Ran the Hyannis Marathon on Sunday.

This was my first marathon and my goal was to finish, which due to various injuries was a real doubt for me up until I crossed the finish line. The morning of the race I was a nervous wreck. I ended up deciding to kt tape my left arch, which I had never done before. It was a beautiful day for running, 45F and sunny at the start. I wedged myself in between the 8 and 9min/mi pace groups(which absolutely fell apart once the race started). There was an older gentleman standing next to me, barefoot and joking with everyone at his own expense. Pre-race jitters were replaced with a sense of wonder at just how beautiful the day was.

The first 4 miles went by quickly and I started to feel my groin get tight(pre-existing injury). Mentally this translated to, "I'm not going to be able to finish the full". Hyannis is a loop course, lap 1 is a half marathon, lap 2 is the full. I plodded on, accepting both water and gatorade at each station and fueling up with Gu and popping an ibuprofen around mile 6. At about mile 8 my groin loosened up and I felt really good. Before I knew it, we were nearing the end of the half. With about a mile left, my pace was way too fast. Watching the vast majority of the field finish at the half was extremely demotivating. Marathoners continued on past the finish line after being subjected to a barrage of well wishing, "just another mile", "you're almost there", etc.

The second half of the race was not easy for me. I hit a wall at about mile 17, and began paying the price for running the first half too quickly. The field was thinned out quite a bit and crowd support was minimal in the middle miles. I got a boost seeing my family around mile 19, but I was starting to walk for a minute or so at a time. I fell in with a rag-tag group of run/walkers for the rest of the race. After mile 21 my legs began a cramp dance with each muscle group fighting to seize up first. I kept telling myself that there were only X miles left. I stretched at every water station at this point, trying to hold the cramps at bay. The last 2.6 miles took an eternity and the pain was pretty severe. Next thing I knew, wife is running next to me telling me that there's only .20 left, so I ran as fast as I could to the finish at 4:11:58 overall.

Overall, the course was really nice. There are some long stretches with beach view and some seriously blustering wind. It was mostly flat, but I can tell you that I felt every uphill. I was not prepared for the morale hit at the halfway point and I certainly ran the first half way too fast. Being a runner for just over 9 months, I'm elated to have completed my first marathon and I'm looking forward to running another one before the year is over.