CIM Race Report
I did it!! I ran my first marathon! It was painful… but worth it! Despite still being pretty sore I can tell you I would definitely do it again. Solid Type II fun.
My final time was 3:59:44, sneaking in just under 4 hours. You can view the full splits here and my run on Strava here.
Despite consciously trying to keep my pace under control in the first half, I went out too fast. My first half marathon was 1:50:59 vs. 2:08:45 for the second half—a positive split of 16%. 😕
The first half felt great. I was able to maintain 8:30/mi pace. I remember thinking around mile 2 “hey this isn’t too bad! I feel great! this is gonna be easy!" ahhh hahaha… how wrong I was.
Around miles 18-25 I hit the proverbial “wall” in which my ankles and calves felt like they were filled with concrete and proceeded to become extremely sluggish. You can see at around miles 20 and 23 I had to walk for a bit as my calves and knees were killing me at those points.
With the prospect of finishing getting nearer, I picked up the pace near the end and semi-sprinted across the finish.
Cardio never seemed to be a limiting factor throughout my race. I think I could have gone faster if my legs weren’t so trashed. My uninformed hypothesis is that I didn’t spend enough time on my feet during training. Given my weekly mileage was super low (from 10-20 miles/week peaking at about 25 miles/week) I think ramping up my mileage and following a more serious training program would have helped a lot.
Also gotta give a big shout out to my cheering and support squad, Ola and Bogo, who made this awesome sign and brought a full-on air-horn. 😂 Their support in multiple points of the race brought a huge smile to my face and gave me a boost of speed.
I have a few more thoughts on what I could have done differently and what my next steps might be—maybe something for another time. I’m signed up for the Kaiser SF Half in February 2020 and I’m super pumped for it!