ING Miami Marathon - 3:22:00 / 7:43

Final Time: 3:22:00
Pace: 7:43
Rank: 171
Age Grade: 61.8%

So we flew down to compete in the Miami Marathon with the end result of 3:22:00. Despite the aesthetic course and ambiance, I was disappointed with the result. Before I left NYC, I promised someone that I'll try my best in Miami and indeed it was tough to leave an important person for five consecutive days. Initially, I had thought of cancelling the race but I was assured to go, have fun and make that person proud.




At the start of the race, I felt really good and had only one thought in my mind. My hams felt fine and my knees were well-rested after 4-5 days of no running. In my opinion, the Miami weather was the most optimal. Due to the bottleneck, My first mile clocked at 7:27. Miles 2-4 were smooth sailing as I passed Wongster (unfortunately DNF). By mile 5, K (congrats to his first sub 3) caught up to me and that's when I started to change my plan. Feeling pretty good throughout the race, I decided to use him as my rabbit. However, I should've learned from my previous mistake at the Hamptons when I paced with someone way above my league. I really should've known better to not let any other runners affect how I would race. Well, the competition sets in and I ultimately gave in. In a way, I felt a bit pressured of falling behind because I never have him caught up to me so early in the race. At NYC it was mile 18-19, Charlottesville was 15 and Philly was 9. When I realized that at mile 5 that he was already right near me, I panicked and tried my best to keep up. In the end I should've focus on myself and not anyone else. I tried to keep up with him till mile 9 and that is when things gradually fell apart.



After miles 14-19, I went through a downward spiral. Then on miles 20-23, I cramped up on both quads; which has never happened before. I had cramping on several NYCs but never to this degree where I didn't have a full range of motion. I'll admit that I was ready to hang the towel because there was no way I could continue when my mobility wasn't 100%. However, I didnt come all the way to Miami with a DNF. In addition, the thought of that special person back home really made me continue on. I've agonized a bit on mile 22, had a nice runner lend me some salt and then soldiered on. I felt better by mile 24 and by mile 25 the runner who gave me the packet collapsed. I stopped to see if he was ok, but was told to just go on and finish the race. I felt horrible accepting his salt packet on mile 22. I even tried to look for him after the race, but wasn't able to due to the case of where's waldo.

Anyway, at the last mile, out of nowhere, there were several TRD teammates who cheered for me. It was great to hear from them, but I was just glad to be done with this race. I have to say that it wasn't my best effort as far as execution goes. Furthermore, I've came up with several possibilities on my quad-cramps. Ultimately, i'm 100% at fault on this race and there's really no excuses. One take away, is the fact that I should've ran my own race. I took the risk of going too hard in the beginning before venturing through the vortex of terror on the 2nd half. I also need to stop being a head-case and not let other runners influence my pace. I would like to terminate this downward death shuffle and seek for redemption in Boston. Until then I'm not going give up on this hiccup. I'll definitely retry for Miami 2010. Right now, I hope that person is still proud of me because I really did tried my best :)

After the race, we drove down to Key West for some rest and recovery. I'll admit it was great to get away from everything that has happened for the past few weeks. As tough as it was in NYC, life is never fair and the only thing you can really do is to stay positive and hope for the best. I did some reminiscing after the mozzer self destruction and in the end family is most important; there's always another race- Chin up Moz!

Splits:
01: 7:27:65
02: 6:44:09
03: 6:57:19
04: 6:50:62
05: 6:50:03
06: 6:53:19
07: 6:49:56
08: 6:42:03
09: 6:58:94
10: 7:07:01
11: 6:54:49
12: 7:13:50
13: 7:11:55
14: 7:32:11
15: 7:34:28
16: 7:42:63
17: 7:46:98
18: 8:07:58
19: 8:07:56
20: 8:50:07
21: 9:56:35
22: 9:17:36
23: 8:22:94
24: 8:48:93
25: 8:46:51
26: 8:41:43
0.2: 1:43:48






























































Cheers,
Moz