Andy Payne Marathon: PR and 2nd Place In My Age Group!!!

Here's the quick n' dirty from my marathon in OKC last Saturday, 24 May. The weather was hot--race start (6:30am) was low 70's and by race finish, it was pushing 87-88 degrees. The sun was beating down hard, I began sweating before mile 1. Which, is amazing for me since I get hot, but it usually takes a long time before I actually have sweating running down my face. So, when it happened so soon, I knew it would be a long haul!!!! I will say the only thing that saved me was the wind. On one side of the lake, it was dead calm (and of course blazin hot) and on the other side, it was 12-13 mph winds!!! I would get mad and swear at the wind because it was messing w/my pace!!! But, I was thankful for it.

Like I mentioned in my post prior to the marathon, this race was very small in terms of the number of runners. There was no half-marathon, just the full, 10K, and a 5K. The latter 2 races started at 8:30. While I don't have the exact number, Ben and I think there were only about 70-75 marathon runners. So, I was almost right at the start line!!! When the gun went off, everyone took off---I mean they were gone in the blink of an eye!!! I was instantly sick to my stomach, thinking, "holy crap, I can't run this fast for 26.2 miles".....as I looked down at my Garmin and saw our pace was 8:30 and my heart rate was 187!!!! And to make matters worse, about 95% of the runners were veteran runners to this course. Meaning, it wasn't marked and the race official (extremely laid back) told us to just do the short 1 mile out and back, then 3- 8 mile loops around the lake. Oh great---I'm bound to get lost!!!!! Determined not to panic, I caught up to 2 older guys (really friendly locals who'd run the course many times over). By this time it was about mile 4 and I was still cruising around 8:35 pace---not good! But, as I started talking to them and asking if they'd keep this pace the entire time, they told me "no, we were just thinking how we need to slow down". Thank GOD!!! We gradually slowed to a 9:20-9:30. Still tooooo fast for me!!!! I hung w/them until about mile 11, then knew I had to slow pace or I'd never be able to finish.

I kept pace around 10:10-10:30ish (I can't really remember) for a long time, until my stupid IT band started to bother me (mile 16 on). That pain, plus the wind, dropped my pace (alot).

I saw Ben and Tony 5 times :) They kept driving to each side of the lake and giving my Sharkies and Sport Beans, as well as refilling my water and Gatorade. Tony took a few pics w/this Blackberry....attached below. It was great seeing them. Early on, they told me they were hungry and were going to McDonalds for breakfast--but would hurry back so they could meet up w/me again.

Oh well-----I crossed the finish line at 4:44:59------much better than my 4:55 at the Nashville Marathon on 26 Apr. And better yet, I won 2nd place in my age group!!!!! Yippee, I love this small race :) I have it penciled in for next year!

The 2 guys I ran w/for most of the marathon (they were so happy for me when I received my trophy!)Tony's taking the picture and I was motioning to Ben so he could meet me on the trail w/some fuel)

At the finish line...man, I was tired and everything from my shoulders down to my toes hurt. Once I saw this picture, I realized just how tired I looked!!!!