Training
For this race I actually trained a bit. I'm planning on doing a 100 miler at the end of the year so I've ramping up my mileage for it. I'm a pretty big guy at 5'11 and 230 lbs so I've been focusing on getting time on my feet rather than my pace but even so my times have been getting faster and faster. The month leading up to the race I was averaging about 40-50 miles training.
Pre-race
We were visiting my good friend in Seattle so he decided to take us to Surrey and then Vancouver the night before so we had a lot of good Indian food before the race. Because of the day trip beforehand we didn't end up getting back to his house until after midnight. A few hours of sleep and we were up by 4:30 am the next morning.
Race
Race day had arrived and I was feeling confident that I could break 5 hours. It's been 2 years since I've gone sub 5 with my most recent marathon (Austin Marathon) being a 6:02 time which was heartbreaking to me at the time but expected since I wasn't training and was having some health issues which have since been resolved with the proper medication.
Miles 1 - 10
I'm feeling pretty good the temps for the race were perfect somewhere in the 60 on average and I'm trying my best to keep my pace to something that wasn't too strenuous. The hills are there but aren't too much of an issue for me. I'm actually surprised by my pace and I'm thinking that maybe I could PR my marathon (<4:21 8="" and="" around="" from="" half="" little="" marathoners="" mile="" nice="" off="" p="" park.="" run="" somewhere="" split="" the="" this="" we="">
Miles 11-15
My legs are feeling a little more tired but I'm still hopeful in thinking that I could actually PR my marathon. We end up merging back with the half marathoners after 13.1 miles. I wasn't a big fan of the merge back since now we were running with much slower runners and I'm pretty sure that combined with my tiring legs led to a slow down of my pace.
Miles 16 - 20
We are on our own now the half marathoners have split off once again. At this point my legs are really feeling all the hills that we are running. The aqueduct is an out and back with some pretty good elevation and I go to a run/walk strategy of 2 min run and 2 walk. All the other runners around me are struggling as well.
Miles 21 - 24
More of the same run walk strategy as it seems like we are on an never ending up hill and I can feel that I might not break 5 hours unless I start to really pick up my pace.
Miles 25 - 26.5
This is it! It's do or die time. Enough of this walking crap. I run! I ignore the the brain telling me that my body can't push itself any more and I will myself to run.
I make it in to the finish at 4:59:33
Post-race
This 230 lb big boy just ran sub 5! I'm pretty happy with myself it's been 2 years since I ran sub 5 and I can once again consider myself a runner.
I always gopro most of my races and you can find this one here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX2e_Ln-kME
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