Marathon Tips?

[sweetcell]

dropped 10 minutes off my time; I came in at 4:02:24, so I'm pretty happy about that. 

the course was actually 26.7 miles long, several people with GPS watches confirmed this.  so your 26.2 time was actually under 4:00.  congrats!

And given that SO much of it is a loop (literally a ton through Crystal City is just up and down the same street during the last 3 miles), it didn't really take your mind off how terrible your legs felt. 

on our way in to crystal city the classic rock cover band were at the outro guitar solo of "comfortably numb", on the way out they started "teenage wasteland".  totally worked for me, but yeah - that crystal city in-and-out sucked.  it's not like that area is particularly interesting to look at in the first place, and they subject runners to it twice?  thanks, organizers.

[vansmack]

"teenage wasteland"

Baba O'Reilly

[nkotb]

Looks like they're gone through 38% of the pictures and have started loading them to the site for purchase.  Thanks to those 6 photographers sitting in the middle of the course around the 18 mile mark or so (could've been much earlier), there seem to be some great shots of me almost running them over.

[ggw]

Two of the guys in that classic rock cover band live on my block. They were very happy to hear that you enjoyed them. Last year they were at Wisconsin and M. I told them that Crystal City was much better because everyone needs auditory motivation much more after mile 20 than after mile 3

[sweetcell]

definitely better at the 20.  also, they were at the top of the out-and-back in crystal city so we got to catch them twice - great positioning.  the missus was dreading the crystal city out-and-back, the music made it a tad more tolerable.  i was vaguely tempted to let her do the loop by herself while i hung out and listened to the band, and catch her on the way back from the loop.

but i decided the band wasn't worth sleeping on the couch for.  still, please give them a thumbs us from me.

[vansmack]

Just a quick thank you to everyone in this thread who passed on tips for running, especially ggw, nkotb, godsshoeshine, Rhett & Celeste, Mobius, Grotty and PigIron...I'm sure there are more.

I finished my first half marathon this weekend and used a lot of the information that was in this thread.

Thanks again,

Smackie

[walkonby]

what . . . none of my information was used?

[vansmack]

what . . . none of my information was used?

Well, I did run the whole time hoping to see someone crap themselves or get tripped by the water volunteers, but it ended up being a huge disappointment.

[James Ford]

Heads up to my fellow runners...Marine Corps Marathon registration started today. Last year it sold out in six days.


This is the 20 year anniversary of my first marathon (NYC, 1991). I thought about doing NYC this year, but since it's a bitch to get into and the entry fee is around $200, I plotted something different. To celebrate 20 years of marathon running, I'm going to attempt to complete two marathons in the month of October 2011.

[K8teebug]

Happy 20 year anniversary!  How is the Marine Corps?  Good luck on your goal!

[James Ford]

Thanks. I figured since I did a 23 mile training run last year, why not tack three miles onto the long training run and do two marathons?

What can I say? The Marine Corps is very hard (for me). Just like any other marathon.

[ggw]

What are the two?  Marine Corps and Chicago?

[James Ford]

A good guess, given my Chicago family connection. But I'm probably opting for the upstate New York family option, and going with the Mohawk-Hudson River Marathon the same weekend. Supposedly a very fast course that alot of people use to qualify for Boston. Though there's 0 chance of that happening for me.

What are the two?  Marines Corp and Chicago?

[K8teebug]

That sounds pretty.

[walkonby]

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3431444/Worlds-first-robot-marathon-begins.html


and they don't drink beer.