I ran in the Marine Corps Marathon on Sunday. My initial goal when I signed up back in the spring was 3 hours 45 minutes and a few weeks ago I revised it to 3 hours 35 minutes. Before running it this year, my most recent official marathon time was 4 hours 55 minutes (MCM in 2010) and my personal record was 3 hours 55 minutes (Detroit Free Press Marathon in 2009). My 2010 time was so bad for a variety of reasons, but the three most significant were:
- My daughter was born just a few weeks prior so all my running (and much of my regular sleeping) basically stopped
- On the morning of the marathon I overslept massively and didn't get to do any of my normal warm-up and morning of routine
- I was quite hungover
Well, I drank a beer or several each day I was in DC this time around, but not as late at night and not to such excesses as my last time around. I also remembered to get a wake up call for my hotel room and didn't rely on the strange clock radio. I showed up plenty early for the race and kicked butt. 3 hours, 34 minutes, 12 seconds. I had considered pushing myself with either 5k or 10k left but at both points I felt good and was in a great groove so didn't want to risk it and decided to keep a nice even pace throughout.
I'm going to look for a marathon to run somewhere in the Midwest (or maybe Ontario) in the spring and am planning on maybe the Air Force Marathon in September in Dayton.