This morning, I ran the Sacramento California International marathon. This was my second marathon after the Rock’n roll marathon I ran in San Diego in June earlier this year.
The official results are up and I did it in 3:29:35 (my watch said 3:29:39 but then, it also said I ran 26.44 miles). That is 6 minutes 24 seconds faster than San Diego :).
Race conditions were pretty good except maybe for the weather. 38F at the start and never more than 46F with a heavy layer of… pollution?. I wore long sleeves, a cap and gloves for the whole race and I was still cold at time. It did not prevent some other people to run shirt-less. Go figure!
My race went well. I had a good tempo that I managed to maintain for the whole race. I ran the first 1/2 of the race in 1:45 and the second part in 1:44:39. I had decided to run with the 3:30 pace group so that helped a bit but the truth is that 2 pit stops (at mile 4 and 15) made me loose the group twice. If you add the fact that I could not get close to the pace leader at the start, I had to catch-up with the group three times. I managed to do it twice, but the third time, I never saw the group again.
The last 5 miles were hard as expected. Good thing is that I did not hit the wall this time. I managed to maintain my pace through and did not walk. It was a huge mental fight. I managed to push myself by dedicating these miles to people that are important to me and saying I was running hard for them.
A lot of great things come out of this race. I managed my pace well, I did not walk, I had adequate clothes, I ran in less than 3:30. One thing I still have to work on is nutrition and liquid intake. Having to stop twice to the bathroom is not good.
This was also my 4th and last race this year. In addition to these 2 marathons, I also ran the 10 Mile Cherry Blossom in Washington DC in April and the San Jose Rock’n roll 1/2 marathon in October. I will take it easy on the running for the rest of the month. All in all, I think I have run over 1000 miles this year. At an average of 8 minutes a mile, that represents over 133 hours on the road :).
Looking forward, my main running goal is still to qualify for Boston. And to do that, I need to complete a certified marathon in less than 3:10:59. I am still far but I think I can make it. My current thought is to concentrate on 1/2 marathons for the first half of next year with the idea of running one in 1:30 or less. I still have to plan things out so we will see what I decide on doing at the end.
