Well, it's finally over and, alas, I came up short. I crossed the line at Disney in 2:48:21, which means that the 2:40 barrier is still standing strong. I think I ran a relatively smart race and I know that I put in as much comprehensive training as a working stiff can, but the biggest spoiler for the day was the weather: sunny and temp's in the lower to mid-70's. Yikes! When I started sweating at the 4-mile mark I knew that a sub-2:40 would be a super-long shot. So the 2:40 barrier remains, at least until I take another serious crack at it in the fall.
Fortunately, that's ALL the bad news! The good news is that 2:48, despite the fact that it's over 2:40, is still a darn good time, at least in my book. In fact, it's my second-fastest marathon time ever and only the second time that I've broken 2:50. I also went home with the top Connecticut-finisher honors, a solid 6th in my age group and 32nd place out of 15,000. Geez, it's too bad my percentile in college and law school weren't that high!
Besides the race results, Sattler and I had a ton of fun and ended up with plenty of time to relax away from the kids and careers (although we spent no less than 35% of our time in Florida pecking away at our darn Treo's). Before race day we strolled around Downtown Disney, chowed down at ESPN Zone at Disney's Boardwalk and tackled some rather harrowing rides at Universal Studios. We also splashed around in the hotel's pool and hot tub and had the pleasure of having an entire crew of Hooter's waitresses insist on having a picture taken with each of us (or something like that). A full photo album of our trip is in the works!
Hand's down, the biggest bummers of the trip were (a) Sattler couldn't race because of a partially-torn Achilles tendon, (b) our plane ride home was delayed by 3.5 hours due to maintenance issues, and (c) we were absolutely incapable of finding our car in a parking lot that had more than 12 other cars in it.
My deepest thanks to Sattler who provided all-star support crew services and saved me from having to fret over any of the trip's details. And a HUGE congrats to Jay's sister and brother-in-law! Lez managed to conquer her first half marathon and Wayne finished his first marathon despite the fact that Pop-Tarts were his main pre-race food item.
I was doing the "Disney Shuffle" all through the airports yesterday, but the muscles and tendons are already feeling better today.
And a good thing too, because there are only 96 training days 'til Boston!!!
Congratulations! Fantastic run! I was wondering if the weather would play, kinda hard to train in Conn. for a race in Fla.
I am sure you break the 2:40 barrier!
Posted by: Mark Zimmerman | January 12, 2009 at 07:46 PM