(no subject)

[alexr_rwx]

Graham cola_fan and Alex oniugnip: ultimate victorious in the Atlanta Marathon 2K6!

Finishing time: 4:18. Speedy!

It was a beautiful day, totally perfect weather. All the volunteers were super-nice, but more importantly, Lauryn yourusername and Martin samarin saw us off and Laura laurapatt was waiting for us at the finish line, totally taking pictures! Aw, thanks guys :) Also, thanks to everybody else who was supportive!

We went out too fast :) We said "let's not go out too fast." We hit the first mile at a bit slower than 9-minute pace, taking our own advice... and then sped up 'til we hit the halfway point at a ridiculously too-quick 1:54. We were like "oh man, let's break 4 hours!" ... eh, you live, you learn :) And your legs seize up a bit in the process.

But still! First marathon, not bad! :)

Comments

[lindseykuper]

Finishing time: 4:18. Speedy!

Wow! Fast! 23 minutes faster than my best time! And you finished together? That's awesome. Great job!

[oniugnip.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much :) You helped inspire our marathon-ing activities!

At one point, you'd said that it must suck to not plan your walk breaks, but to have to take them because your legs just stop working at a certain point; empirically, it sucks pretty hard! There was a guy that was going at about our pace for maybe two thirds of the race: running slightly faster than us, but we'd pass him when he took his walk breaks. And he totally left us as we broke down towards the end.

So next time -- I think I'll make sure to keep a steadier pace at the beginning, maybe plan my breaks... and bring more packets of Sport Beans (http://jellybelly.com/msib21/PromoSites/SportsBeans/SportBeans.html) to eat along the way! (Sport Beans are delicious of a billion)

[lindseykuper]

I'm still unsure what the best strategy is for taking breaks. You should plan some breaks, but not too many! I think I planned too many breaks for San Juan. Early on, I took my breaks whether I felt like it or not, and then later I decided to only take them if I needed them, and ended up skipping several. I feel like I would have finished faster if I had skipped one or two of those early breaks. But who knows?

Anyway, congratulations! Any chance you'd travel to the Pacific Northwest for a road race of some kind?

[oniugnip.livejournal.com]

*nods* On the other hand, taking a break before you need it might just get you through... a stitch in time, preventing one in your side? Not too many breaks is definitely good advice!

(The best option, I think, is just to be so hard that you can keep running the whole way :) )

That could be interesting, doing a race in your neighborhood sometime -- let me know when there's an awesome one coming up?