Zurich marathon race report

I had a very nice time at the Zurich marathon last weekend.  I lined up right around the 3:30 pace group and immediately noticed everyone else looked much skinnier and faster.  Nevermind, I managed to set a nice pace and hold on to it pretty well, thus splitting the difference between my A goal and B goal with 3:27 for a 9 min PR.  I ran the 2^nd half 3 min slower than first, or about 15 seconds per mile slower.  I’m happy I went out just tad too fast so at least I know where I stand fitness-wise.  This was my 3^rd road marathon, but the first the first that I really trained for, and the first where I ran for time.  I think I can bring my time down a bit more, I’d love to qualify for Boston soon, but I think it will take a few years at least.

Afterwards I did some research to see where my training pace lined up.  The recent 5k and ½ marathon I did predicted my marathon time within few minutes, but my intervals were much too fast.  No wonder I was  dreading the track workouts.  I was also doing my long runs too fast by 20-30 seconds or so, which is probably why I wasn’t able to get a 2^nd quality session in during the weekdays.  Next time I will ease of the pace on quality days and try to add more tempo workouts between 3-13 miles, which totally took a backseat to long runs and track days for me the last few months.  I will also train at a much more reasonable but still optimistic pace, since now I know it will be at least a few more until (or if I ever) I get my BQ.  Now that road season is over, I am really looking forward to getting some vertical into my diet.  Bye bye roads, hello mountains.