Race day arrives, the gun goes off and i blast off. I take the lead 100 yards into the race and go solo for the win. Sounds great, doesn't it? It wasn't that easy. I went out at what felt comfortable, building a sizable lead. At 20 miles i was at 1:47 flat with an 8 minute lead. Along the way, my friend Roland Davide, who has the course record and still has the fastest marathon run in Maine at 2:15, was with me on the bike warning that i was running too fast. I should have taken the advice of someone of his running stature, but i felt good. I was thinking from the splits that i was looking at 2:18-19 range...SWEET! Two hours in, well past 22 miles and i am having a sense of impending doom. The legs are starting to go, so i am thinking it is only 3 to go, how bad can it be. Bad. With 2 to go i had to walk, there was nothing left in the tank. All in all, i walked 5 times in the last 2 miles. I finished the race at 2:28., a minute in front of second. It took 19 minutes to go the last 2 miles. It is still a win, just not how i planned to do it. I did get the best trophy ever, a hand made lobster trap table. It still sits in my parents living room in Narragansett
In the twenty five years since this race, i have run 5 marathons. It is not what you would call my favorite distance. I don't like training for them, i really never respected the distance. I would like to do one more though so i could try to get into the 5 Decade Club which is running sub 3 hours in 5 different decades. I have 4 down now from the seventies on with nothing slower than 2:47. I have ten years to do it, we will see what happens.
Check out this link for a cool website on Maine running history:
mainerunninghistory.org
