 so I ditched 4 gels. With five minutes before the start I downed the Red Bull. And a gel. And then another. Rtarded.

Star spangled banner. Prayers. Hoppy runners all over the place. I spotted the 3:10 pace group but couldn't find a 3:00 pace group. Odd, I thought. I had programmed my GPS for the first time ever with the virtual partner thing. It would tell me how far ahead or behind 3:00 pace I was. Problem is I never tested this feature in workouts.

The race started. Immediately I struggled with all of my gels in my shiny new (a.k.a. untested) RaceReady 7 pocket nut shorts. The gels were bouncing all over the place. I didn't worry so much about losing a gel or two but I couldn't... absolutely could not lose either of my packets of salt tabs. After four minutes of adjusting I settled on four gels and one salt tab container in my hands. Lame and only somewhat settled the bouncing. So I slammed a couple gels. For those of you counting that's four gels and a red bull inside of ten minutes. Rtarded.

Finally I settled into some running and started to ask myself how my cold symptoms were doing. I was throwing loogies down a good bit but my throat didn't hurt. Overall the cold didn't seem to be a big factor.

I hung out with the 3:10 pace group for a couple miles. And I checked my gps. It had a .3mi on it. I assumed this meant that I was .3mi behind 3:00 pace which made sense as I was hanging with the 3:10 group. Then it went to 400yards. I was getting closer to 3:00 pace. Yay. So I jumped out ahead of the 3:10 group a bit. I was feeling good and don't like running "teathered" to any group or pace.

By mile six I was at 78yards. Yay, I thought. Then it flipped. What I thought was behind was actually ahead. Instead of moving towards 3:00 pace I was actually moving away from. Doh. But at least I know how my gps works now. I didn't sweat it much. I set it at 3:00 because it's an easy marker. I assumed that it'd tell me my difference in time... say "4min55sec behind"... and adding that to 3:00 is easy.

Miles blew by. The group thinned out. Even by mile four or so it was single or double file. The hills weren't nearly as intimidating as the elevation profile made them out to be. Plus, compared to the Hogpen Hill Climb most everything else is quick and tame. I planned on pushing the pace a little bit in miles 6 - 12. But at mile 6 I was still climbing a hill. It actually ended at 7 so I started increasing pace a bit.

Spent a good bit of time looking around at the areas we ran through. Much of the course is shaded. I crossed the 13.1 mile mark in 1hr33min. By this time I was feeling some blister hotspots on my feet and some fatigue in my legs. But nothing that affected my stride or emotion. After running the 50 miler I have a different perspective on running with pain. In that race I was hurting by mile 32 but found a way to run a decent pace to the end.

By mile seventeen the heat was becoming more evident. I was working hard to take salt tabs but suddenly my stomach didn't want them much. In fact, the whole race I was never able to get into my favorite gel and salt tab every two mile rhythm. By seventeen I couldn't get anything down. Water. Salt. Gel. Everything made me queasy. Normally I continue to force stuff in. This time I backed off and slowly my stomach felt better and allowed me to get some stuff in. The fear I have is always bonking and/or cramps. I don't like running out of energy. Barfing I can handle. But bonking is irreversible.

As we headed out onto Freedom Parkway we were suddenly exposed to a slight hill and the full force of the sun. Miles 19-21 were the toughest on the course. Just a big plain old road. It was at this point that the early pacing added up and my quads started really burning. At first it was the right quad, just near the knee. But then it was both quads. And then all of both of them. Good news: calf muscles felt fine.

I had dropped from 7 minute miles to 7:30's with an occasional 8 on hills. I was losing time but I knew I was still ahead of the 3:10 pace group. I hadn't checked my gps in many miles, knowing that a 3:00 was not possible for me on this day.

At about mile 23 the 3:10 pace group passed me. I was somewhat upset by this fact but I put everything into perspective. I hadn't really intended to run this race very hard... I wanted to be part of the innaugural thing. I was sick. And I didn't really plan to be with the 3:10 group beyond mile 5 or so.

The last three miles were painful. There was a lot of dodging the half marathon walkers who liked to form wide talking groups. I didn't really find it to be that big a deal but I've read some blogs by marathoners who were very unhappy about it. Maybe the trail running helped me be accustomed to more core motion on long efforts.

I was definitely putting out all I could by the end of the race. And that's a good thing.

The finishing area was very disorienting to me. Lots of extra motion. In general I expect more guidance at the end of a race. To the food. To the medics. To the pictures. There was a lot of chaos at the end and I suspect that they'll work on that for next year.

I pounded a thing of water, grabbed a banana and some pretzels. I looked around for more water for a while but didn't find any. Lots of booths but few signs. Better signage next year ING... across the board. Signs are good when people are tired.

Made it to the car and then home before the stomach issues really kicked off. I made sweet love to the toilet every half hour or so for three hours. It was painful. Came in waves.

Let's talk pacing: By the end of the race I thought that I had gone out too fast. I like negative splits and was in no way able to pull that one off on this race. But maybe going out faster while it was still cool was the best plan. I'll never really know.

Let's talk blisters: Wtf? I've run marathons at the end of ironmans in the shoes I wore in this race and not had blisters. I've done training runs at the distance with no blisters. I've run 50k's with no blisters. Why, in the last two races, have I gotten blisters? Balls of my feet and big toe, inside. Big honkin' blisters. I wore the injinjis again and then helped me avoid small toe blisters. I need to read more Fixing Your Feet and then I need to do more experimenting.

Heather and Rusty finished the half marathon. Both were unhappy with the heat and struggled with injuries throughout. But I'm sure they'll be back! Good completin' guys!

ING GA Marathon was a good race. I'll do it again. I enjoyed seeing that many people excited about running. A few minor issues but I'm sure they'll improve.

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