Saturday, April 28, 2012

Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon Recap

It was a beautiful morning for the Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon in Louisville.

Even though I missed my goal (3:10) and a Boston qualifier (3:15), I ran 26.2 miles in 3:19:09, and that's a minute faster than I've ever run a marathon before.

I was 94th of 2,080 finishers and 11th of 204 men aged 40-44.

I went out with the 3:10 pace group and I was right on pace until about mile 18, then the wheels came off.  I suspect fueling was a factor and I hit the infamous wall.  I ate Shot Bloks along the way, but I guess it wasn't enough for the pace I was running.

Here is a link to the activity as recorded by my Garmin.  The course included a loop around the beautiful but hilly Iroquois Park.

This was my fifth marathon.  My previous best was the PF Chang's Rock & Roll Arizona Marathon in 2010 where I ran a 3:20:10.  That result was good enough to qualify me for Boston at the time (qualifying standards got tougher the following year).

As miserable as the last 8 miles were, I'm already thinking about my next marathon and about how much I need to eat along the way.

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