What does it mean to win a marathon? There were only 108 individuals in the race so I suppose that once again puts me in the fastest 1%. Not 1% of people mind you, 1% of marathoners. Not all people even attain marathoner status.
It's past my bedtime so much for the philosophical and on with the physical.
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| Marathon Pace and Heart Rate |
This is my GPS data of pace and heart rate for the race. I hope you like it because the heart rate monitor chaffed my chest and now I have a burn/scab an inch long on my sternum. You can forget me doing this in any serious marathon.
I executed the plan quite well. The first mile was 6:20 way too fast but I stayed relaxed the first 16 miles as planned before dropping the pace under 6 and upping the heart rate as shown above. In that 17th mile I moved from 4th to 2nd. Then right after mile 22 I moved into first with a jerk move. I eased up beside the leader and ran stride for stride with him for a bit before taking off 30s a mile faster just before the checkpoint. Regardless, I did what I set out to do. I did struggle the last three miles. This felt more like a long run than a race. I mean, I have worked roughly as hard in other long runs and struggled even worse in the later miles of long runs that a few 6:30s near the end isn't the end of the world to me.
People wonder what I think about while running for nearly three hours. I spent a lot of time thinking about pacing and drinking fluids and keeping my upper body relaxed. However, in this race I spent part of the race talking to other racers including a 22 year old that fell apart later in the race. A marathon is hard! I spent quite a bit of time thanking God for the blessing of being able to run this far healthy. There have been times when I was worried that my running might end, and it was going plenty strong Saturday. I am so blessed.
Finally, here is a video of me with a little less than three miles left. I was not feeling great at this point.
Your are in the top 1% of Marathoners who were at your race. You are not in the top 1% of all Marathoners. Just think you should put your comment within an accurate context.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the race though - well done!
Congrats on winning the marathon, Isaiah!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, at CIM in December 2011 I was 40th of 5756 marathon finishers and in Green Bay in May 2011 I was 6th of 2055 finishers. Also, in 2011 I ran the 3621st fastest marathon time in the world, while there were over 530,000 marathon finishes in the United States. So I'm really more in the top 0.5%, but the point was to stress that once one arrives at the top 1% there are many other goals and greater challenges.
ReplyDeleteThanks Russ!