Well, after 18 long weeks, the Steamtown Marathon is now over. I am happy to report that I completed it, with a decent finish time (4:16:50) and while having a great experience (which of course is the most important part). The crowd support was unbelievable throughout the entire 26.2 mile course, but especially in Carbondale where I think the entire town came out to cheer us on! I am happy to report that I have no major injuries, although I am sore as hell, that is to be expected. The cold I spoke about on Saturday night didn’t phase me at all, and my Achilles is really no worse than it was, however since the race is done now, I am going to see the doctor and have it checked out. I figure I can take it easy for two weeks or so now, so if he tells me to rest it, I can. Let me talk more about the race though.
Like I had figured, I didn’t sleep all the way through the night on Saturday, I got up around 3:45am just tossing and turning. My goal was to ensure that my head wasn’t stuffed up and that I did my normal ‘morning’ routine before leaving for Scranton. I had my breakfast, most of my stuff was packed from the night before, but I got everything else together and headed out the door at 5:35am for Scranton. I got to see my wife before I left, she just got up, so that helped keep my spirits up. I barely remember the trip to Scranton, except for knowing that parking was not easy at that time of the day. There was NOWHERE to park, I drove around and around and didn’t find anything, so I finally parked about 4-5 blocks away near Mulberry street.
I made my way to the shuttle buses and met a guy named John from Connecticut as I walked. We shared stories and he congratulated me on my first marathon and wished me luck. Once we got the shuttle area, he went his own way and I got on the bus. I met another gentlemen there from New York that I sat with, and we shared training stories since he was doing his first marathon too, we really had something in common. It was a scenic, but long and cold ride to Forest City. There was NO HEAT on the bus, but I really didn’t mind so much.
So once we arrived at Forest City, the party started! We got off the buses and the cheerleaders were cheering for us, people were wishing us luck, singing songs for us, etc. I was great. I really felt like something special. I managed to get my way into the gym to sit around for a bit since it was only 7:15am at this point, I ran into my department VP, Tom, in the gym and talked to him for a bit until making a final shot to the bathrooms. I ended up outside at a porto-potty, and at that point the race was about to begin. I made my way into the crowd between the 9 and 10 minute pace marks and talked to some other people while we were waiting. I was so excited, and it was so beautiful out. We made a lot of hoopla about the weather, and I think I compensated well. I wore a throw-away tshirt ($6) and gloves ($2) but I thankfully had my sunglasses. It was really bright out. I didn’t get the hear the national anthem, or the pre-race announcements since the speaker wasn’t loud enough, but shortly after that, the big BOOM, and the race began! It took me almost 2 minutes to get to the starting line after the canon with the amount of people there.
I was concerned in the first mile because my Achilles was already sore, and all i thought was man, I gotta go 25 more miles with this soreness. It was brutal and overall I think it hurt my time, but I did finish … so, lets give you the splits:
Mile 1- 9:48
Mile 2- 9:19
Mile 3- 9:25
Mile 3- 9:10
Mile 4- 9:33
Mile 5- 10:46
Mile 6- 7:14
Mile 7- 8:46
Mile 8- 9:18
Mile 9- 9:11
Mile 10: 9:35
Mile 11- 9:30
Mile 12- 9:41
Mile 13- 9:41
Mile 14- 9:44
Mile 15- 9:49
Mile 16- 9:48
Mile 17- 9:35
Mile 18- 10:03
Mile 19- 10:14
Mile 20- 10:05
Mile 21- 10:09
Mile 22- 10:04
Mile 23- 10:33
Mile 24- 10:40
Mile 25- 10:26
Mile 16- 10:28
Mile .2- 2:03
Interesting trend that I slowed down towards the end, but it did teach me about running marathons and that I need to work on more speedwork. Remember, I trained with very minimal speedwork and mostly distance type work, but remember that my goal was to finish.
It was great to see my family as I finished, I was exhausted, totally exhausted, but managed to get back to car and suffer a MAJOR cramp in my leg/hip joint … it put me on my butt it was so bad.
I plan to share more about the experience, and discuss more of my current condition and upcoming races sometime today or tomorrow. The blog name will be changing, along with the logo since I’m not formally training for Steamtown anymore, but since I really enjoy documenting the training that I do, I will continue to post on and on and on.
Right now, my next goal is the Diamond Run on Thanksgiving Day depending on the diagnosis from the doctor today, and then I intend to do multiple marathons in the Spring (OD marathon and NJ marathon) which are 4 weeks apart, again, depending on how much heal time I need. I think I understand more how to train for a marathon now, so it should be interesting .. I think i’m going to do Pfitzinger plan this time, they focus alot on intensity and speed. I think i’m ready for it.
Thanks to anyone who has followed my story since April when I started this blog. I see a TON of hits coming to the site in the last 3 months, so I know that somebody is watching my story, but rest assured that the story will continue on to the next race.