I haven’t really stopped thinking about those 12 minutes since Sunday afternoon. You know, the twelve minutes between my goal and my marathon time. The twelve minutes that made me cry Sunday afternoon. They’ve been rattling and rooting around in my head and I’ve been rehashing and rehashing the marathon over and over.
First of all, I knew that 4:15 was a really ambitious goal for me. My PB for a half was 2:05 (twice), so an extra ten minutes for an extra 21k is a stretch.
I’ve come to the conclusion that two things affected my race.
1) I didn’t speed train. Enough, or at all, really. I did for about a month in March, but not since. My knee started twinging at 25k and I haven’t had an IT band issue since the Hypothermic Half in February. Both incidents were out of the blue, and both were races. Meaning I was running faster than my body was used to. I think the two are connected. Knee pain cost me about five minutes I’d say.
2) I don’t think I respected the distance enough. I mean, I “remembered” that marathons were hard, but I’m such a different runner now than I was 20 months ago during my first marathon. I’m stronger, physically and mentally. I worked with a personal trainer all winter, I didn’t really have any overly difficult or painful training runs. I think I got a little smug. I thought it wouldn’t be as bad as last time/didn’t truly remember what last time felt like.
Steve and I sat on our porch last night watching the trees blow in the wind talking about goals. He said that if you meet your goal the first time you try, it wasn’t ambitious enough. I’m not sure that I agree with that 100%, because it comes down to long-term and short-term goals.
I could never run another marathon and feel like I’ve earned a “good enough” time. Except that I didn’t. Because what I really wanted, I didn’t get.
It’s bittersweet, I guess, because the high of a great PB is dampened by those 12 minutes.
So, yes, there will be another one. I’ve been eyeballing a couple different races for a few months now. PEI. Tofino. I don’t know when, but I know that the siren call of the marathon, of those 12 minutes lost, will pull me in again.
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Don’t beat yourself up about it 4:27 is still a very decent finish for the distance! Every marathon is different and they all teach you something new. You’ll get your goal next time!
Beautifully written btw.
Your #2 absolutely nails what I have been thinking about my own race. I missed my time goal widely (by roughly 1/2 an hour) with all the lost time coming in the last 12k.
Even though my all of training went well, when I hit the wall I just couldn’t get re-started. I think I took for granted that with my good training it would automatically go better this time.
I’m stumped about why my 1/2 marathon time doesn’t translate to the full distance but as a lot of friends have reminded me the marathon is a whole other beast, especially after 32k.
Regardless, training for and running a marathon is a major accomplishment no matter what the time. At least that is how I’m starting to talk myself into another one…
What about the 4 hours and 15 minutes of awesomeness?!!