After a week of indecision, I decided on Friday to suck it up and enter the Fort Worth Marathon 20-miler even though the Elton John concert was at 8:00 on Saturday night. Since I gave up drinking until after the marathon, dinner at Joe T's and the concert at the Fort Worth Convention Center didn't affect me like they could have! I managed to get almost 7 hours of sleep last night (went to bed at 11:40, got up at 6:35). I wanted to run a steady, consistent pace and not push it too hard. I was thinking of the 9:30-9:45 range.
I scarfed down a wheat bagel with fat-free strawberry cream cheese for breakfast and headed to LaGrave field (home of the Fort Worth Cats). I had about 30 minutes to spare, so I got my chip and went to the bathroom twice. I decided to pitch the sweatshirt and just run with a t-shirt and shorts even though it was 37 degrees at the start. My hands were pretty cold for a couple of miles, but then I was fine.
My first mile was a little quick (9:17) until I shook off the race excitement. Then I settled in and kept track of people in front of me to push myself more. There was a girl in a light blue jacket who I spotted, and she stayed ahead of me for about 3/4 of the race. It was fun to keep track of her and eventually pass her. There was a guy going about the same pace as me, so he, another girl, and I ran together through miles 8-12ish. We were getting really frustrated. There were two water stops early on (at miles 1 and 2) and then none of the water stops had cups. So I took a Gel at mile 5 (and also miles 10 & 15) and didn't get water until around mile 8. Fortunately a volunteer gave me a plastic water bottle which I carried with me until mile 19. I swear, I've had the worst luck with water at races. I think the race director tried too hard with other snazzy things (like showers and fajitas after the race) that the smaller things (like water cups and the turn-around signs) were neglected. I would have missed the turn-around if it weren't for the guy I was running with.
My first 11 miles: 9:17, 9:27, 9:28, 9:21, 9:26, 9:30, 9:26, 9:22, 9:29, 9:34, 9:30
The two people I was running with stopped at a water fountain. I detest stopping, so I kept going and kicked it up a gear. It was fun passing a whole bunch of people and feeling good at the end of a race.
Last 9 miles: 9:18, 9:15, 9:12, 9:15, 9:09, 9:11, 9:18, 9:11
I was really pleased that I was able to negative split (1:34:24, 1:32:42), keep a steady effort, and run significantly faster than my marathon PR pace of 4:16:58. My 20-mile pace would have been a 4:04:32 marathon. My training has given me a lot of confidence heading into Las Vegas, where I hope to crush the 4-hour mark.
Garmin distance and time: 3:07:49, 20.09 miles (avg pace 9:20/mile)
My chip fell off during the race, so I probably won't be in the official results. Hopefully that won't happen in Vegas! I was happy that my car key stayed on my shoelace though... that would have been much more of a pain to lose!
I grabbed a banana and headed home, and I was way too excited to scarf down some blueberry panacakes leftover from yesterday morning. So I hopped in the swimming pool to ice down my bottom half, took a hot shower, chowed down on some breakfast, and then headed to Subway and bought lunch. I just inhaled a footlong Subway Club and about a pound of Baked Cheetos. I was starvin' marvin'!
Now it's TAPER TIME!!!
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