Brice's Race

6 on track

6 on track

6 on track, still babying the IT band 

easy on track, just wanted to see how the IT band is holding out, so far so good, looks like I will be ready for race this weekend :)

So I did it, my first marathon total time (3:21:14).  It was everything I thought it would be too, exciting, exhilarating, adventurous, painful and rewarding.  So here are the details for those of you who wish to read.

The Day before:

We arrived in Columbus the day before the race and checked into our hotel room, it was myself, my wife, our 2 year old daughter and my wife's sister who was running the half marathon.  We went up with a group of friends who were also staying in the same hotel as us.  To make a long story short there were a total of 8 adults and 9 children under the age of 5.  This made for a stressful day before, especially when we all tried to do diner together.  The positive in all of this was that it wore me out enough that I had no problem sleeping that night.

The Race:

The race started at 7:30 on a chilly Ohio morning, 45 degrees.  The start was one of my favorite parts, just the sheer number of people, the pre-race excitement, and the music set a great tone for the day.  It seemed to go by to quickly and before long we were off.  After much debate I decided to run with the 3:20 pace group and for the first 2 miles I thought I may have made a bad decision because the pace seemed very quick.  After those first two however I was able to calm myself down and get into a nice groove.  The people I ran with were great and I got to chat with allot of different people for a good 6 to 8 miles.  The first hour seemed to fly by.  I felt great, I was planning on staying with the pace group until at least the half way point and then if I felt good try and pick up the pace a little.  I felt great at mile 10 and when I got pushed ahead of the pace group trying to grab a drink I decided to stay there.  This may have been a mistake in the long run.  The next ten miles went by very well and I was able to pick almost 2:00 minutes on the pace group.  At around mile 20 I started to feel some soreness in my calves, not pain, just soreness.  I pushed on.  Around mile 22 I felt 2 blisters form on the bottom of my feet near my big toes.  Again I pushed on.  At mile 24 I felt like I wanted to die.  I have never wanted to quit anything more in my life then I did at this point, luckily I was able to get it together and again, I pushed on.  I finished a little behind my pace group, but with a time I am happy with.  I truly feel that I did the best I could have given the training I did.  Looking back and critiquing the race the only thing I would have liked to have done differently was to have stuck with my plan of staying with the pace group until the half way point.  I think if I would have done this I could have finished under 3:20.  Oh well, live and learn.

All in all it was a tremendous first experience and one I will remember always.  I thank all of you on this site who have supported me with training advice, injury help, and moral support.  I look foreword to posting more marathon reports on this site as I continue to run.

Official report:

None today, legs still pretty sore and I have a pesky blister under my big toe.

No running again today, legs feel much better but this pesky blister under my big toe is really making it hard to move around.  

still blistered :(

today is the first day that I think I could run on my blisters but my wife is working late so can't get out.  Maybe tomorrow 

Went out to run 6 and at about the 2.5 mile mark my IT area started to hurt so I walked it in.

tried running again but leg (IT band) was acting up. I am going to make a massage appointment later this week. It really helped last time.