Charlottesville Marathon - 3:11:49 / 7:20

http://www.charlottesvillemarathon.com/

Final Time: 3:11:49 (PR)
Pace: 7:20
Rank: 26/511
Age Group: 8/77


I'm pretty excited with the PR. I came into the race with a goal of hitting a 3:20-3:25. From the reviews, I knew it was going to be a tough course. With all the rolling hills, turns here and there, I knew what I was getting into. Nevertheless, the course was beautiful with the ridgefields, vineyards, historic sites, UVA with the darden & Mcintyre folks, farm lands, and of course Foxfields. Damn, I remembered those keg days at Foxfields (circa 2005), precious memories ;).





I originally planned to run the half marathon but then changed it to the full because I figured if I was going to drive down 6 hours from NYC, I may as well go for the whole thing. I didn't want to have any regrets in San Francisco where I opted for the half instead of the full in 2007.



As for the course, the hills are endless. Just when you are done with the uphill then a slight downhill, you will encounter another hill. It was ok for the first 20 miles; however after that, you kinda want to sucker-punch yourself for getting into this mess. To my surprise, I was hitting a pretty good pace and realized that I had a chance to qualify for Boston through mile 20. However with the hills in the end, it was just too tough and I just didn't have it in the end. By the way, there was this crazy hill on mile 25 where I wanted to flip the bird when a douchetard screamed to me "you've got one more hill to go!" My reaction was "great...one more effing hill to go...thanks for the reminder". I crossed the line in 3:12 with a chip time of 3:11:49. I have to admit I was a bit heartbroken for 2 minutes to have missed the qualifying standards, however I was excited that i was able to pull off a good time on a tough course. In addition, there's still plenty of marathons left in my tank that if I'm ready, my time will come so no rush. Would I do Charlottesville again? That would be a hands down yes and with a vengence :)




Anyway, Wongster put on a pretty awesome half-marathon time of 1:36 and kieran qualified with a 3:09:03. We weren't surprised at all since he consistently hits 1:25s on halves and 3:11-3:12s on fulls. He passed me on mile 15 and once again on mile 20!!!!! Bastard!!!!!! Congratulations to both of my training buddies.





Splits:
01: 7:29:00
02: 7:26:96
03: 7:17:05
04: 7:04:65
05: 6:59:22
06: 7:14:10
07: 7:16:07
08: 7:08:39
09: 7:20:86
10: 6:38:04
11: 7:45:48
12: 7:01:01
13: 7:35:39
14: 7:14:91
15: 7:16:86
16: 7:04:94
17: 7:20:47
18: 7:30:54
19: 7:24:46
20: 7:23:55
21: 7:07:27
22: 7:16:42
23: 7:55:62
24: 7:29:13
25: 7:22:19
26.2: 9:09:06





Someone's giving you the "Sheetz"!



Pit stop in Ghetto-Baltimore...






Adidas 4 Miler
I was a spectator after the marathon for the Adidas 4 Miler. I gotta' root for my Sigma Epsilons and reservoir dogs. By the way, I couldn't believe the phalanx of clusterphucks. The race was insane; I doubt I would've raced this one given the crowd and such.














Cheers,
Moz