Running race 4:05:26 [5] 26.2 mi (9:22 / mi)
weight:172lbs shoes: Asics Gel Kahana May 08
Buffalo Marathon. A personal worst, by quite a bit!! Very definitely hit the wall ... not sure why. May have gone out a little too fast but really not excessively fast, based on my time in last September's Rochester Marathon (where I averaged 8:55/mile for the race).
My average pace from the start to mile 17 was 8:57/mile. My average pace from mile 17 to the end of the race was 10:06/mile. My slowest mile (mile 22) was 11:04 (most of the miles from 17 on included some significant walking stretches.) Classic case of hitting the wall.
Definitely my slowest and least pleasant marathon ever. The frustrating thing is that I really don't know the cause. The weather was quite nice -- ranged from around 50 at the start to 60 at the finish. I thought I had trained pretty well, tapered OK, and eaten sensible foods in the days before, and the morning of, the race. Guess it's just one of those things ... some days, it's not your day.
I placed 351st out of 710 finishers overall; 16th out of 37 in my age group; 263rd out of 480 males.
Saw Walt and Patty as we were walking to the start (actually jogging slowly, we were running late due to long lines at the bathrooms ...), and saw Walt again around the 12 mile mark, heard him give some encouragement to me.
On a positive note, Anne did real well. Her time in the Rochester Marathon was 4:49:28; in the Buffalo Marathon, she ran around 4:29:36, nearly 20 minutes (about 45 seconds per mile!) faster!