Whirlwind Weekend

The short of it is I completed my first marathon as a pacer this weekend 11 seconds ahead of pace, finishing in 1:49:49, not too shabby. It was a rough marathon to pace because it was a lot of rollers mixed in with a couple long winding hills. On top of that we were pacing half and full marathoners and needed to deliver the halfers to just before mile 12 on pace so they could run even the rest of their way. I think this was probably a bit hard on the marathoners as it would have been nice to make up time from the two major hills in the early miles slowly over the next ten miles rather than having to hit miles 11 and 12 right on pace. Knowing that, I scrapped the course adjusted pace band and wore an even split pace band with the knowledge that we would have some fast and some slower miles with the hills and that I would have to get to 12 right on target with that pace band. I had a large group at the start and up through about 23 miles and then it seemed wheels started falling off. I managed to get 4 runners in under 3:51, at least one of which qualified for Boston. I was disappointed for those that didn't make their goal, but was encouraged by them thanking me after they did finish for my hard work. I just wish I could have pulled them through with me. Thank you to all the runners that stuck with me through any of the miles yesterday. You are all awesome and you did a great job on a tough but beautiful course.