2009 Okinawa City Marathon

My knee was in pretty good shape leading up to the marathon yesterday. I was confident I'd complete it and sure I could even push myself. But I also knew that my training was not top-notch, so I couldn't be expecting a new PR (personal record).

Slept well, had as good a morning as can be expected in terms of preparations. Was at the course and checked in a little after 8am. Did minimal stretching, a lot of peeing, and was in place with 6 minutes to go. I was kinda fast last year so I was seeded high (though not in the 'elite' group) and placed closed to the start line.

Start was uneventful except I knew the pace out of the gate was a bit fast. But I didn't have a game plan for this marathon so I just went along with it. First 5k was 23:23. 10k was 46.29. I stopped looking at my watch at this point because I knew I was running fast but I also knew I was feeling good and I didn't want to overthink it by tracking my splits. I will think a marathon to death if I keep track of my pace. Instead I opted for a new strategy: run at a comfortable pace until it hurts, then keep running until the finish. This differs from my previous strategy: run at a planned pace until I expect it to hurt (32k), then fight to the finish.

The other bit to my strategy was to write down all the hills on the back of my hand: 10k, 26k, 32k, 36k, 38k. The last two were only slight 'ups' on the elevation map, but they gave me something to plan for. Fighting through the last 6-8-10k can be utter misery if your mind gets overtaken by the pain. I have found that giving myself short-term goals to occupy my mind helps a lot.

And it mostly worked. Last year's marathon was miserable for the last 8k. This year was much more doable.

I finished in 3:27.59. That's the official time. My chip time - more like my actual time - was 3:27.45. My time at the halfway point was 1:39.29. (Last year's halfway time was 1:39.21 - how's that for consistency?) I knew I was on a good pace and I thought I was in the 3:30 range, so it was a slightly pleasant surprise to be in the 3:20's. Only six minutes off my PR with what I think was a weak training season.

[You can see that desirable gray weather we had from start to finish.
It was warm, but we lacked direct sun.]

[My mind is an utter mess at this point. As is my hair.]

My friends Nancy and Eri (photo credits) were there for me at the finish, thankfully. They helped me sort out the great life challenges at that point like where to put my certificate and how to get water.

[Yaki-niku was a great, great idea (mine) for dinner. おいしかった！(delicious!)]

I'll post more detailed numbers from the race tomorrow.