Im pleased to report I finished in a new personal record of 3:20. Immediately I felt very strong as I set out running, and I quickly hooked up with Arpan DeAngelo, veteran of 200 marathons in addition to the 3100 Mile Race, the longest Road Race in the world. There was a lot of people cheering Arpan on and I joked that I felt like one of his 'groupies'.
I ran with Arpan for the first seven miles and then I was running quite a lot with Larry from Houston until mile 21. In the first half of the race I was just trying to stay positive and not think about the inevitable suffering in the second half - why let the future take away the joy I'm having now, I told myself. I was trying to split up the race into parts so as not to make it seem to intimidating. We were running at a very consistent pace, 7:20 per mile. Until mile 21, that is. Then the wheels fell of the wagon a bit, I just didnt do enough long runs in training.
I had to fight very much the urge to start walking. I went on about 9 minutes per mile, determined not to give up. I was trying to thing of all kinds of enticements to continue, from the loftiest spiritual reasons (around this time I was repeating the mantra "I am not the body, I am the soul" quite frequently) to the promise that if I finished I could scoff all the m&m's from the food tray I wanted! Even in the last mile I just wanted to stop. But I kept on going and finished just as the clock turned 3:20.
Im not feeling too bad at the moment, Im a bit stiff but I can walk. However usually aster I sleep tonight things stiffen up a bit more so well see.