Marathons : Paul #10, Leah #1, State #1 : Boulder Marathon 2011
5th September 2011, Boulder, Colorado, USA
Finish Time = 4:55:08
This was our first marathon together (although we weren’t Marathon Pipers at the time!). We used this one as a long training run in preparation for the Chicago Marathon, by walking the first 4 miles at 15 min/mile pace and then running for 22.2 miles. It was still a tough race in the hot sun and also at high altitude. Although this was technically our first State, we weren’t thinking of running States at this stage and subsequently ran much faster races for CO which we’ve used for the official count.
Sun rising in the morning before the start of the race
Before the race – not a cloud in the sky
You’re doing so well!
One thing that was a little embarrassing was, as we mentioned, we planned to use this as a training run. We needed to do a long (21 mile) training run to bring Leah up to marathon fitness for her first one, so we figured why not enter an official race but walk the 5.2 miles that we don’t need to run. The plan was to walk the first 4, run 21 and walk the last 1.2. Sounds good in theory. So the race starts off and we start walking. It would have worked in a larger race where you often do have walkers but in this one everyone set off running. We were literally the last people, just walking along. We knew we’d catch a lot of people up anyway, and ultimately still finish ahead of a lot of people too, but walking by supporters and the aid stations for the first 4 miles was awkward. They’d shout out “Well done! You’re doing so well!”, and we thought… no, we’re not… we haven’t started yet. But you have to accept the praise and thank them, even though that felt like we were acknowledging that we were currently doing our best.
Once we got going it felt much better and after running the 21 miles to get to 25, we realised that walking the last 1.2 wasn’t really going to be an option, we didn’t want to cross the line walking. So it ended up being a 22.2 mile training run with a 4 mile walk. That works!
Crossing the finishing line
Leah’s first marathon medal
Elevation Graph from Running Watch
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