4 slow recovery miles

I ran only 4 miles this morning and I really didn't want to go any farther even if I had the time. My legs are still tight from the race this weekend. The most sore part of my body was my feet. The small muscles in my feet are not used to working that hard to react and balance on the trail. They usually don't even have to think as most of my runs are on level road. They were feeling better this afternoon. The four miles took me 34:25 (just over 8:30 pace).

The Las Vegas Marathon is this weekend. My buddy Ron Gallagher and his wife Julie are running the half this weekend. It will be Ron's third half marathon this year! Before this year he had run zero half marathons. Good luck Ron & Julie, can't wait to hear all about it.

Some words of advice: learn from my mistakes. I ran my second fastest marathon at Las Vegas in 2006 (3:04:12), but I could have PR'd had I not made the rookie mistake of going out too fast, and it was my 5th marathon.
My first 10k was 39:56 (6:25 pace)
My half split was 1:25:42 (6:32 pace)
My 30K time was 2:05:35 (6:44 pace) This must be my 30k PR!
If I had maintained that 30k pace for 8 more miles I would have run 2:56!

I felt great for 15 to 16 miles but then hit a major wall at about 19 miles and finished in 3:04:12, which means my second half was 1:38:30!
You WILL feel great for the first half of the race. Don't let those feelings take you out too fast. Stay within yourself and know your goal pace (Garmin makes this easier with virtual partner), even running a little slower for the first quarter of the race is ok. As Clay would say, "You must respect the distance."

My three fastest marathons are Grandma's (2:58), Las Vegas (3:04), and Boston (3:13). Of those three my slowest first 10k was 42:36 (6:51 pace) at Grandma's where I PR'd (2:58:37). At Boston my first 10k was 41:50 (6:44 pace). Both of these races were very evenly paced (I went out in 1:28 at the half in both races) until the last 10k in Boston were cramping issues did me in. At Grandma's my first 10k was 42:36 and my last 10k was 43:35. Talk about even! The stars were aligned that day.

This is the last year that the Las Vegas Marathon will be put on by Devine Racing (the company that just sold the LA Marathon to pay off their debts). Next year the Las Vegas Marathon will be the Rock n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon, and they think they can draw 30,000+ runners. This is probably the best move in the history of the Las Vegas Marathon. Very exciting. The Rock n' Roll group knows how to put on successful races. Read all about it here and here.