Today was a monumental day in my running career due to the fact that I completed the Pocono Marathon (the Run for the Red) in 3:54:42. This finish time is a half hour faster than I ran Ocean Drive back at the end of March, I can honestly say that the additional training and effort I put in made the difference. It was awesome!

I have to give the race directors and everybody involved an A+ on the quality of this race. Every aspect of it from the expo, to the shuttle, to the facilities at the start to all the volunteers and supporters out along the course. Apparently the marathon bib list was posted in the paper and I had people cheering me on BY NAME, that was cool. The local support was what I needed to get to the finish, what a great marathon.

So lets talk about the course a little bit real quick, it is deceiving a bit in the course profile, I always forget to see how small the mile markers are between each other, because there was a section between miles 15-20 where there were hills on every corner. We would then go down, but then head right back up. This killed me, but I didn’t stop. I managed to keep an under 9-minute/mile pace (mostly 8:30ish) for up to around mile 19, when I started to slow down a bit … I never went over an 11-minute/mile pace at any point, which for me is great, because I really had a problem in the other races. I did do a few at 9:30ish, and a few at 10:30ish right at the end, but I was dealing with some pain in my left quad (again). I didn’t want to blow the muscle so i did cut back a bit, but I was tired, and I don’t know if it was because I kept a good pace for so long.

Regardless, i’m not going to sit and micromanage my results, I made it through, and did a first in being social on the course. I talked for a mile with a guy from New York, and another mile later on with a woman from New York. It helps keep your mind busy when you run with someone, but their pace was a little faster than mine, so the conversation was short lived.

So the big question is, what were my splits …….. here they are ….

8:36 – Mile 1
8:18 – Mile 2
7:16 – Mile 3
9:27 – Mile 4 (3 and 4 were off, definitely!)
8:33 – Mile 5
8:45 – Mile 6
8:24 – Mile 7
8:31 – Mile 8
8:10 – Mile 9
8:39 – Mile 10
8:09 – Mile 11
8:16 – Mile 12
8:39 – Mile 13
8:32 – Mile 14
8:27 – Mile 15
8:35 – Mile 16
8:30 – Mile 17
8:44 – Mile 18
9:05 – Mile 19
9:33 – Mile 20
9:31 – Mile 21
9:40 – Mile 22
10:13 – Mile 23
10:23 – Mile 24
10:41 – Mile 25
10:37 – Mile 26
2:22 to the finish (.2)

I think thats impressive personally, based on the times for the Ocean drive, I maintained for the most part. I’m going to be sore as hell tomorrow, I just know it, but I will struggle through and am going to try to goto bed early.

I’ll write more tomorrow, but wanted to get this posted….. ON TO STEAMTOWN!!