Air Force Marathon- Great experience traveling with the team and seeing Ohio for the first time. Confusion with my ticketing took me to Columbus instead of Dayton. I was pissed, to say the least. However we were able to secure a great rental car deal (thanks to Kens wife) on a little red impala with 51 miles. The reservation was for Dayton but I was able to transfer it to Columbus and then haul butt to Dayton to pick up Ken who I assumed would be waiting for me at the airport by then. His flight was delayed 2 hrs in Atlanta anyway so it ended up being me doing the waiting, and to further complicate the issue, he does not believe in cell phones. The others flew in on Friday, and some of us toured the course together. Ken and I took a trip to Cincinatti to exchange his flats, that being the closest location that carried the Brooks T6 in his size (sweet little running store in the basement of an older downtown section. Spoke with a sales rep that was a 1:04 half marathon, finishing 11th in the half championships in Houston, we never caught his name). I felt great the night before but after the fighters flew over and the gun went off the next morning I slipped in with the 3:10 pace carrying 14 gels and 8 oz of gatorade/5 hr energy (did not agree with me) and felt comfortable for a few miles until gradually falling off the back. Given the great weather and the fact that it was the first time in a long while that I was not running in 90% humidity, I skimped on my water and soon paid the price (and given that I felt so bad so early, I must have started the day at least slightly dehydrated). I have never gone that deep mentally in a race before. I cleared my watch at about mile 12 so as to not temp myself to look and have a further negative impact. I had to dig deep just to make the finish line so I am happy with the effort. There was a section of the course that actually went up onto the freeway overpass with a nice view of the area. The course also took a route onto the flight line and back around through a cool shaded back road for a few miles. Hills to start and finish but mostly flat throught the middle. Severe cramping hit around 20, prefaced by about 8 miles of sluggish jogging. As we entered the base for the final mile, one of the security guards tried to pull me off the course after a hard cramp hit me up the left hamstring. I convinced him to let me continue however a medic hung with me on a bike as I continued on. I definitely gave it my all. After crossing the line a medic took me aside and helped rub out the cramps. I jumped into one of the bottled water ice troughs then again to the medic tent. I couldn't keep from shouting out when the cramping hit hard so the need to ask for assistance was not nessesary, they were coming to me. I was in alot pain but elated with the effort.
Lessons learned-
1-Leading up to the run, water in hand/focus on fluid during race
2-3 gels to startline
3-Stay within myself
3 gels/water, warm-ups
Pre-race run through-
9 relaxed w aid station
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