What Happen ??

Man was it a tuff day. For all who where there you know what I am talking about. Everything a marathon runner does not want to happen on race day. It was hot, humid, and hellish. My plan going into the race at the start of the week was to try and run 6:30's to start then pick it up after halfway or so. As race week got closer and the weather was changing I knew I had to change as well. So then I thought maybe 6:40 pace might be better. Well one half mile into it I knew what ever pace I was going to be doomed. I still was running 6:30ish to 6:45 pace. I felt pretty good but not great. As I got closer to half marathon I first saw my friend Mark Evans in the "drop zone". Was it a sign up what was to come for me ? I figured I was not going to drop since I have never dropped from a road race, but it could get real ugly. As I got close to 14 miles the wheels where coming off FAST. At this point I saw my mom and asked "how far Sonya was behind me"? She said like 2 min's or so. Then the question became in my head of do I wait for her and try to help her or do I keep pushing on ? I decided to try something in the middle. I would slow down and try to rest up and then run strong with her. Sonya caught up to me at like 16.5 miles or so. Let's just saw I think we ran like 2 miles together then I was off the back like a bad habit. As shitty as I felt I was very proud of how strong she was running in warm weather, something she does not like very much. So as I made my way to the finish line down good old Summit avenue all I could think about was how this used to be my road during all those days working at the Runners' Edge. It was sad and happy all at the same time. In the end I was left feeling empty but super happy for Sonya who was 20th overall woman and 5th in the USA masters championship !!! Thanks to all who came out and cheered for all of us runners, it helps.

Miles for the day= 26.2 hellish ones