Marathon completed!!
Sadly in 5:03 but I was fortunate to have completed it at all, I had a few major setbacks.. I was unable to get ANY sleep the night before and as a result I decided to play it safe and take it easy until the 20mile mark. I was holding a good 10 minute mile pace at first, THEN IT HAPPENED!! I hit the "wall" at mile 13 It manifested itself by throwing up in a port-o-potty, then being so shaky and out of it that I had to walk for a few miles.. My mental state was FUCKED at that point and it was all I could do to just keep walking.. The thought of having to walk 13 more miles, completely spent ,left me feeling a little insane and discouraged to say the least. I was in disbelief that it was going down like this,and I had to draw upon ALL of my motivational helpers to keep going. The biggest being that I dedicated the race to my late uncle Herschel Conner Jr, who passed away in June from cancer.. Pic:
It was about mile 15, I herd someone yell "For Herschel!!" after becoming somewhat emotional at that moment I just started running.. I kept a it up until mile 22 when I stopped for water and almost threw up again, then just continued to walk.. At mile 23ish, I can upon a man who was limping pretty bad and I ask him if he was alright, he said he was going to drop out.. He told me that he felt like he failed because he wanted to finish it in under 4 hours, and that he was just done.. I preceded to let him know that I was in a similar boat and that no matter what "Failure is not an option". I felt like I could have started running again but I decided to stick with Jeff and that I will make sure we would finish together.. no matter what!! At 25.2 miles ,after shouting a few battle cries Jeff and I RAN to the finish (I'll post a picture as soon as they send it to me) I was met by my loving wife who had complete her 26.2 in 4:35. She said that she could not believe that I was able to do it ,given my failure to get ANY sleep the night before and getting fucked so early in the race..
I wanted to complete the race in under 4 hours, and I was poised to do so during my training. on my 20 mile training run I was holding a solid 9-10 minute mile pace..
Thank you to everyone who was rooting for me, and much love to my fellow premies
P.S. I'm contemplating a redemption for my 5:03 time... My goal is to maybe qualify for the Boston Marathon(3:20). For now its back to the Gym to assume my old "body building routine", to put back the 10-15pounds of muscle mass that I lost during my 6 months of training..
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Here are some photos from the race and sorry they are so small , I stole them from a web site that was trying to charge $40 per photo!!!
