I have a lot of people to thank for this race. It's not everyday that you get the opportunity to redeem yourself from a recent crash-and-burn race. The biggest thing was that I wanted to qualify for Boston so that Rebecca and I could run in 2017. Rebecca had already qualified and now I still needed to. Fortunately there were several people willing to bend over backwards to help get me in. We found out on Tuesday that I had gotten a bib. I was very nervous because I felt pressure to get my time. I knew that I needed at least a 3:03 or better to actually get into Boston. A co-worker did put it into perspective saying, "So worst case scenario, you're unable to finish the race and you get to see your family. Doesn't seem so bad to me."
Race day was nice. The weather was cool and we had a tailwind at the starting line. After throwing our bags into the truck, we went to line up. I left Rebecca and climbed over the corral gate to line up with the other blue bibs. Our racing coach Rachelle's text was going through my mind saying to take the first half conservatively and then negative split the last half. The gun went off and I tried my best to relax. I could see 3:05 pacer out ahead of me and I was ok with that. I figured I would just keep him in my sights. Down to Veio and I slowed down quite a bit. I still stayed below an 8 pace but knew I had a lot of ground to make up.
Dammeron Valley just sucks. That's all there is to it. I felt great through it but it's still a long uphill with little scenery. Over that hill and into the half I knew it was time to start picking it up if I was going to reach my goal. Fortunately I had saved my legs so I was able to do this. Through the next miles I was able to negative split by quite a lot. I got a bit nervous approaching 18 worried I might hit the wall again but this time it didn't happen. I was able to maintain pace through it. I then saw the last overpass hill and knew I was going to be fine. I did have one slip up with a charlie horse in my foot.Some nail pain caused my foot to curl in my shoe and I had to stop for a few seconds to stretch. Fortunately it went away.
As we descended into the city it was unreal. I had never felt so good in the last 6 miles of a marathon that I was racing. I was able to see my parents and daughter as I rounded the last corner to the finish line. I gave a little wave but that was all I had time for. I knew I wouldn't break 3 hours but I also knew that I was going to be well under 3:03. Nothing compares to running a marathon without hitting the wall and hitting a goal like that. I was floating. I saw Rebecca cross and gave her a big hug. It was a good day. Lots of people believed in me when I didn't and I was glad it worked out. Big thanks to Rachelle for all her great coaching and selflessness to get me into the race. I'll also expect gratitude to Adrian for working to get me a bib last minute. Lastly my wife for actually convincing me to do this race and telling me I could do it.
Interesting fact from results. Before 19 miles I passed 218 runners and 50 passed me. After 19 I passed 60 runners and no one passed me. That's awesome.
Splits:
5K - 21:52
10K - 42:56
Half - 1:33:11
30K - 2:09:21
6:57, 7:10, 6:53, 6:45, 6:56, 6:48, 6:55, 7:47, 7:16, 7:07, 7:19, 7:11, 6:51, 7:00, 6:35, 6:31, 6:24, 6:35, 6:57, 6:41, 6:29, 7:00, 7:00, 6:33, 6:51, 6:49, 2:01
AP: 6:53
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