Yo Adrian! I did it!

Well, I did it. I ran my fifth career marathon. That, right there, is just about all there was about the race that brought any sense of satisfaction for me. I've had a hard time feeling happy with this one.

I knew going in that this was going to be one of the harder marathons I took on. I had a handful of obstacles to overcome and I knew that realistically I probably wasn't ready to tackle a full 26.2 miles at a consistent pace.

Whether it was the old self-fulfilling prophecy or not, the race went just about exactly as I expected. I held strong for 9 miles, was still good through 13, was hanging in there through 16 miles... and then I fell apart. Utterly and completely fell apart. My body was done, and I still had 10 miles to go.

The course was beautiful and reminded me a lot of the Chicago course. There were a few sections that were more hilly than I anticipated, but that was hardly my worst problem in this race. The marathon and half marathon ran at the same time and at Mile 12 I was seriously considering dropping out at 13.1 miles, and trying to persuade them to give me a medal for the half and calling it a day.

Instead of turning right and calling it quits, though, I turned left and sucked it up. I ran the first half in roughly 1:49, and I remained on pace for about a 3:40-45 finish through the first 16 miles. After that, my body just couldn't keep up the pace. It felt like I was running hard and my watch showed I was averaging over 10 minutes per mile.

Once a PR was out of the question, I opted to listen to my body and ease to the finish line. I finished in 4:13:35. Depending on how you want to look at it, it was either my fourth-best marathon, or my second-worst. Off the top of my head, though, I think that might have been my fastest first half of any I have run so far. So, there's that.

Actually, thanks to archived results on the ol' internet, I just found all my first-half splits for my marathons. Here is how they rank, with final time in parentheses.

1:44:49 -- Tampa 2010 (3:43:43)
1:49:16 -- Philadelphia 2010 (4:13:35)
1:50:36 -- Chicago 2008 (4:22:22)
1:51:06 -- Chicago 2009 (4:09:04)
1:53:22 -- Disney 2009 (4:04:05)

So I had a fantastic first half and then a terrible second half this time around.

My unofficial splits, according to my watch, looked something like this: 8:17, 8:04, 7:50, 8:09, 8:10, 7:44, 7:51, 8:15, 7:50 (here comes the first wall), 8:48, 8:43, 8:27, 8:40 (here comes the second wall), 9:35, 8:59, 9:10 (And here comes the collapse), 9:57, 10:45, 10:17, 10:49, 11:23, 11:27, 11:46, 12:54, 12:10, 11:29, 3:26 for final .2 miles.

The end result brought on two thoughts: 1. Maybe I am built for, and should stick to, half marathons; 2. I need to run another full soon to put this one behind me. I might revert back to No. 1 later in life, but I'm not done with the marathons. I'm already giving serious thought to the Cleveland full in May, and I might plan on a fall marathon as well (Chicago again? NYC if I make it through the lottery?).

The best part about this marathon was meeting up with a few friends in Philly. I met up with a friend I've known through Twitter and we ran together for the first 8 miles before she bolted off and qualified for Boston with a 3:28. Another friend who I've talked running with on Facebook completed her first full marathon as well. Great accomplishments for both of them.

And, as bummed as I might be about certain aspects of this marathon, I'm proud to add a fifth medal to my display in my office. I'm also proud that I went through with this one even though I knew it was going to be tough sledding. I'm also happy that I turned left and kept on with the full when my body and mind both wanted to quit at the halfway mark.

On that note, I'm going to leave you with this, a photo of my swollen right foot from Monday morning!

... I warned ya.

~JB