2014 PORTLAND MARATHON REFLECTIONS

Another Portland Marathon is in the books. While I wish I would have ran it differently, mostly not following that "3:25" pace group, what's done is done, and what's done is something to be proud of! A 3:33 marathon is pretty dang good and in the top 10% of finishers. I finished in 821st place last year and 520th place this year. So up 300 places in overall finish! All that despite being only 3.5 minutes quicker, telling me it was a much rougher year for most everyone due to the warmer weather.

I was really nervous before this race and was almost kind of dreading it. I want to write to future Thomas so he can look back and calm himself before future marathons... it's not that bad and nothing to be afraid of. Yes, it is a long ways and takes a while, but you can totally do it and even if the shit hits the fan, you will persevere and finish and it will all be worth it. Honestly, marathons are nothing to fear. The pain yesterday during the race wasn't much worse, if any, than the tail end of most twenty mile runs.

Haha, oops.

Given some time to ponder the race, I didn't fall apart as much as I thought on race day. Aside from an extended stroll through a mile 21 aid station (right after my first cramp) I didn't walk at all until the bottom of the hill at mile 23. I walked twice during that mile, but by mile 24 I was running and didn't stop again. So all told I think I walked maybe 90 seconds. That's pretty fucking good. Now, toward the end I wasn't running very fast, but in marathon breakdown terms, that was very minor.

Most my time was given back on those final three miles. They were each almost two minutes slower than they needed to be, meaning I gave back six minutes at the end. Had I held it together at 8:10s like I was during the "early 20s" I would have finished around 3:28, 3:29. I think with the right race and my current fitness that is probably about the best I could achieve, maybe a minute or two less on the perfect course on the perfect day.

It's over! At last!

Overall, I am pretty proud of the race I ran. The only thing that sucks is that I trained pretty well this summer and all that got me was a 2 second PR. However, you have to take the long view... I became a much better runner in that period. I just set a new 5k PR and I am a faster runner than last year. Had I ran the Vancouver course with the same weather as in May last Sunday I think I would have achieved a sub 3:30. So just gotta keep on chugging along to the next one.

If there were another local marathon happening in the next few weeks I think I would sign up. I even checked today, but the only marathon is the Columbia Gorge Marathon and that has some sizable hills... not something I am going to PR on. Anything else would require a long car ride and hotel, and I'm not that eager to go run another one. While I wasn't sure during/right after Portland that I wanted to do another spring marathon, I think I will for sure now. It'll keep me motivated during the winter and I'll take another crack at that sub 3:30 sooner rather than later.