BUMP
Ship the marathon!!
Yes, ran the Portland Marathon yesterday. The calibration is off a little as you can see, but the time is accurate. It was easily the hardest athletic event I've ever undertaken.
Made all of the first-time marathoner mistakes, like starting out a little too fast. Passed the half marathon point at about 1:55, so I had some dreams of finishing sub-4 hrs.
Instead...can you tell where I started to get leg cramps? I had a planned walking point at mile 16, up a big hill before a bridge. After I started up the cramps would come and go, and the rest was pretty tough.
But, I gutted it out and finished, and I was pretty excited after I was done. I can barely move today, but it's a good hurt.
Couple of action shots:
Mile 12, feeling strong.
Mile 21, putting on a happy face, even though I was hurting!
I never felt like I hit the wall at all - I had plenty of energy, and my aerobic capacity/breathing was fine. The legs just didn't hold up.
Next time I guess! [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
Thanks to Entity for recommending the training book, and somehow indirectly kicking this whole thing off for me. I could barely run 2 miles last January, so it goes to show what you can do in a short period of time.