Sun October 31st - 6mi

Time of day 12:00 PM
Distance 6.00 mi
Duration 42:00 @ 7:00 min/mi
Shoe Adrenaline Gts 10 (16)
Temperature 62°F
Wind Light
Conditions Sunny and Dry
Intensity Easy
Overall Feeling Good
Comments Trials in RCP. Took the "strenuous" trail and did some rock climbing and gnarly trail running. Good pace.
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Thu October 28th - 10mi

Time of day 7:10 PM
Distance 10.00 mi
Duration 1:10:00 @ 7:00 min/mi
Shoe Adrenaline Gts 10 (16)
Comments Quick run with Tom Jones after work. Good pace, and finished hard up 14th street. Pain free!
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Tue October 26th - 10mi

Time of day 8:00 PM
Distance 10.00 mi
Duration 1:11:03 @ 7:06 min/mi
Shoe Adrenaline Gts 10 (16)
Temperature 71°F
Conditions Night
Intensity Easy
Overall Feeling Good
Comments good run after some macaroni and cheese, a genny creamer, and jeopardy. saw a fox down by sequoia on the georgetown waterfront. kind of warm out. lower left leg (above achilles, below calf - soleus maybe?) was still tight. right knee started to tighten up by about mile 9.5.
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Sun October 24th - 6mi

Time of day 10:00 AM
Distance 6.00 mi
Duration 41:54 @ 6:59 min/mi
Shoe Gel-ds Racer 7 (1)
Route Van Ness Loop
Temperature 62°F
Conditions Sunny and Dry
Intensity Easy
Overall Feeling Average
Comments First run since taking my planned two weeks off after the marathon (not including the race at UR last weekend). Calves were still a little sore, but not as bad as they were last weekend in Rochester. The soreness increased as the run went on, first starting in my lower left calf, then afflicting both calves equally by the end of the run. Nothing too major, though. Beautiful day to run.
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Sat October 16th - 7.971mi

Time of day 11:15 AM
Distance 4.97 mi
Duration 30:24 @ 6:06 min/mi
Shoe Zoom Waffle Xc 7 (Orang)
WUCD Shoe Adrenaline Gts 10 (16)
Distance WU/CD 3.00 mi
Comments Not a race by any means. This was the first time I've run since the day after the marathon when I ran/walked one mile. My calves and hamstrings were very tight on the warmup, and they didn't get any better for the race. The first mile felt OK, except that I fell around the 1k mark (5:31), but my calves tightened up quickly after that. In the second mile (6:04) I thought about calling it a day, but I decided to tough it out and finish. Mile three was 6:16, four was 6:38, and the last .97 mile was in 5:53. I pretty much spent the whole race shuffling along, since my calves were shredded. The course was soft and muddy, since it had been raining for two days before th e race, but the weather was great for the race itself.

It was great seeing everyone this weekend. Very fun trip to Rochester.
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Tue October 12th - 3mi

Distance 3.00 mi
Comments
Walked three miles total today. Each time I went out for a walk my legs loosened up a bit and my legs felt better.
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Mon October 11th - 1mi

Distance 1.00 mi
Shoe Adrenaline Gts 10 (16)
Comments Really rough run to Rite Aid and back. More like a hobble/walk.
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Sun October 10th - 29.219mi

More Photos Below

Time of day 7:30 AM

Distance 26.22 mi
Duration 2:49:42 @ 6:28 min/mi
Shoe Gel-ds Racer 7 (1)
WUCD Shoe Gel-ds Racer 7 (1)
Distance WU/CD 3.00 mi
Comments RACE DAY!

Woke up at 4:30am to eat a small bowl of honey nut cheerios, then went back to sleep for another hour, although I didn't really sleep at all. PMurph and I ran down to the start around 6:15am, dropped off our bags, and ran over to the meeting spot. I forgot my GU packets, so I had to run back to the baggage check area, which turned my 2 mile warmup into a 3 mile warmup. Around 7:00am we made our way to the starting corral.

The gun went off at 7:30am. I started in the elite development corral, so before the race started I was milling about next to people like Sammy Wanjiru (eventual winner and Beijing gold medalist). It was pretty cool, but I knew I had to make a conscious effort not to go out too hard. Despite that, I still went out a little too hard. For the first 15k I averaged sub-6:00 miles (see complete splits below). I felt good through the half marathon mark (1:19:26), and felt like I could keep it up for another half, possible slowing a little bit. Soon enough, though, I realized I was a little overambitious.

The pain started at mile 15. I could feel my hamstrings and calves tightening, and there was a sharp pain in my right ankle/Achilles tendon. It wasn't enough to slow me down, but it was significant. By this point, the temperature was rising into the 80s and the race alert level had been raised to yellow. The race also left the tall buildings of downtown Chicago behind and with them the shade that they offered. Thankfully there were a lot of water stations, and they started handing out cold sponges. During the water stops I would take a few sips of Gatorade, swish some around in my mouth and spit it out, then get a sip of water and dump the rest on my head to cool off. I ate GU packets at miles 0 (20 minutes before the start), 9, 17, and 20.

