New Hampshire Marathon

On Saturday morning, Sept. 29, I ran my first full marathon, the New Hampshire Marathon. I am very glad I ran it, I think it is a great accomplishment; but in all honesty it was one of the physically hardest things I have ever done in my whole life.

LEADING UP TO RACE - I had originally planned to run the Stowe Vermont Marathon in August, but it was cancelled in July (exact reasons never given, but probably a combination of not enough runners, bad organization, etc). I trained hard for the race; I was usually a bit under the weekly mileage totals but did almost all long runs, (most important). I had been doing (almost) weekly hill training to prepare for the Stowe Marathon, but I stopped hill training over summer for a few reasons- I should've kept it up- it would've helped in this race. I had a sore knee for a couple weeks leading up to race, and I also hurt my back on the Wedn. night before the race. Despite these minor setbacks I was overall in good shape and looking forward to the race.

NIGHT BEFORE, RACE MORNING- I ate lots of pasta and carbs the week leading up to the race to carbo load. The night before I ate pizza + bread at Bertucci's, and did not consume any alcoholic beverages. Got to bed nice and early at 10:15. Woke up at 5:45AM, washed up, hit road at 6:20. Got to race at 8:15, registered, stretched, tried to get psyched up mentally for the 9:00 start.


START AND FIRST FEW MILES- This was certainly a small race- the start was very small and disorganized - there wasn't even a national anthem played! I wasn't super put off by this, although it would have been nice. There were a couple guys next to me who were very disappointed in this however- ah well- what ya gonna do? It was a very small race, with my estimate at the time of 200 runners. The pack started pretty tight but spread out after a couple miles. After a few miles met a nice young guy named Tyler from Southern Connecticut, and I started running and talking to him for most of the race. Saw some '50 staters', some of whom were supposedly hitting their 50th state in that race (a 50 stater is someone who runs a marathon in every state- crazy!). I also saw a guy running barefoot- he had a bike guy next to him pacing him- again, sheer craziness. My question for him is- WHY?

FAST PACE AND SPLIT TIMING- I pushed a fast pace ~8:00/mile for first half of race- split time ~1:48- if kept up could've hit a 3:40 marathon. Tyler was training for an upcoming 50 mile race and this was just a 'training run' for him- YIKES! I should've known that I couldn't keep up with him. Lots of water stops along the way manned with very nice volunteers- many were old folks from local volunteer groups. Thank you to them! There were certainly lots of hills- more hill training would've helped me out! The scenery was really beautiful in this race. The race went around Newfound Lake with wonderful views. The weather was really perfect too- low 60s and dry with a light wind.


MILE 17 OR 18 - I started to lose energy around mile 17- told Tyler to take off at mile 18 as was slowing him down. He was being very nice and keeping with my pace, but I didn't want to slow him down, he obliged, and disapperead pretty quickly.

REST OF THE WAY- Hit 'the wall' and no energy the rest of the way. Despite very minor hills the rest of the way, it was very difficult and I walked a decent amount. When actually running, was pretty pathetic looking I'm sure. As my pace kept getting more and more pathetic, I kept recalculating in my mind if I could actually make 4 hrs. I was thinking, 'well I can walk for 3 minutes, then run a 10:00 pace for 1/2 mile, then walk for another minute, then run for another 1/2 mile, etc'. It was interesting, I wasn't tired in that I was about to collapse, I just had no energy left in my system. I kept trying to figure out in my mind how the heck I would finish the race with how little energy I had left. I think if I train for another marathon I need to try out 'GU' or another energy supplement and then use it during the race. Keeping up the mental fortitude to finish that last 8 or so miles and push myself to actually make 4 hrs. was incredibly difficult.

FINISH- Because I really wanted to break 4:00, I actually pushed myself to 'run' at a pretty decent pace for the last mile. I finished in 3:57:21, in 38th place out of 169. Tyler finished around 3:31 and apparently looked great; I did not look so great however. Tyler and his family stayed to watch my finish, which was very nice of them. I apparently looked very pale at the finish. As I had no energy at all left, I wolfed down lots of food, water, and gatorade that they served. There was this dorky guy giving out free samples of some energy drink type thing; it actually tasted pretty good, but right then my body was just craving calories and energy, so anything probably would've tasted good. This guy was such a dork- he was trying to give out free samples and interest people in getting information on his energy drink- I just nodded and drank it. There were free post race massages, but as the line was so long, and I am always weirded out by some random person I don't know rubbing me down all over my body, I skipped it. I showered at the school where the race was taking place, and it felt great. I met a guy in the locker room who was running another marathon the next day, the Keene, NH Marathon. This guy said he was running 9 marathons in about a month and a half. CRAZY!! Pasta, sprite, and beer in little restaurant (Bristol House of Pizza & Family Restaurant) across the street from the Middle School where race started, and it tasted great. Made the drive home to Somerville after lunch.

AFTERWARDS/AFTERTHOUGHTS- Glad I did it but very difficult. What I really liked about the race was how friendly and nice everyone was. During the race I talked to random people, people were giving lots of encouragement to other runners, cheering them on, etc. There were very few spectators along the race, but those that were actually cheering people on were very encouraging and enthusiastic. Of course there were those that had no idea a marathon was even taking place and gave blank stares of confusion as we ran by. The only thing that hurt after the race was my feet. I was a little bit sore the next day, but not really much at all. I am taking 2 weeks off from running (not really, as I ran a 5K race last weekend, but that's nothing compared to 26.2 miles!). My next long race will be a 1/2 marathon in February or the spring. I hope to compete in the New England Tri-State Half Marathon Series, which starts with the Hyannis Half Marathon in February, continues with the NH Big Lake Half Marathon in May, and finishes with the Portland, ME Half Marathon in October. If do another full marathon I want to train more, bring along some energy 'GU' or other energy stuff so I don't run out of energy like I did in this race! My next half marathon I want to dress funny - will put up the poll on this blog- options include Super-USA guy, Beer guy, Red Sox guy, Super Hero (Superman with cape?) over the top running guy (super tight stuff, headband, wrist bands, etc), any other ideas?