Vermont City Marathon

The weather forecast for the marathon was sunny - 62 at the start, mid 70s by noon and a high in the 80s. In addition to the sun/heat, this marathon has 650 relay teams with a first leg of 5K. I didn't want to get caught up in the moment and end up running the first mile too fast so I decided to line up just in front of the 10:00/mile pace area. It took me 2 minutes and 42 seconds to walk to the start line. The first mile was very crowded and took 10:11 which was a little slower than I had planned but nothing to be concerned about. Miles 2 (8:35) and 3 (8:15) were still crowded and hard to get into a good pace. After the first relay exchange area it started to open and I was able to establish a good pace.

The trek out and back on the Northern Connector was uneventful. There wasn't much shade at all. Going out - mile 4 which is slightly downhill was 7:34, 5 was 8:14 and 6 was 7:32. Coming back mile 7 was 7:44 and mile 8 was 7:54. When I was trying to put an empty bottle back in my fuel belt, I dropped it. There was no way I was going to go back and get it and I just kept on running. The first part of mile 9 is slightly uphill and back past the start where I saw my family cheering for me. I missed the mile marker at 9. Time for 9 & 10 combined was 15:21.

At this point my pace is just about where I want it to be and I'm running well. Mile 11 took 7:45 and mile 12 was 7:44. As we head into Oakledge park there is a water stop with 2 porta-potties in the parking lot. One was vacant and I was able to get in and out fairly quickly and back onto the course. My time for mile 13 was 9:04 and 1:46:09 at the half. At this point I was a little concerned because my time was slower than I wanted, but I knew that a good portion of that time was lost in the first 3 miles. My time for mile 14 was 7:02 but I don't believe that. Quite a few people reported slow times in mile 13 and fast times for 14 so it looks like the mile marker for 13 was a little long.

I actually felt strong going up battery hill and finished mile 15 in 8:01. I only had one bottle of gatorade left and was looking for Donna who had 4 bottles waiting for me. I was getting worried because I got to the corner and didn't see her and was looking back and all around trying to find her. Donna was up one corner further right where she was supposed to be. I stopped just long enough to drop 3 empty bottles and put the 4 full bottles in the fuel belt. I told Donna that I felt good and was off through the park and out onto North Ave.

North Ave seemed long and hot. Not a lot of shade or breeze on this part of the course. Miles 16-20 were 7:44, 7:34, 7:42, 7:43 and 7:39. The people are really friendly but I really want to get out of the neighborhoods and onto the bike path. Mile 21 was 7:50. Another half mile and then it's a short downhill to the bike path. Mile 22 was 7:42. Now I'm really starting to feel tired and it's more of an effort to keep the pace up and my time for mile 23 was 8:05. I don't want to slow down at this point and do my best to keep a steady pace. 7:56 for mile 24 and a little over 2 miles to go. I tell myself I can do this. Apparently I picked up the pace a little because I finished mile 25 in 7:39. Seemed like it took forever to get to the park. There was a lady who had been running the same pace as me for several miles. When we got to the park she said "let's go" and we both started running hard. I got about halfway down the park and then I could see the clock at 3:27 so I told her to go for it and I slowed down. The final 1.2 took 8:59.

Donna was at the finish line waiting for me. She was watching the clock and getting very worried because she hadn't seen me yet. She was in tears when it got to 3:30:00 and she hadn't seen me yet. My official time was 3:30:14 and my chip time was 3:27:32. I qualified for Boston with almost 2 1/2 minutes to spare. This was a 27 minute PR and almost a 5 minute negative split. It was a wonderful day.