Lets write about getting to Little Rock. First up I have a hockey game late on Friday night at 11:30pm followed by a 5:45am flight out of DCA. I got home from hockey about 1amish, had to pack and then took a 1 hour nap. Why I booked a flight so early is beyond me but I did and because of that I got in Little Rock at a decent hour and was able to check out the Clinton Library. While I'm not a fan of the man personally it was still cool to see the library and see some of the good things he did as president.
Here a few pics of/from the library (or as the hotel shuttle bus driver called it a "trailer")
After the library it was time to head back to the hotel and take a nap.
Once I got to the hotel I got a beer at the hotel lobby, got up to my room and literally passed out (I awoke a little while later to find a half glass of warm beer). Once I got up from my nap I headed out for dinner and finally settled on Wasabi - Japanese food in Little Rock - yikes. It was actually pretty good. Got some gyoza and sushi along with three glasses of Riesling (I can not just have one glass of Riesling). (And then I ate two Double Tree Hotel Chocolate Chip Cookies after dinner). Following dinner I intended to get to bed early but that didn't go as planned. Wound up talking to a friend for what I think was close to three hours but the good thing was the race started at 8am so I had plenty of time to "sleep-in."
Race Day:
I wasn't too sure how this race was gonna go based upon past results/stress but leading up to this one I had run the most miles in a month w/o a marathon in 17 months and I got 100 miles in just 28 days (Feb). I was seated in the "A" corral which put me in front of most of the runners except the elites. While I didn't have a goal my corral had a time "qualifying" time of less than 3:20 so in a way that was my goal. In reality my goal was to run 26.2 miles not fall apart at mile 20 and then limp the final 6.2 miles home.
At 8am we were off and unlike marathons over the last nine months, I actually felt good right off the bat and maintained a near steady pace of 7:25ish for the first few miles. The first part of the course snaked through downtown Little Rock except for that jaunt into North Little Rock but by mile 8/9 we passed the governor's mansion and I could only think what took place beyond those walls when Bill was there. My pace was holding steady which was surprising me a bit but with enough positive thoughts in my head I was not gonna let anything negative creep into my mind. Got a little shot of beer around mile 9 but that wouldn't be the last beer for me on the course. Just short of mile 13 we ran by the Little Rock Central High School (link provided if you need a history refresher). It was totally unexpected and a very cool thing to see - kudos to the race director for adding that into the course!!
I hit the half way point around 1:39 which means I'm on pace for a 3:18. I've been near or at that times numerous times over the last nine months only to see 3:40+ finish times. Then suddenly it occurred to me, I could start counting the number of runners I was passing. This hadn't happened in a race in a long time. So I started counting the runners I was passing all the while - holding steady at a 7:33/4 pace (lots of bathroom breaks were slowing me down but it helped relieve the ab pain which by mile 15 was killing me).
Somewhere around mile 18/19 I hear footsteps and as this women passes me, she says, "I thought I was the only one who ran that!" It was the same woman I ran by around mile 10 and commented on her running style - identical to mine. We wound up running together for the next two+ miles talking about our weird running style (yeah - its that unique). At mile 21 I stopped to get some water and Jessica pulled away from me. She was trying to break 3:20 and set a PR so I knew I couldn't fall too far behind her. After the short drink break I got to running again and I felt really strong and was kinda excited about the last few miles of the course since they were kinda hilly.
Over the next few miles Jessica kept getting further and further ahead of me but I was on a steady 7:34 pace so I know I wasn't slowing down. As I approached the hills, I noticed Jessica getting closer and closer yet my pace was the same and I knew that I had a sub 3:20 in the bag even with the hills. At mile 25, ran into the hasher's beer check and had another little shot of beer - couldn't stay too long since I had a time to beat. As I crested the last hill somewhere around mile 25+ I was feeling pretty awesome (and passed Jessica at mile 26). I may not have been smiling on the outside (or maybe I was) but I was brimming with excitement on the inside.
I crossed the line at 3:18:44 nearly 30 minutes better than my last two marathons, best time since a PR of 3:12 in Burlington, VT last May. While it was not my best time it will rank up there as one of my best overall marathons. I finally ran a stress free race, had positive thoughts for 26.2 miles and all combined it contributed to a great race.
