Sunday, November 11, 2012

Fort Worth Marathon 20-Mile Race Report

I signed up for this race on Saturday and then looked at the weather report and realized it could be very bad! 

I started off the run at a controlled pace, and a girl behind me saw my Ironman tattoo and struck up a conversation.  We ended up running together for about the first 10K, and that caused me to go faster than I would have run solo.  I dropped her around mile 6 or 7 and I felt pretty strong, especially as I neared the turn-around at mile 10.  I saw a co-worker after the turn-around, and that was a little bit of a push for me too (because I'm not competitive or anything).  I was worried that I might have gone out too fast, but I continued to feel strong.  The rain started around mile 18, and it was actually a nice treat.  Also, we lucked out with the wind because it was out of the south, so we had a headwind on the way out and a tailwind on the way back.  The half marathoners started 30 minutes after the 20-milers, so I passed a ton of people at the end, and that was pretty motivating too.  I felt like I was flying. 

I'm starting to get my nutrition routine down.  I ate a whole wheat flatbread with almond butter for breakfast and also had a large coffee.  I also took two acid reflux pills in the morning, which seems to make a HUGE difference.  I had a gel at the 7-mile and 13.5-mile marks. 

Splits: 9:12, 9:20, 9:30, 9:37, 9:37, 9:51, 9:38, 9:29, 9:31, 9:19, 9:02, 9:05, 9:17, 9:19, 9:11, 9:21, 9:18, 9:20, 9:11, and 9:09

GPS: 3:09:00, 20.20 miles, 9:22/mile average

Official Time: 3:09:01
Place: 2nd (out of 11) in the female 30-34 category
Results here

This race in 2010: 3:07:49

20-mile run last month: 3:27:03

While I haven't been doing a lot of super long runs, I think the consistent 9-mile runs during the week before work have really helped me out with my fitness.  I'm very happy that I went 18 minutes faster than just a few weeks ago!

GusGus sports the bling:



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