I was excited about this race all week and it for sure did not disappoint. The weekend, the race, the beer and the football were all awesome. I could not ask for a better weekend to run a PR.Emily, Tom and I left a little late on Friday for our eight hour drive to Dayton. Eventually we arrived and were in bed by midnight so we could get a cool five hours sleep before the race Saturday morning. The weather was awesome; clear skies with temps in the low 50’s. perfect race weather.
I took off right from the start, nudging myself into the 3:30 group before the first hill broke up the field. I felt good through mile six so I decided to bridge the gap to the 3:20 group from mile 7 to 9. Once comfortably situated in the tightly bunch group of runners, I held tight for a few miles. Eventually I felt a little anxious that I was running too slowly, so I began moving away from the group. So some guy I couldn’t understand left with me. We hung together for a while, but eventually he dropped back. I decided to run alone for a while. I’m not sure if this was a good or bad idea. In the end I had a great run, actually a personal best time of 3:22. But, in hindsight if I had stayed close to the 3:20 group I could have saved energy by not being out on my own. Had I stayed with the group, its possible I could have used that extra energy to pull ahead in the last two miles.
Travis and Emily managed to see Tom and me four times on this course, which is incredible given that it was run on an Air Force base. They were the best fans out there. Every time I saw them I felt so much better.
After the race we headed to Milano’s on campus for some food and beer, which turned into more beer, which turned into more beer and wings and… well… you get the picture. I think Tom and Emily enjoyed the University of Dayton. I think all in all, this was the more fun I had traveling to a race this year.I had a best time (both on and off the course). I’m really looking forward to Chicago. I think that with a smarter plan from the start I can drop a few minutes. I think sub three hours was a little out of my league this year, but next year for sure.
1 comment:
Mark could not have written a better description. What a great weekend and great marathon. It was the first time I had watched a marathon beyond just the finish line and it was also the first time I got to see Mark run a race. Travis and I literally were running from spot to spot and periodically cursing out Mark because he was running too fast, we could barely keep up. We just about missed him on the 9th mile, but luckily saw Tom twice at the turn around. Both Mark and Tom looked great the whole time. So impressed with both of their times!
Post-race was fun as well, drinking all day and touring UD.
I hear Chicago will be completely different than Air Force- very much looking forward to it!
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