Savannah Marathon 2011: Race Recap

First, the stats:

Chip time: 3:29:45

Age Group: 7th out of 421

Gender: 62nd out of 2473

Field Placement: 308 out of 4722 

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 Now on to the race.

There actually isn't a lot to say about the race itself. No drama, no major hurdles. I didn't have that, "Ooh yeah, I'm killing it," feeling I had when I ran Chicago, but I also never got into a place where I was in any real trouble. I just tried to run steady and it worked out okay.

The only really tough spot was miles 21-24.

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Back From Savannah Marathon

Sole Sisters and fellow GSO runner Claudette at Savannah Marathon ExpoI'm back home safe and sound after running the inaugural Savannah Rock-n-Roll Marathon on Saturday. In a word, I am beat. Happy and proud, but beat. I kicked out a new PR of 3:29:45. I remember when I first started running 5 years ago thinking, "If I could ever run even just a 5k at a 9-minute pace, I would be so happy." It never even occurred to me as a possibility that I might someday run 26.2 miles at an 8-minute-per-mile pace. I trained hard for this race and I'm super proud of what I accomplished. 
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Savannah Marathon: The (Meltdown?) Countdown Begins

It's a funny thing, training for a marathon. During the long summer months of intervals, tempo runs, and long runs, you kind of lose sight that at some point it's all going to culminate into you having to stand at a start line and face down 26.2 miles. You know in the back of your mind that, "Yeah, I'm doing this training run so someday I can run really fast and be in a lot of pain for a long time while I do it," but the reality of what you're attempting doesn't really sink in until about a week before your race.

It is a week before my race. 

Next Saturday I'll join 22,999 other runners at the start line for the Savannah Rock'N'Roll Marathon/Half-Marathon. As usual, I'm equal parts excited and freaked out. 

 

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A Look Into the Mind of a Marathon Runner

For today's post, I offer a glimpse into the (insane) workings of the mindset of marathon runners. 

My training partner (TP) for Myrtle Beach is coming off running back-to-back marathons. Before we ran Myrtle, our conversations went like this:

TP: "Regardless of how I do, I'm done with marathons after this race. I need a break."

Me: "Me too. This is going to be the only marathon I run this year."

TP: "Agreed."

Immediately following our run at Myrtle Beach, our conversations sounded like this:

 

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