Lewis and Clark Marathon

Lewis and Clark Marathon, was one of the 5:00 pace setters, so needed to stick to the pace. Got to the parking lot shortly after 6am, went to the bathroom, jogged about a half mile to loosen up a bit, went to the bathroom again. Found the other pacers, got our pace balloons and headed to the starting area. A few people talked to Kay and I before the race, asking about our pace strategy and such. The plan was to walk at every water stop, and for miles without a water stop we would take a short walk break as well. My balloon was not holding air very well, so didn't really work well.

First seven miles, got into a pretty good groove, running splits of 11:21, 11:20, 11:17, 11:07, a 0:36 split to get back on the mile markers, 11:10, 11:08 and 11:18. Next six miles ran 11:25 (up the bridge mile), 11:11, a 0:33 split to get back on mile markers, 11:29, 11:11, 11:10 and 10:57 as we ran down towards the half marathon finish. Crowd along the finish area was large and encouraging. Things thinned out greatly after we passed the half marathon finish, Kay and I had 3 other runners sticking with us. We hit the half marathon finish at about 2:28:30, so 1m30sec 'banked' for the second half.

Next seven miles were 11:20, 11:25, 11:22, 11:00, 11:37, 11:48, a 0:36 split to get back on the mile markers, and 11:44. Miles 18.5-20.7 were out on the Green's Bottom stretch of the Katy Trail with a very hot sun overhead. This slowed us down a bit, and by the time we were back into the shade we had only one runner with us.

Final six miles, it was harder to maintain the pace than I thought it would be. We did pick up a few people as we passed them to run with us. Splits were 11:42, 11:01, 11:40, 11:22, 11:05, 11:29 and 2:35 (10:22 pace) for the final .25 miles on the garmin to bring us to the finish line. Garmin time was 4:59:29 for the 26.44 miles, official time was 4:59:26, 11:26 average pace. AHR was 156 for the race, with it creeping up the second half. I was 482 of 692 finishers, 338 of 428 men, and 63 of 74 in my age group.

I was quite beat when I finished. I sat in the finishers tent talking with the other marathon pacers for a bit, then went to the bathroom and changed, when I came back most everyone was gone. I went over and waited for Judy to come in, then we sat for a bit, I talked to Bob and Tim from the running club, had a few beers, then we headed to catch the bus back to the car. Got home, showered, relaxed, then went out to Sam's Steakhouse for dinner. Very tasty.