Birmingham Mercedes Marathon, Post 1

Everything hurts, just as it should after a marathon. Especially because I wasn’t really ready for this one. The plan was to run the first five or six minutes of each mile, then walk fast to the mile marker, and average about 11-minute miles or so. With a couple of potty stops, that would result in a 5-hour finish. I thought this would be easy on the running muscles, so that I could finish the marathon without bonking or getting hurt. But the plan went slightly awry.

I went a little too fast in the beginning, or ran a little too much of the time, so there were miles in the 9-minute range and none over 11 minutes. Later that situation reversed itself! Anyway I finished in 4:41:30, better than hoped but feeling beat up. Quads, hip flexors, left foot (arch), and especially both calves. Those calves threatened to cramp up in the last three miles and did slow me a lot. But hey, it’s the 33rd marathon and 20th state - maybe the plan did work after all.

My sweeties ran the half marathon and finished well too - everyone's happy. It’s a masterpiece! More about this when there is more time to write.

Splits: 10:58, 10:41, 9:45, 10:27, 10:36, 9:45, 11:35, 19:02 (2 mi), 10:13, 10:03, 13:45 (potty stop), 7:48, (?!?), 10:38, 9:50, 10:30, 11:15, 9:28, 11:03, 11:36, 11:32, 10:01, 11:03, 12:02, 25:46 (2 mi), 2:10 (0.2 mi), total 4:41:30, pace 10:44.