Marathon PR

Today was the Tobacco Road Marathon, a race I had been anxiously awaiting since my "swine flu" marathon back in November (North Central Trail Marathon). I had told everyone my goal was to shave an hour off my North Central time of 4:52, but I realized that was a little ambitious. Still, I was hoping was around 3:55, as I was confident I could run at least a 9 min-mile pace or faster. But I am happy with my time of 3:58:38, a PR by 59 seconds, I think (can't find my 2007 Columbus Marathon time online and if I try to retrieve my box of race stuff from under the bed I'm pretty sure I won't be able to get up off the floor). I came in 8th in my age group, which sounds kinda good when I say it (though there were only 33 women in the 30-34 age group). A couple of friends snapped pictures of me, so perhaps they'll send them along and I can post them (or more likely delete them, b/c I was struggling at those points!). This was my 9th marathon, 6th road marathon (I count North Central Trail Marathon as road), but only my 2nd time under 4:00.

I don't think I could have done this without the encouragement of the 4:00 pace group leader whose name may be Dan or Ben based on the gun time results. He was the best, and when I was chatting with him at the end and mentioned how I PRed he commented on the heat and said that it was a "tough day to try to PR". I actually hadn't noticed it being too warm (but it was in the mid-60s by the finish), but thanks, I'll take that as an excuse and explanation for how I've not reached my full potential!

But I think a key reason I wasn't as fast as I could've been was that my mile splits were ALL OVER THE FRICKIN PLACE! I really was trying to maintain an even pace, beginning around a 9:10 pace and then gradually speeding up to my goal pace of 8:51. I ran with the 4:00 pace group at the beginning so I wouldn't start out too fast, but they started out too fast! I stayed with them for about 4-5 miles before Dan or Ben advised me to speed up if I wanted to make my 3:52 goal. It was at mile 23 where his group caught up to me, but yay, I managed to not let them pass me. So here are my CRAZY splits:

Miles 1-2 - 17:56 (missed miler marker 1, was shocked to see 4:00 group pass me)
Mile 3 - 9:03
Mile 4 - 9:08
Mile 5 - 9:23
Mile 6 - 8:49
Mile 7 - 8:55
Mile 8 - 9:03
Mile 9 - 8:50
Mile 10 - 8:46
Mile 11 - 8:39
Mile 12 - 9:06
Mile 13 - 9:04
Mile 14 -8:32
Mile 15 - 8:59
Mile 16 - 8:48
Mile 17 - 9:11
Mile 18 - 8:39
Mile 19 - 9:35
Mile 20 - 9:05
Mile 21 - 9:37
Mile 22 - 9:21
Mile 23 - 9:54
Mile 24 - 9:48
Mile 25 - 8:53 (thanks Ben or Dan!)
Mile 26 - 9:29
Mile 0.2 - 1:53

Up until now I've been resistant to fancy gadgets, but now I'm reconsidering. If I want to improve my marathon, I need to learn to run at a consistent pace, and perhaps some Garmin Whatever will help me do that.