I made my way into the chute and shuffled towards the front. I gave Maura a kiss from over the mesh fence and watched the clock tick down. I felt eerily comfortable about things. Almost like this race was going to be a formality, which is a horribly cocky and insane thing for me to be thinking with my track record of marathons and longer races over the last few years. For God's sake, I had more bad races, than good ones at this point. Today could be a defining day. Either I'm on the come back trail, or I'm facing the fact that I was a long race liability. At least I'd be getting some exercise regardless.
The first few miles felt amazing. I did have a small side stich from cramming 1,200 calories in me within 45 minutes this morning, but that went away fairly quickly. My pace was around 6:45 for the first set of miles; faster than I wanted to, but nothing to concern myself with. I actually took my first pee break in a race ever, around mile 7, and that actually helped. I had less weight on me having lost some oz's and I was now at the pace I should have been at.
At the first turn there was no sign of.....anything really.....I was still pumping the breaks on myself. I felt fresh as a daisy. 10 miles in and I was really loving the crushed cinder as opposed to the asphalt. Just enough cushion but not too soft to impact my ability to keep the pace I was hoping for. I was with a group of about 7 guys, all also hoping for a sub-3hr day. By the halfway point, all had dropped back a bit except one, and he stuck with me for about 2 more miles before also dropping back. I wondered for a moment if I too should be a bit more conservative, but my cadence felt right and I was trusting my body today. 3 of my training runs were 20 or more miles, and all of them went really well, so I knew I could trust myself.
We crossed over the road we'd come in on and headed down the other side of the trail, where many of the half marathoners were coming up out of. It was mostly down hill, and my mile splits reflected it. I was catching other marathoners, and getting to cheer on the half-ers as they passsed going back "up".
I say "up" because I was slightly worried about coming back up based on the elevation profile, and the fact that many of the past runners I stalked previously had suffered in this section. Not me, not today. At that turn, mile 19, I was at an overall pace of 6:42, 8 sec ahead of where I was targeting. As long as I didn't fly too close to the sun, I knew I could my dynasty for the day. Dynasty was what I had decided I was calling it I got my "PR, BQ, Sub 3hr time". They had a big bell at the finish you got to ring if you had a PR or BQ, and for some reason I became obsessed with the idea of ringing that SOB 3 times at the finish.
My pace never even moved on the way back "up" I kept waiting and waiting for it to suck.....never happened. I just kept reeling ppl in. When I got to the main road it was just about 2 miles to the finish. 6:41 pace and it was just half-ers and crashed marathoners along the way. I offered encouragement to both, who graciously reciprocated. I've been that person walking it on home. I just wasn't going to be him today. I wanted to give a little push because I was so excited but I was still actually scared I would cramp up if I did. I had time, but I wasn't chancing anything.
Rounding the corner back into the park, I started yelling "get that bell ready" and I let out whatever I had left. I gave the crowd a "let's hear it" wave of the arms and I let out a warrior-esque yell as I crossed the finish, arms pumping, and the weight of any doubt falling off of me. I heard Maura screaming as she ran up to the fence to meet me. It was so awesome to see her at the end, and I was so happy to share the moment with her. She snuck around the fence to meet me while I rang that damn bell I'd be thinking about all day.
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