Finished my first marathon - Jersey City!
I had posted a couple of weeks back about my first marathon prediction time and y’all were very helpful and spot on with a time of 4.15
https://www.reddit.com/r/Marathon\_Training/s/9p7S1SXgK9
Fast forward to today, I finished my first ever marathon and I am still feeling very emotional. I cried like a baby at the end and it felt cathartic to me. I will remember this forever. When I was a kid, I was bullied for being fat and for not being able to run even a kilometer. Even less than six months ago, I couldn’t fathom running more than a half marathon. Fast forward to today, it feels surreal to complete one of my life goals.
I finished with a time of 4.15.48 (average pace of 09.46 min/mile). I am kind of bummed that that I missed my goal of 4.15 by just 48 seconds.
I think I went too fast for the first 17 miles with an average pace of 9.20 min/mile and it came back to haunt me when my quads started cramping from mile 17 onwards and I had to stop every km from then on to walk , stretch, and continue.
On top of that, for the last 2 miles, it was so brutally windy and the headwind slowed me down like crazy (I swear I could feel the wind pushing me back! So I was taking 2 steps forward and 3 steps back).
Also, I was quite disappointed with the race organizers - they said they will have aid stations every 2 miles but it felt like there were aid stations every 3-4 miles. Even in the aid stations, they had limited Gatorade cups and even those had just a few sips worth of Gatorade in there. I should have brought my own electrolytes / salt tabs.
Overall, these are my stats -
Total time (as per chip) - 4.15.48
Avg pace - 09.46 min/mile
My journey doesn’t end here though. Onto the next one! (Cheap Marathon 2027) - I think I caught the marathon bug haha. My goal is to get a BQ one day. I am planning to use the rest of this year until Thanksgiving to really build my base and foundation to set myself up for success next year.