Ran the RnR Arizona Marathon this past weekend in 3:43:14, a PR by 6:10. But, bonked in the last couple of miles with some severe cramping that dropped me to a hobble and near crawl. Se la vi, still got a nice PR and an awesome weekend in the sun with my wife, so I'm happy.
The bonk is purely my own fault. I completely forgot to bring my Endurolite capsules from the hotel, and the Cytomax that Competitor uses makes me sick, so I couldn't drink that. I fueled with a multi-hour bottle of Sustained Energy, water along the course, and planned on using the salt capsules, so going without any electrolytes was one of my downfalls. I also went out too fast. I put the hammer down early in the race when everything was feeling good and decided to go for broke, which was probably a mistake given I was cruising without any added salts. Oops. And I likely put too much into my training. I ran a 3:49 in Chicago, and signed up for this race as redemption. It was too soon, and I really pushed my limits in the 13 weeks in between. Got a PR for weekly mileage at 67, and just shy of 300 miles in December, but probably put too much effort into the training which left me depleted and worn down on race day. Plus, I tend to race too much anyhow (yeah, my singlet gives it away), my own fault.
Splits were awesome up until mile 20 though. Then my quads starting cramping (the course is a little too flat IMO), and by mile 24, had dropped to a run/walk shuffle. 10k, 51:22, 8:16 pace. 13.1m, 1:46:25, 8:07 pace. 20m, 2:44:26, 8:13 pace. 26.2, 3:43:14, 8:31 pace. 1:46:25/1:56:49 first/second half splits.
I'll still take it though!
