2012 RocknRoll NOLA
Garmin Data, if you want to read along.
I know it gets said a million times here, but I could not have done this marathon without the group in this thread. I’m not sure if the achievement has really sunk in yet. I know years ago I thought about how cool it would be to actually run a marathon, but never gave it much thought. It seemed like a pretty unattainable goal. Big thanks to all the guys here.
On to the weekend, I had a terrible meal the night before. La Cote Brasserie. It was just terrible. Don’t go.
I was surprisingly relaxed the whole weekend, I usually get pretty wound up for things like this, but I managed to get a great night’s sleep.
The weather was perfect. I wondered around the corrals a bit seeing if I knew anyone, I even walked thru corral 2 to look for Sand…even though I would never recognized him. It got intimidating so I got the hell out of there.
The goal was 4:15, and that was solely based on the McMillan Pace calculator. I was hoping to maintain a 10 minute pace for the first 10 miles. Then to step it up a bit…what was I thinking?
Mile 1: 10:13 HR 135 Sea of people, I tried not to trip over anyone.
Miles 2-6 mostly the pace was in the 9:50’s HR was in the high 140’s (higher than I wanted it). This was thru a nice portion of Nola I wasn’t really familiar with. Despite dozens of Nola trips its always revolved around the Quarter and the Superdome. It was nice to see the old neighborhoods. The crowds were pretty massive still. At one point some dude shouted out, “hey, its Drew Brees!!!” and all the runners turned to look..no casualties, but it got dicey. Of course it wasn’t really him.
Mile 7: 9:35 HR 157. I didn’t realize I was going that fast, didn’t want too either. I got excited; I knew my wife was going to be along that mile.
Miles 8-10: got the pace back in the 9:50’s but the HR was still in the mid 150’s. I was hoping to still be in the 140’s for the first 10 miles. At this point it hit me that I had to take a leak, but all the porta-potties had lines.
Mile 11: 10:27 HR 158. I finally took a leak here. It was painful to watch my overall pace go from 9:52 to 10:00, but I guess that’s part of it.
Miles 12-13: Trying to make up time from the piss break I managed 9:34 and 9:43 here, HR 166, that can’t be good I thought. I would be lying if I said I didn’t find it just a little funny seeing all the half guys and girls dropping like flies here….just because I’ve been that guy that keeled over on mile 12. I was worried about my HR at this point.
Miles 14-15: Pace was 10:05, HR still 166. I was happy the HR didn’t spike much more after that. It went up from the mid 150s to the mid 160s in less than a mile. I was getting a little tired here, the spectators died down and the runners thinned out. It was kind of a lonely feeling.
Mile 16: 10:14 pace, HR 166. It started hurting here. It was funny there was one spectator with a sign that said, “if you’re feeling good now don’t worry it will pass.” He was right. I stopped trying to calculate in my head what pace I needed to be be at to finish at 4:15. I knew it was out of reach. My next goal was 4:30, just cause it’s a solid number.
Mile 17-21: my current pace went from 10:25 to 11:21, HR stayed around 165. This section was brutal to me. It had been nicely shaded streets the entire time. Now we were out on Lake Pontchartrain. No trees and a little windy. My goal here changed to either 5 hours or not quitting. I was hurting, and I wasn’t anticipating hurting like this.
Mile 22: 12 minutes. HR 161. I took another leak here, not because I had too but because I was looking for an excuse to stop for just a sec. Since mile 17 I had been walking thru the water stops. At this point I figured I could finish, but it was gonna be ugly. I stopped caring.
Miles 23-25: Pace was all over the place. 11:23, 11:24, 10:50. HR sill 165ish. I was ready for it to be over, can’t sugar coat it anymore. I was done. Somehow I looked at my watch and thought for the briefest of moments 4:30 was still within reach, but I could not get my legs moving a bit. It was all I had to maintain the pace I was at. I finally saw my wife again here; I even stopped and gave her a quick hug.
Mile 26: 10:59 HR 171. I tried to give it my all here because the photographers were everywhere! But 10:59 was it, I was toast.
I would do it again in a heartbeat, and I’m actually looking forward to it. I can honestly say it was tougher than I had imagined. The adrenaline didn’t carry me like I thought it would. My training wasn’t too intense either, and I knew that. I think I said here on more than one occasion it was never anything too taxing. Just enough to finish was the intent of the training program, I guess.
One day, when this addiction to long runs wears off, I'll get back to these days. Man I miss that stuff.
). BTW, I kept my rests to one minute.
I know what you mean.
Like jb said, I owe so much to this crew here. I almost feel indebted to you guys. I'm just trying to pay it forward with the new guys coming in.You're a friggin' maniac doubling up P90x plus your normal routines. 
So I pretty much wasn't in there until the last second. I did look at a lot of numbers hoping to see you, though.
Last January running a mile or two really hurt.Now I routinely am out there running 12+ on the weekends (16 mile longest run thus far) and am heading into my 3rd half marathon with another coming a month later and then setting focus to some 5ks this summer before hitting the marathon training for St. Jude.
