I was almost in last place in the marathon

November 6, 2006

Well I am home, sore legs and all. I finished the marathon, in the blazing speed of 6 hours and 23 minutes. I was second to last, many of the people who beat me were older than me. The only person who was slower was some 13-year old kid.

Actually though I was told by the folks at mile 24 that there were a number of people still way behind me, which probably means the race officials just did not record their times. That seems kinda sad that those folks went thru the race and didn’t get an official time.

It was cold and wet, and the wet part is I think what did me in. I was actually cruising pretty well thru the first half, averaging about 5 miles per hour which is right in line with my training. But with the wet shoes and the wet socks, I suspect the cushioning was less than normal. Which is probably why the legs started to ache badly at mile 19, and by mile 20 I just had to stop running and walked the rest of the way.

The wet part also apparently suppressed the turnout. Because the race organizers said there were some 280 people signed up for the full marathon, and a couple times that many for the half-marathon. Yet there are only 145 recorded times for the full marathon. Yes that means I was 144th, the square of 12 in case you’re wondering.

So I averaged almost exactly 4 mph, while the winner of the marathon ran over twice that, nearly 9 mph. Still 4 mph for six-and-a-half hours is pretty good for me.

I”m never going to run a full marathon again but I’m thinking I might try some half-marathons in the future. But not soon, my legs are still sore and probably will be for at least another day.