Goals:
For one, finish. Second, if feeling good, shoot for a 4:30 time. I'd been battling left knee tendonitises (quad, IT band) for the past month so I had no real expectations for the entire 26.2. Also, considering I'd never traveled that far on foot, I knew that I was probably in for a royal schooling of some sort. Then, there was the aspect of me having to drive 5 hours home directly after the event. All things to be wary of before gun time.
Results / Commentary:
5:22. I did great during the first half, clocking in a solid 2:12, which was consistent with my training runs of that length. I couldn't really even feel myself slowing down until I noticed people passing me. The 4:30 pace group whizzed past at the 11 mile mark and within the next mile were out of sight. That's when the tendonitis really started to bother me. I'd dispensed with the quad tendonitis the week before, but the IT band variety is what bothered me here. Whenever my quad/shin muscles tensed up yay much, there would be a debilitating twang that would briefly stop me in my tracks, but luckily this only happened three total times. Then, having to compensate for the left with my right side, my hip flexor took an absolute beating. After mile 18, I couldn't run at all, as both legs were locked up, mainly in those two areas. Muscle oxidation and lactic acid buildup were pretty bad, too, which reflected my undertraining. Another product of that was my feet. They felt strong and structurally sound (great news!), but the inner balls were absolute toast. This meant blisters, meaning the entire surface of them - one giant blister on each. The blister pain only bothered me so bad, though, as I can run with blisters. The fact that I couldn't physically move enough to run bothered me more. No, check that. There were people who finished behind me who could still run. They should've beaten me. That bothers me.
So, those last 7+ miles seemed like they'd never end, but I powerlimped as fast as I could straight to the finish without stopping. In fact, being not a tremendously large marathon (~2000 competitors), I was more or less alone out there once the 4:30 group went by. After that, it was lone runners passing infrequently. Then there were headwinds that ripped into me, draining my body heat. Comically enough, I had no sweat at the finish because the wind had dried it all as I powerlimped.
I was happy with my calorie fueling (three PowerGels and two Clif bars), but I certainly could've benefited from a bit more hydration and likely a few salt tablets. I took on as much water as I could, but the water stops didn't have enough for my liking. For this, I will carry a handheld in future events.
Conclusion:
Both Emme and I should've run the half marathon. We were simply too banged up and it dampened our experience. Also, the marathon wasn't tremendously well-organized, so I wouldn't do Marshall again. But, the people in and around Huntington, WV were very nice and it was an overall pleasant and positive environment to be in.
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