Louisville Marathon, 2:58:53

Well, I achieved my No. 1 goal to set a new PR, and I felt relatively good most of the way so I was definitely pleased with my performance in the Louisville Marathon this past Sunday. I finished the course in 2:58:53 chip time (previous PR was 2:59:13 from the Kentucky Derby Marathon 2007), which placed me 8th overall and 1st in the Male 25-29 division. It was a 6:50-per-mile average.

In the week leading up to the race, I did low mileage with nothing but easy runs with light strides. I took off the day before the race to really rest up. I was planning on running a 5K at goal marathon pace about five days out from the marathon, but decided just to run easy when my hamstrings were tight. On race morning, I felt really good after a 5-minute easy jog and one light stride. As for nutrition (for future reference) I ate a large pasta meal two nights before the race, a large breakfast of pancakes, oatmeal and scrambled eggs the morning before the race and a lighter dinner of pasta and meatballs the night before the race. On race day, I ate one piece of toast with jelly, a yogurt and a healthy bar with some powerade at 5:45 a.m. The race started at 8 a.m. I sipped on just water up to the race, but didn't drink as much as I usually do, which I preferred. Too much water makes my bladder hurt for the first half of the race and it's hard for me to drink. During the race, I took water from every water table except for the first one and took two gel packs (at miles 15 and 20), which I carried with me. I liked this approach as this was the first marathon I felt like I had energy to finish strong and wasn't dehydrated.

Okay, now for the actual race. I started out running with Jon Brenenstuhl at 6:30-6:40 pace, which was our pre-marathon plan. I don't really remember many splits but I know the first mile was 6:34 and we had a few (miles 8-10) right at or a little under 6:30s. Jon was feeling good and he started to pull away from me at around 12 miles (which I thought was about right). I ran by myself for a little while then got on the heels of a guy who went past me from miles 15 to 20. I think I passed the halfway point in around 1:27:30 (not exactly sure on this as it hasn't been posted yet). If I remember correctly, I passed 18 miles in 2:00:03, and 20 miles at around 2:13:30. Rewind the race a little, and at 6 miles I started to feel my hamstrings tighten up like they were about to start cramping, but I tried to ignore the pain in fear that I would tense up and cause it to cramp more. At 22 miles, though, the pain started to get worst so I slowed down to try to take shorter strides. When I opened up my stride, I could feel it tense up a little more. I have a history of cramping, and I wanted to get to the finish line cramp-free this time so I backed off even though I wasn't feeling that bad considering where I was at in the race. I'm not sure on my time, but at 25 miles I knew I had to pick it up if I wanted to get a new PR so I really tried to push it in from that point forward. I was still afraid of cramping so I ran 3 1-minute hard surges with short rests (a slower but steady pace) between each one. Then, I really kicked it in the final quarter mile to get under 2:59:00. It was tough, but I made it without cramping.

Like I said, I was pleased with the race. I think if it wasn't for the whole I'm-afraid-of-cramping scenario, I could have possibly ran at least a few minutes faster. By looking back at my training log from the 12 weeks leading up to the race (especially with the setbacks from injuries and sicknesses), it was a great race for me. This was probably the worst training I've done leading up to a marathon, but I was able to run a PR because I didn't cramp — that made all the difference.

A few days after the race, I'm obviously still sore but I'm feeling mentally fresh and ready for my next challenge. I'm not sure what that will be yet. My quads are the main thing that's hurting right now. I'll take this week completely off and might start jogging next week. Then, I'll look at my options and see how it unfolds.

By the way, Jon ran a 2:46:55 for 2nd overall off similar training that I did.