Space Coast Marathon

final results - 3:10 - 33rd OA, 2nd AG

glancing at these results it is nothing to be ashamed of and I should be relatively happy with it. After all it is my second fastest marathon and it does qualify me for Boston again.

However - I am very disappointed in the way I finished. Up until mile 21 I ran the perfect race - I was slowly getting faster the whole way and was well on my way to a 2:50 marathon.

at mile 3.1 my ave pace was 6:38 per mile, at 6.2 it was 6:34, at 13.1 it was 6:26 and at mile 20 and 21 it was 6:28 (I was in 6th place at the time) - then something happened. My legs stopped working and the pain was awful.

I limped, jogged, shuffled, and walked the last 5.2 miles in 55 minutes to finish in 3:10. I almost quit a few times but I still had to find a way to get to the finish line so I decided to make the best of it and shuffle along until I finished.

I stopped to use the bathroom, I stopped to stretch, and I stopped to get stretched out by a PT along the way - nothing seemed to be able to get my butt moving faster than a shuffle. Unfortunately once you start to change your running form and favor one side versus the other you start to hurt in other places too.

As I review the race and think about my performance I am happy I could run the splits I did and very happy miles 11-20 were faster than 1-10 (that was the plan)- just disappointed that the last 5.2 went so poorly.

I have traced the problem to my back/hip/glute and hopefully through some therapy, stretching, foam rolling and massage I can get it worked out. I need to plan my next try at the elusive 2:50 mark - maybe Tampa or Miami. Let's see how the recovery goes and when I can start to run again.

I want to thank Dave from St Augustine for being my running partner for 21 miles, thank the PT for having his table along the course and trying to help, and thank Troy for riding with Dave and I on the back side when it was really boring.

Next marathon will be better as will the Keys 100 in May!