Finished the Vancouver Marathon in 3:50 today. It was a few minutes off my goal but about half an hour faster than New York. I'm happy with the result. Although the last few miles were tough it was much less painful than New York.
At the start of the day it looked like the weather was going to be perfect. It was cool and dry; right around 50 degrees. It started sprinkling early in the race; no problem. Then it started really raining. The rain came harder and harder and continued through about mile 18 or so. At times my sunglasses were so fogged up and wet that I could barely see a thing. I didn't have a pocket to put them in and didn't want to carry them in my hand so I just ran blind for a while.
I felt great through most of the run. No pain. No problem running my goal pace. At about mile 21 I started losing energy and slowing down a bit. At mile 23 I got a cramp in my left hamstring that brought me to a screeching halt. I stopped and stretched it quickly, then started running again. I found I could run with a shorter than usual stride without cramping. That muscle threatened to cramp on every incline for the rest of the race, which included a long, steep bridge in the 24th mile. My self-talk switched from something like, "Stay on pace. Run strong." to, "Just keep running. Run whatever pace you need to to keep that muscle from cramping."
Other than that hamstring threatening to cramp, the last 3 miles felt pretty good. Again, SO much less painful and much stronger than New York. Definitely an encouraging run today as I continue toward my goal of qualifying for and running Boston in April 2012.
Many thanks to our family and friends for all the well wishes and support!
Jeff
No comments:
Post a Comment