Hyannis Marathon

Yesterday I ran the Hyannis marathon. My training has been enjoyably loy key, with a mere 21 miles/week average for the year at a relaxed average pace of 8:59. (Last year I started the year aggressively in order to try and BQ at Miami in January. Then I struggled through the balance of the year with an injured hip. So I'm trying not to repeat that this year. So far so good.) Anyway, minimal training and about 15 extra lbs. on the frame and my expectations weren't too high for Hyannis. I was shooting for a respectable sub 3:45. This year I ran the race with Mike.

Mike in the parking lot pre-race

Mike and I ran the first half marathon pretty smoothly in 1:47 (8:09 pace). As we headed out for the second lap the rain started and the wind picked up. Awesome. The 2nd lap was going to be fun. Mike drifted back a little and we split up. It started to get harder to maintain the pace. It took 42 minutes to cover the next 5 miles (8:28 pace). Not too bad, but fatigue was setting in. Some walking through the water stations in the next two miles slowed me even more and I hit the 20 mile mark at 2:48 (Overall pace of 8:24). If I could average a pace at or under 9:10 for the final 10K, I could get the sub 3:45.... But I couldn't do it. Instead, it was 1 hour and 8 minutes of me walking and shleping through the rain while cramped and frozen, wondering why the hell was I doing this race. I crossed the line in 3:56. Things went about the same for Mike and he finished 5 minutes after me. Had we known we were so close we could've death marched it in together! After thawing out Mike and I grabbed a beer and drank to getting in a long training run. And we toasted our new purple Barney shirts:

Wtf? Who picked the color of the shirts this year?

Time to pick up the training. If I don't, the North Face 50 is not going to be a pretty sight...