After a day to determine what went wrong, I have come up with a list that made this marathon the worst and most painful to complete ever. I dont even know, or want to know what my actual finish time was. I know that the 4 hour pace group went by me at mile 23-24 so I was not moving very good. At the 10k, I knew I was not doing well, but pushed on hoping to start feeling better. Mile 11-12 DNF at the half marathon turn off was the plan. I couldnt believe how bad I felt, and the possibility of finishing was out of the question. Long story short, I stayed out there and finished, it was brutal. In the long run I think it was the right thing to do and I think I learned a lot from this experience.
Set up: Planned on doing the half, not enough milage for the full. Half cost almost the same as the full, took on the full. Only 3.5 month of training till race day.
Took the distance lightly, and thought I could still run a p.r. off of minimal training.
Not enough mileage, I dont know what I was running per week, but I would guess it was betweeen 25-35 but on the low end of that.
Too much priority on the long run, I ran well for my 3 20 mile runs, but I was not doing much more all week. Days off before and after to set up a good long run.
Calf strain-3 weeks before race, limited the milage I was actually doing to many days off at a time. Did not drop down to half marathon or adjust finish expectations. 3:40
Work turned into 7 days a week for the last month.
Now that I looked at it and wrote it out, it all makes sense. I have definately learned a lot from this and im sure will be a better, smarter runner for it. I know I paid for it on Sunday. |