Yea! I finished the Carlsbad marathon this morning. Just 1 more marathon to go to qualify for the marathon maniacs group. The goal for this race was to just finish in one piece... saving enough of my legs for next week at Surf City. I predicted a 5 hr finish... only because I knew that my injury in all likelihood has not completely healed. My Hawaiian friend has always told me to go BIG or go home! So I decided to go "BIG" and join the 4:15 pace group. If I weren't hurting, it would've been fine. It started out ok. The pace felt easy... until I got to the halfway point. My right hip started acting up and I knew the race was done. I was very demoralized and at one point wanted to completely bag the race and walk the rest of the way in. But after doing some quick math calculations in my head, I realized that I can still finish in 5hrs. So I started alternating between walking and shuffling. I made sure I did only as much as my legs would give me. I didn't want to trash my legs entirely for next week.
While I was suffering through the 2nd half of the marathon, I made a decision to cut back on marathoning in 2010. My body is a little beat-up and I really need to take a year off to recuperate. I would like to focus more on the half marathon and get that down to the 1:30-1:40 range. Although I'll be a marathon maniac next week, I'm just not too fond of the distance at this point. It is way too demanding, requires too much commitment, and your likeliness for injury is so high during training for that distance.
One other thing that I've learned during this race... Ultima sports drink is horrible! Why can't they just use Gatorade? And if they insist on using that brand, they should not use the clear mix. The volunteers passing them out will sometimes forget and tell you that it's water! What an unpleasant surprise!
Here are my splits:
1 - 9:58
2 - 8:32 I knew that pace leader was going too fast!
3 - 9:35
4 - 9:38
5 - 9:45
6 - 9:44
7,8 - 19:26
9,10 - 19:56
11 - 9:17
12 - 9:25
13 - 9:40
14 - 9:39 starting to feel discomfort in the right hip
15 - 10:03 could no longer keep up with the 4:15 pace group
16 - 11:38 started taking walk breaks
17 - 11:54
18 - 12:15
19 - 15:31 potty break
20 - 13:59 the death march is in full effect
21 - 13:44
22 - 14:37
23 - 15:49
24 - 14:43
25 - 13:53
26 - 14:30
26.2 - 2:29
Finish 4:59:49
3 comments:
Nice job Emil - way to tough it out.
See ya next week ya crazy SOB.
WTG Emil! I know that it's a tough decision to make, but the marathons will always be there to take your money.
Good luck next week at Surf City!
See you next weekend!!! :) Way to stick through it and finish it.
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