Thanks to my co-bloggers, Mike and Abadabajev for posting up some splits. I'll make this short so I can get my recovery in, but I wanted to get a couple of highlights posted.
First, it was very, very windy. Not that I wasn't ready for it, but it would have been nice to have a breeze instead of a gale. There were a couple of long stretches with the wind at my back, so I made hay on those with some 5:35 miles, but there were quite a few more stretches that were very cold and windy, and flat out tough, and mostly during the second half.
That I nearly even split in these conditions is a testament to the value of conserving during the first few miles and the first half. I rocked the second half pretty hard, even with a tough stretch from 22-24. The back-to-back runs were INVALUABLE for dealing with the last 10k. It's a different kind of pain and fatigue, but not terribly different from the training. A big thanks to Mystery Coach for, well, the coaching!
Last thing before the ice bath--this is nuts. I line up for the start. On my left is Dick Beardsley and on my right is Andrew Carlson. I shit you not. I ended up talking to Dick for about two minutes, and we had such a nice conversation going that I was worried we were going to miss the gun! We made a joke about cutting in front of Carlson or some such nonsense, and Dick congratulated me on starting my first marathon. It was very cool, as you could tell he was genuinely excited for me. He's every bit the person that comes through in his books. Great guy. I also spoke with Andrew Carlson a bit after the race. The guy ran a sub-1:05 half, and he was asking ME more questions about how my race went than I had a chance to ask him! Another great guy.
Alright, into the tub. Today was not the day for it, but even if the conditions had been better, I don't know that sub-2:30 would have happened. It's a bigger barrier than I expected, and the sub-2:30 has earned my respect. Another day...
Run Two | Weather | Supplemental | Nutrition | Sleep | Injury
17 comments:
Have some champagne during that ice bath Eric. Congratulations on a fine race through difficult conditions. I have more to say, I just wanted to be first though!!
Great stuff!
Congratulations on a very solid race particularly given the conditions. That fact that you almost even split also speaks to how fit you were going in, you should be proud of yourself and all the hard work you did… 2h33 is a fantastic first marathon.
Coming second in your first ever marathon. Man, you have no idea how big a deal that is! Fantastic race, congratulations. You really are an inspiration.
WTG Eric on your debut, I bet those last couple miles felt great seeing the finish was near, have a good recovery
Congratulatons! That's one heck of a fast first marathon.
Congrats! I'm at a loss for words. Amazing ;-)
You sir, are a beast.
Congrats Eric!
Someone asked me this morning, while golfing "Guess who got 2nd in the Fargo Marathon"
I'm like "Hmmmm. Should I know?"
He said "Yeah...you know him"
Then, the light bulb came on.
I said "Eric?!"
~"Yep"
Again...congrats on an incredible effort!
Eric, Congratulations on a great race!!! That headwind was brutal!! It would have been nice if you would have had some runners up front with you to share the workload. You represented the State of North Dakota very well, and we are all proud of you!!!
Awesome! Congratulations, that's some fine running. Wow!
Well done!!!! Next stop: 2:29:59. And then: 2:22:00.
Nice job, Eric. Congrats on the solid marathon debut.
wow. congrats!!
Hey Eric
good to meet you
Here is a You Tube clip of the race. May see you at the 8K in the fall
Alan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e1G6GYbWnQ
Nice race, Eric. Can you give us some more details? How did it feel? You put in all of this work - was it what you expected? When did it start to get really difficult?
you probably already have seen your name on the marathonguide results for the w\e
just in case...
http://www.marathonguide.com/
congrats once again
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