The last week, I was running a giveaway for people to guess my time for the Dubai Marathon. I had a lot of guesses, many of which were over 4 hours. I did not give my goal time so people did not really know what I was aiming for. However, the marathon is a long distance and a lot can happen. Even the best plans and goals can have big problems during the race due to unforeseen issues. That is what happened to me – and other runners also.
The winner of the giveaway was Valerie – 1 minutes and 54 seconds away from my actual time. Nice job, Valerie! I will be in touch so you can choose your prize!
Winner with the closest guess was Valerie!
My time was 3:52:30. That was over 30 minutes slower than my goal pace. My goal was 3:20 – my training was there and the coach I have been working with felt it was a good goal. He had a great race plan for me and I was able to keep it up through mile 16. Miles 1 – 13 were in the low 7:40s per mile and then I dropped the pace down to 7:30s for the next couple of miles. However, around mile 16/17, I started to feel sick. I had to stop about 10 times from then to the finish line to get sick. I still don’t know what was the matter. In all of my marathons, I have never thrown up before. It could have been to the heat/humidity combo (which was getting pretty serious) or an actual flu. It was a major disappointment. I thought about stopping but I have never DNFed a marathon and I had told my kids I was bringing another medal home for them, so I stuck it out and walked a major portion of the last 8 miles. I passed about 12 of the elite marathoners (at least two of them were in the lead pack at the halfway point).
In the next week, I will have a couple of posts about the race itself and some trip and travel reviews. Thanks to everyone for participating! Hopefully, I will reach the 3:20 goal sometime soon!
That´s still a great time! Congrats!
Sorry about your race, but it’s just good training for your next marathon! You were brave to go after that time goal.