So there you have it! My ego said I could do it in 42, my brain said 45, my results read 48:18.

My biggest complaint is not my total time – its my splits.  I continue to get slower each mile.  I’m not sure if speed or pace is my real problem.  I would be very happy with a 11 or 12 min mile pace for the marathon, but if mile 2 is 11 and mile 3 is 12, would mile 10 be 12 or 18? I can’t continue to get slower and slower each mile and still finish in the time limit.

I forgot my headphones, so the whole race was just me and my thoughts… and 30,000 other runners.  The first mile was fast but it could be that I was trying to keep up with the girl in front of me with the tattoo on her lower back that seemed like it was dancing as she ran – I couldn’t even tell you what it was a tattoo of, but it was entertaining to watch. Calm down – she left me in the dust after about 50 yards – I wasn’t ogling her for a mile…  🙂

There were more hills than I was mentally or physically prepared for.  And my shins and calves were giving me the familiar pain I get when I run a sub-10 min mile. I’m sitting here thinking how can I get faster – knowing my best chance at a faster time is a smaller waist line!  Being in Sun Devil Stadium was pretty cool and a friend of mine registered to run the race too – we were able to meet up at the beginning and he waited for me to finish at the end – I was a full 15 minutes behind him.