Finally gutting this race recap out….here goes nothing.

Pre Race: Note to self: going to a marathon by yourself is sooo sad.  I ran into a friend before the marathon, though, and was able to hang out with him in the start corral.  But…I’m going to run marathons with people from here on out.  I mean, friend-people…I don’t regularly run marathons where I am the only entrant.

The Good (First 13)

  • Total time: 1:42:57
  • Splits: 7:29/7:38/7:54/7:50/7:39/7:47/7:50/8:00/7:57/8:06/8:18/8:05/8:15
  • Avg Pace: 7:55
  • Recap: I wanted to stay comfortably averaging under 8min miles so that if I needed it later, I could slow down a bit.  I did slow down a bit (see mile 11 and 13).  But, was feeling good.  I had trouble, though, mellowing out at the beginning.

The Bad (Mid 5)

  • Splits: 8:09/8:22/8:18/11:01/8:35
  • Recap: This is where it starts falling apart…we made it over to Decatur and Druid Hills…and holy Hills.  For serious.  This was one hilly hilly hilly course.  There no flats (just up down up down up down) and by this time, even the downhills were feeling hard on my legs.  The legs were DYING.  So I took my first baby walk break up one of the big climbs.  And it felt great to walk…physically.  Mentally it felt shitty shitty shitty.  But, I was hoping that would be the last walk break and was trying to hold on to a BQ race (because I was pretty sure that sub 3:30 and/or a PR was out of the picture).

The Ugly (Last 8.2)

  • Finish Time: 3:58:34
  • Splits: 9:11/10:30/10:38/10:48/12:14/10:38/12:26/11:16/8:43
  • Recap:  This is the part that I hate.  Once I took just one little itty bitty walk break, I practically threw in the towel.  I really thought about stopping and asking one of the volunteers to get me a sad wagon back to the start.  Once I knew that I could not redeem this race (e.g. no PR, no BQ…) I felt absolutely no desire (or need) to run…so I ran-walked my way in.  Just wanting to be donnnne.  The whole time the mantra “this f-ing sucks and i f-ing hate this and why should I even bother finishing if I’m walking…”  Check out my face in these pictures.  It explains it all:

Post Race Eats:

Lessons Learned:  Once you walk, I can’t stop.  So don’t ever give in to the walk desire.  Also I have some major mental and confidence problems to deal with.  Once I feared I couldn’t hit my goals, it was easier/less -scary to give up than try and fail.

Also, check out those pictures…I need a BETTER sports bra.