42.2 Km, 4:18:47, Partly Cloudy, 6°C, 12 km wind off Lake Washington
Well, it's official, I've run a marathon 3 times now.
I finished at 4 hrs, 18 minutes and 47 seconds ( the official clock says 4:19:27, but that is because it took me 40 seconds just to cross the Start line). That is a Personal Best (PB) for me and so much better than my last marathon in Red Deer.
I felt really strong the whole way. I wasn't at all "tired" aerobically. What gave out on me was my legs; I developed severe leg cramps 5 miles before the end of the marathon. The Seattle course has some killer hills at 19 miles. Soon after I hit the hills, my legs cramped up so much I had to stop and massage them. It got so bad in one place that I asked a volunteer to support me while I leaned on him and stretched. It was very painful. But I managed to keep going for the last 5 miles.
The weather for the marathon was really good for Seattle at this time of year. About 6°C, Partly cloudy although, there was a fairly strong wind off of Lake Washington.
One of my traveling partners was able to run roughly at my pace, so we decided to run together. It certainly is nice to have someone to run with. BonBon & I got off to a screaming start and by mile 4 had accumulated 4 minutes ahead of our target pace. We slowed down and were able to keep on pace for the next 11 miles. Then, around mile 15, we started to slip up a bit. When we reached the hills, I left BBS behind and thought I wouldn't see her until the end of the race.
To her great delight and my surprise, she caught up to me in the middle of the hilly section! We ran together for a while, but my cramps kept slowing me down and she left me behind. So she actually beat me!
That's OK, BBS, You certainly are a stronger runner than I am and if I didn't have those terrible cramps, we both would have finished together and had an awesome finish time.
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