There is no doubt that the weather on Saturday for the ING Hartford Marathon was just spectacular. I was a little worried all week when I noticed the morning temperatures falling into the low to mid 40’s in Connecticut, but all turned out well. It was a little strange for me running a marathon on a Saturday instead of a Sunday, but I can get used to it since I have an extra day to rest before I have to go to work.

I made great time getting up to Hartford, despite the fact I had to stop and drop my family off at my in-laws since we were in Connect. They decided not to make the full trip with me since I had to spend some time in the pace team booth at the expo on Friday, and then it would’ve been another $75 for late checkout at the hotel .. it just wasn’t worth it. Regardless, I made it to the expo early, got my bag, bought a shirt and my “orange laces” (to support the fight against childhood obesity) and made it over to the pace team booth.

I was welcomed by two of the other pace group leaders who were just wrapping up their time in the booth. I got my instructions, shared a few stories (including the fact that the 5:30 pace group lead was doing ANOTHER marathon on Sunday) and then they left .. much did I NOT know that I would be by myself for the two hour period at the booth.

Although it was hectic attending to everyone who stopped by, it was a great experience for me meeting so many different runners from all over the country (and Canada). We talked about pacing strategies, different races we’d run and a whole assortment of other things. I wish I would have brought more water with me though, I only had one water with me and it ran out fast from all the yapping I was doing.

Finally my shift was over and I headed out to get something to eat and get ready to call it a day.. I didn’t register for the pasta party since I didn’t want to be up and out later than I usually do for races. Believe it or not, I like to be relaxing by 7pm the night before a race, it always works for me. I picked up a turkey club sandwich at the restaurant in the hotel (which was excellent by the way) and then settled down for the night… I had trouble sleeping after the initial 4 hours .. I was up almost every hour after 1am, not for any prolonged time, but enough to break my sleep.

I got up around 5:15am and proceeded to get myself ready for the race… its strange but I always take a shower and cleanup before a marathon, i’m not sure why. Regardless, after cleaning up, I packed up for the walk over to Bushnell Park where the race start was.

I was surprised by the weather since they were reporting frost warnings for Sunday morning… but it was actually 58 degrees out, quite comfortable. I wore shorts, a short sleeve shirt and the fluorescent singlet with the “4:05 pace team lead” on the back, it was pretty cool. Like I normally do, I waited in the port-a-potty line before they got really crowded, and i’m glad I did… they were terrible later on.

The pace group leads met up at 7:30 to get our signs and get our groups together, but unfortunately they had EVERY pace team sign except for mine. So I kind of stood there looking like a loser without a sign .. nobody on my team. Well, we ended up making our way to the starting line where we heard the most amazing version of the star spangled banner, it was absolutely beautiful and next thing I knew we were off…

I made sure to ‘tap’ the start banner as I crossed the starting line and started my journey to yet another marathon finish line…

I found it difficult to get into a slower pace of 9:20/mile right from the start, and according to my splits from my Garmin, I never did throughout the entire race. I’m not wondering if it was because I was used of running faster than that pace and I constantly found myself slowing down or speeding up, I just never got into that pace. Anyway, the first 10 miles were fairly uneventful.. along the way, I picked up several nicknames including “Mr. 4:05” and “Pace Guy”, I found them all to be amusing.

There really wasn’t a pace group for me to lead until around mile 4 though, when I found some folks starting to run with me .. it felt pretty good to be the lead. I chatted with a ton of great people along the way, all with different goals and different motivations for doing a marathon. The biggest question I got throughout the race was “are you on pace” …

So as of mile 10, I was within a minute of the goal according to my pace band.. but it fluctuated from mile to mile because I never kept that perfect pace. I did spend a lot of time running with a guy who was running Hartford for the second time, which was his second marathon .. I guess last year he died out about mile 20 and didn’t plan on repeating. But we had a good pace going for most of the race… by around mile 12 we were heading on to a very flat out and back section for the next 13 miles.

I made a good effort to stay hydrated and fueled and I can say that the weather just held out for a perfect day of running. My pace group started to fall off by around mile 17 though when we turned around and headed back down the flat out and back section.. a few folks that were running in my pace group caught back up by around mile 18, but it wasn’t long until they started to fall off.. I was still just above the goal pace by around 15 seconds by mile 20, but after the last person in my group fell off at mile 19, I felt myself started to getting tired. I was able to keep the pace until just after mile 21 when I noticed the pace was slipping a bit and I told myself that I would keep the pace lead shirt on until I fell 2 minutes short of the goal. This happened at around mile 23 unfortunately.. but even in checking the official results, I was at a 9:20ish pace past mile 20, so I was happy with the way I was running…

At mile 23, I was pretty much by myself anyway, nobody was passing me or left in my pace group so I laid back and enjoyed the day at a slower pace and slipped the pacer shirt off. It wouldn’t be fair for me to keep the shirt on and making people think I was on pace when I wasn’t… I didn’t feel bad, they told us to do that if we couldn’t keep the pace. I feel like I had done my job up until then and there was nothing more I can do. I did sacrifice for others, because I really do feel that running the slower pace hurt me in the end (because it just threw me off).

One of the only “major” hills on the course came up around mile 25 when we were just about back in the city.. it was an on-ramp to the interstate and it kind of took the last bit of energy out of me but thankfully the rest of the course was downhill and then flat as we got back to Bushnell park for the big finish.

I finished fairly strong still with a 4:13, just 8 minutes short of the goal pace .. not too bad I guess. This reminded me how much I enjoy actually running marathons versus trying to run a great time, because I didn’t enjoy it as much as some of the others, just too much pressure. The whole experience of being a pacer was fun, but I don’t know if its for me. Maybe doing it a few more times will let me know for sure, but that opportunity may never come, we’ll see.

As for the other highlights from the race, the weather was great, the hotel was wonderful and then all the “little” things they did made it special .. I mean stuff like custom room keys, custom “do not disturb” signs, etc. The post-race was excellent, lots of food and water, and plenty of room to stretch out.. I don’t like marathon finish lines that are all congested …

So the Outer Banks Marathon is the last marathon of the season and is less than 5 weeks away … this is the last one for at least the next 8-10 months for me as we are slowly preparing for doing my first triathlon ..