Pacing 4:45 this year, same as last year. Should be easy and fun. I do take the pacing duties seriously and will click off steady 10:50 miles while encouraging those around me. It makes me a little nervous, but it is a rewarding experience. This should also serve as a good long run, then I can try to be fast at NODM in two weeks.
Weather is supposed to be showers, but it is dry at the start and sunny. It will warm up and stay sunny for my whole race. Hot enough that I will be pouring water on my head from the halfway point on.
6:30AM - get my pacer balloon, greet many friends. Hometown race and Marathon Maniacs all over the place. Angela will pace with me and also Carrie. Fun people, but neither has actually gone sub 4:45 before. Should be interesting to see what happens.
Start - Before starting I meet a first time marathoner, Mike, who wants to stick with me. A couple of other first timers are near us as we set off. Smooth start and we hit pace right away. 13 second differential between chip and gun time. I will pace for gun time.
Mile 5 - Bright sun, wishing I had sunglasses. Mike is still with me. Also first timer Heather and second time marathoner Brittany.
Mile 8 - Slight course change has us taking the tangent across East Bay Drive. I see a port-a-potty up ahead and decide that this would be a convenient time to take care of business. I see Tom duck in there before I get there, so I tease him yelling for him to hurry up. Carrie had reminded me of the balloon on long string as I went in, but I totally forgot about it on the way out. The door slams shut and the balloon stays in the outhouse, stripped from my singlet. I retrieve it and carry it a half mile as I pick up the pace to catch up. Lisa and Tom retie me and I am good to go.
Mile 10 - Boston Harbor hill. Angela starts to fall behind. Nothing I can do about it.
Mile 12 - Volunteer Dan Cole - Same place every year
Mile 15 - Heather is still with us and her family is here to cheer. Now the long slight up hill on Lemon Road.
Mile 18 - Just me and Carrie. We are passing some people but none can stay with us. The three who started with us are falling behind. They will all finish in good spirits. I am running fine, but it is not as easy as it was three hours ago. Makes me wonder how fast I could go, and I am doubting a sub 4 finish any time soon. Lance Wineka sighting.
Mile 21 - Heidi Perry sighting. Thanks to all the great volunteers
Mile 23 - Pass my pal Deb on the long uphill. She is doing her 4th marathon in 4 weeks and will finish right behind me. Carrie is struggling. I have been promising a walk break, but would like to get farther than halfway up this hill. She thinks that she can not keep up, and pops her balloon so that she will not be recognized as a pacer.
Mile 24 - Catch a first timer named Jay and he is able to stay with me. Anyone who is running this pace right now should be able to finish ahead of me, since there is the long downhill to the finish. Carrie catches back up!! She and I will finish together. So happy for her. Now the exciting final two miles.
Mile 25.5 - Hard to judge speed and finish time from here. Looks like we are a little ahead. Now it seems like we will finish a full minute ahead. We walk and jog and walk across the line.
Mile 26.2 (26.49 on the GPS) - Better to be 45 seconds early than 45 seconds late. I wait for those who could not quite keep up and it is fun to see them finish. The weather is still terrific so I stay around the finish area for a while.
So cool that Jody ran the 5 mile race and got an award for third in her age group!!
Great fun day for me and I hope to pace here again.
4:44:22 gun time, 4:44:13 chip time
196th place of 274
Marathon or ultra#110
Capital City Marathon #11
Capital City Event #14
Race#326
*****
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