Fastest Marathon Ever

On sunday morning I ran the Buffalo marathon in 4:17:07 for my quickest marathon ever. This was my tenth time finishing the Buffalo marathon and I was able to show a 93 second improvement over my previous PR from two years ago.

Coming into the race I was feeling undertrained and planned to run conservatively staying with the 4:30 pace group and perhaps trying to get a negative split. That plan went out the window as soon as I lined up at the start and wanting to push ahead, so I decided to ignore the pace groups and just run on vibes.

I ran the first 5k in 28:20 and the second 5k in 28:20 (for a 10k time of 56:40). I was feeling very good through the first quarter of the race, and the cool temperatures made the run feel easy.

I reached the half marathon mark at two hours and one minute and was feeling surprised at how good I was feeling. Initially I was concerned at how much my quick start was going to catch up with me, but at this point I was feeling really steady and confident that I could at least hold until 20 miles before anything went too wrong.

I ran the segment from 20k to 25k in a time of 29:02 which is only slightly slower than the pace I had started out the day with. Unfortunately the temperatures were starting to climb, and I began having to focus on keeping my body temperature down. Thirty minutes later I hit the 30k mark and was shocked at how easily I got up the hill just after this checkpoint. At this point in the race I knew I had a very real chance of challenging for a PR.

Around mile 20 I was staring to struggle, but I did my best to maintain a steady pace. Following last year’s Buffalo marathon this was only the second marathon distance I have ever covered without slowing to a walk for at least a portion of the course. This time it paid off. The final two and a half miles were very challenging, but I pushed though and finished with my fastest marathon ever.

I am not sure when my next race will be, but with a course PR in two straight weeks I am feeling good and looking to keep my speed up.