Florence Marathon - Michael's Perspective

Yesterday I ran my first marathon. No exclamation points because thanks to my running buddies, I was well-prepared and only a significant injury would have prevented me from finishing. Having said that, I have to remember a faster friend who injured his Achilles' tendon two weeks ago and couldn't even start.

The weather couldn't have been better for running. It was chilly, but well above freezing, not too breezy, and sunny.




Since this was my first marathon I didn't have a recent time to submit and they gave me a race number that translates as, "you get to start behind everyone else." The significance of that was lost on me until I was actually in the starting area and I was next to a pace setter wearing balloons that said "4:45". That's 4 hours and 45 minutes. I knew from training that I should be at 3:30 or better.

The significance was further driven home when the race started. It was like the Peachtree where your particular starting block may not get to the starting line for 10 or 15 minutes. I didn't worry too much about it because I knew the timing chip could compensate for the 7 minutes it took me to reach the 0 km marker.

What the timing chip could not compensate for was that I was behind at least 5000 slower runners, on roads that were narrow enough to be filled curb to curb. There were significant stretches where runners 4 or 6 abreast filled the road. I spent the first half of the race searching for brief gaps and hustling through them.

I arrived at the half-marathon mark a couple of minutes off my goal pace, a little rested from having to run slower, but probably a little more tired than the slower pace would imply because of having to accelerate and decelerate so much while threading through the gaps.

But from that point on, I mostly was able to run the pace I wanted, and I whittled away the overage. Sadly, not quite as much as I needed to. I had to slow a little between km 35 and 40 to deal with a side stitch, and between that and the fact that a marathon is not 42 km but rather 195 meters longer than 42 km (that is, an extra 50 seconds), I just missed my expected time.

Final official time: 3:37:33
Final real time: 3:30:17
Position: 2632th overall, 2484th male, 676th in age group.

Ok, I just downloaded my race diploma and I got a chuckle. It shows my relative position among the males at each of the main timing points:

5K: 6527 (remember than I had been passing people for 5 km at this point)
10K: 5367
15K: 4510
21K: 3971
25K: 3555
30K: 3212
35K: 2895
40K: 2636
Arrivo: 2484

Those numbers do not include the female runners. I had to pass a LOT of people to arrive when I did. My major disappointment is that 3:30 is a typical cutoff for better starting place, and I missed that by 17 seconds. Maybe the next time I will be enough further forward to only spend 10 km in traffic.

Next stop: Marathon de Paris, April 6, 2014. Bib 8802.







Michael