Air Force Marathon

Race: Air Force Marathon
Date: September 19, 2015
Location: Dayton, OH
Time: 4:54.47
Overall Rank: X out of XX
Age Group Rank: 99 out of 183
Results: http:

This was my first full marathon. It was enjoyable enough that I think I’ll do a marathon again. I am so relieved! My main goal was to simply finish all 26.2 miles, but I did have a finish time in mind: 4:30:00. My actual performance was 4:54:47. I’m still very happy with this. Here’s the run-down:

Miles 0-3: I ran with Kendra. She was completing her first 10K race at the same time as my first marathon. Our routes followed the same path for the first 3 miles, so we ran together. I loved it. I am so happy to be her step-dad. Meanwhile, I felt strong on the first and only big hill of the route.

Mile 1: A man passed us by and apologized for drafting off my calves. He is not the first to tell me I have big calves. I took it as a compliment and ran a little stronger for the next half mile.

Mile 4: Another man asked me where my younger companion was. I explained Kendra was doing the 10K and her mom was doing the half-marathon. I was proud of my athlete family.

Miles 5-6: A smaller hill to climb. Others were saying “oh no, not another hill,” and I was thinking “I’ve trained in Pittsburgh; I’ve got this!”

Mile 6: I was running at a 9:48 mile/min pace, which was 3.5% faster than the median runner (male, female, young, old). In other words, I was running just above the average of 2,156 marathon participants.

Miles 7-13: There are official pace runners who hold signs telling others what time they intend to be finished with the race. I started the race with the 4:30 pace runner but steadily gained on the ones ahead of her. It was at mile 7 that I came up behind the 3:55 pace runner I decided to slow down and run with her (and a bunch of others doing the same thing). She was chatty and optimistic and doing a great job of keeping people in good mental and physical condition. I did begin to tire of hearing her say “don’t forget to hydrate!” after the 47th time.

Miles 8-10: These were the most fun miles because the course ran down the main street of the town of Fairborn, Ohio. Lots of people cheered us on, including lots of kids holding signs that read: “Touch here for power!” I made an effort to touch every one of those signs and high-five everyone who held their hand out. This energized me. I also felt very safe, given that snipers were on rooftops and giant snow plows were positioned at crossroads to keep terrorists from entering the town. Gees!

Mile 13: I was running at a 9:54 mile/min pace, which was 7.5% faster than the median runner . In other words, I was running slightly slower than before, but a little faster than average; everyone was slowing down, but I was slowing down less. And I was starting to feel it. It was becoming hard work to keep up with the 3:55 pace runner and I decided at mile 12 that I would ease off the gas at the half-way mark (13.1 miles). The chatty woman’s conversation faded into the distance as I drifted farther back.

Miles 14-16: I was starting to feel fatigued. I had been going too fast early in the race and now I was paying for it. (I do this on every race!). On my long training runs during the previous weeks, I had always found it necessary to walk after some distance past mile 14. I wanted to run the entire 26.2 miles today, but I knew that was unlikely based on past performance. I reasoned with myself that I should be able to do at least another 5K past the half-way point. So I went on, passing a surprising number of people who had started to walk at this point, including a striped-shirted young man who has sped past me at mile 6.

Mile 17: This was the point where I had given myself permission to start walking, but I felt I had another mile in me. I kept running.

Miles 18-20: At mile 18 I stopped to walk for 2 minutes. I was not out of breath. My heart rate was elevated but not abnormally so. I was well-hydrated. I was eating energy gels, bananas, and Stinger waffles, but still hungry…in fact, very hungry. I frankly don’t remember why I needed to stop running and walk for two minutes. Maybe it was the knowledge that I had 8 miles to go (uggh!). Or maybe it was the pain in my left foot that was getting progressively worse with every step. Regardless, I walked for 2 minutes and then started again. The first few running steps after walking were painful throughout my legs. It felt like a sputtering engine trying to get started again after months of inactivity.

Miles 21-22: At mile 21 I stopped running and walked another 2 minutes. I should have been thinking how close I was to the finish line (5 miles isn’t that much, relatively speaking), but instead, I calculated in my head how much time it would take to cover the distance (possibly more than an hour! Uggh). At this point I was running at a 10:37 mile/min pace, which was 8.8% faster than the median runner. In other words, I was running a lot slower now due to the walking intervals, but still faster than average; most runners were integrating walking segments into their runs, and I was doing so a little less than average.

Miles 23-24: At the mile 23 marker I stopped to walk for 4 minutes. At mile marker 24 I stopped to walk for 5 minutes. People were dropping like flies. They were stopping to stretch, walk, and commiserate. A husband told his wife “You beat me. I won’t make it. I’m sorry.” Another person lay on the ground, completely beaten. The stripe-shirt guy and I were alternately passing one another as he would start walking while I ran past, and then he would pass me when I stopped to walk. It was hard to keep happy at this point.

Mile 25: At this point my leg muscles (calves, thighs) were starting to cramp and I lost flexibility in my stride. I was barely running. At least in my mind, I was running for 5 minute periods and then stopping to walk for 5 minutes. Maybe my body was going at the same speed during my walk and run segments, but I was somehow proud of myself for at least attempting to run each time. I remember Kendra had told me to start running before the finish line to give the impression I was still going strong. Fortunately, when I saw Shannan, Shannan’s dad, and Kendra alongside the course before the mile 26 marker I was in the midst of my 5-min running segments. I smiled at them as I “ran” past. My body was really hurting, but it doesn’t take much effort to smile. My mind was still calm and collected.

Mile 26: I knew I had made it when I got to the Mile 26 marker. The finish line was in view and there was just 0.2 miles left. I was “running,” but this amounted to just a shuffling of cramped-up legs. Emotions hit me and I became aware of great pains in my body. I muttered aloud to myself “Ignore it! Ignore it!” I started to get tears in my eyes and as I tried to hold them back, the angst had to go somewhere and it lodged in my lungs, causing me to have the most serious bout of asthma I ever remember having in adulthood. At the finish line, I was not looking for Shannan. Instead, I was looking for a medic to help me breath. But then Shannan was there with a great smile and my asthma disappeared as quickly as it appeared. Emotions are such a strange thing, so integrated with the body’s physiology!

Finished! I finished in 4:54:47 with a pace of 11:16 min/mile. This was 4.9% faster than the average runner, but 5.1% slower than the average male in the 40-44 age group (I ranked 99 out of 183). All things considered, this was a great first attempt and I now have a personal best to try to break the next time.