The last 10 miles were brutal. My pace slowed significantly as the temperatures rose, and the pain in my ankle did not go away. My pace dropped to 6:50 per mile, and eventually to over 7:00 per mile. I never blew up completely, luckily, and I had a decent time cushion from my first half. The thing that kept me motivated the most was running near Joan Benoit Samuelson (53-year-old who won the marathon 25 years ago), which I did for much of the race. Within the last 10 miles I caught up to Chris Sloan and Charlie Ban, who had passed me earlier in the race but who were having trouble with the heat.

I made it to the 25.2 mile mark and realized that I just had to pull out a sub-6:50 last mile to break 2:50:00, so I pushed myself hard to make it. I ran a 6:32 last mile to finish in 2:49:42, 311th place male, 67th place in my age group, and 360th place overall. Not an awful time for my debut marathon and considering the heat, but still about 9 minutes slower than I wanted to run. I can't blame it entirely on the heat, however, as my training leading up to the race was lackluster. I plan on running Boston in the spring, and I plan on training for a big PR there.

Splits:

Mile 1 - 5:58
Mile 2 - 5:50
Mile 3 - 5:57
Mile 4 - 5:58
Mile 5 - 5:56
Mile 6 - 5:56
Mile 7 - 5:59
Mile 8 - 6:02
Mile 9 - 6:05
Mile 10 - 6:06 (59:52)
Mile 11 - ?
Bathroom Break - 20 seconds
Mile 12 - ?
Mile 13 - ?

HALF - 1:19:26

Mile 14 - ?
Mile 15 - 6:31
Mile 16 - 6:48
Mile 17 - 6:50
Mile 18 - 7:04
Mile 19 - 7:08
Mile 20 - 6:42
Mile 21 - 6:56
Mile 22 - 6:52
Mile 23 - 7:18
Mile 24 - 7:25
Mile 25 - 7:01
Mile 26 - 6:38
Final .2 - 1:20

FINAL TIME - 2:49:42

05K 07:48:57AM 00:18:28 18:28 05:57 10.10
10K 08:07:25AM 00:36:56 18:28 05:57 10.09
15K 08:26:16AM 00:55:47 18:51 06:04 9.90
20K 08:45:41AM 01:15:12 19:25 06:15 9.60
HALF 08:49:55AM 01:19:26 04:14 06:14 9.65
25K 09:05:42AM 01:35:12 15:46 06:31 9.23
30K 09:27:20AM 01:56:50 21:38 06:58 8.62
35K 09:48:40AM 02:18:11 21:21 06:53 8.73
40K 10:11:12AM 02:40:42 22:31 07:15 8.28
Finish 10:20:11AM 02:49:42 09:00 06:36 9.10
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Credit: Billy Askey

Credit: Billy

Thanks, Billy!

Sat October 9th - 4mi

Time of day 9:00 AM
Distance 4.00 mi
Shoe Adrenaline Gts 10 (16)
Comments Easy run with the Chicago team in the morning. Started at the Chicago Tribune building and ran down the lake to check out the start/finish area. After the run I mostly lounged in the hotel room. We met up with everyone at Frankie's Scallopine, a restaurant that Dickson had been to before, for our pre-race meal. I ordered baked spaghetti, which came in a huge square block and was much too cheesy. I ate it anyway.
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Fri October 8th - 2mi

Distance 2.00 mi
Shoe Gel-ds Racer 7 (1)
Comments Ran out to Adams Morgan and back in the morning before heading to work for a half day. Flew to Chicago with PMurph and Mike Cotterell. We went to the race expo/packet pickup with Patrick Reaves once we landed.
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Thu October 7th - 5mi

Distance 5.00 mi
Shoe Gel-ds Racer 7 (1)
Comments Out and back to Wisco with PMurph after work. Ran in my racing shoes.
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Tue October 5th - 10mi

Time of day 7:00 PM
Distance 10.00 mi
Shoe Adrenaline Gts 10 (16)
Route Georgetown Loop
Comments Ran with Tom Jones after work. Good run. Finished with a slight surge in pace up 14th.
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Mon October 4th - 8mi

Time of day 9:00 AM
Distance 8.00 mi
Shoe Adrenaline Gts 10 (16)
Comments Faster 8 mile run around the gold course in Florid while visiting my grandparents. Played 18 holes of golf yesterday (got a birdie on one of the holes, otherwise played pretty poorly).
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Sat October 2nd - 5mi

Time of day 9:00 AM
Distance 5.00 mi
Shoe Adrenaline Gts 10 (16)
Comments Easy five miles around a golf course in Florida while visiting my grandparents.
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Thu September 30th - 8mi

Distance 8.00 mi
Shoe Adrenaline Gts 10 (16)
Route Georgetown Loop
Comments I can't remember if this is what I ran or not, but I'm pretty sure I did about 8 miles.
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