Cape Cod Marathon Race Report - DNF

After finishing my first marathon in Providence RI last May I was
looking forward to doing another this fall. I picked Cape Cod and
dragged my buddy Drew into doing this as his first. Race day weather
was GORGEOUS. I slept really well the night before which I though
boded well for a good day of running. My goal for this one was right
around 4 hours - but since I'm still new to the marathon distance I
really just wanted to finish - which was the same for Drew. I told
him we would start together and finish together and just try and enjoy
a nice long run.

Line up at the start and once the gun went off we went out at the pace
we planned for 9:15, we fell into a nice groove around 8:50s which is
exactly what we planned out to do. Course was great - running along
the coast with the changing colors of the leaves provided a nice
backdrop. We got to the half way point at 1:57 - again exactly on
target. The first half is slightly hilly - the second half is very
hilly. Through 15 miles we were still on pace to finish a touch under
4 hours. But then the big hills started and our pace started to
suffer which was fine by us. A little after mile 18 Drew fell behind
and a little after mile 19 I had to start walking. At this point my
knees and hamstrings were starting to hurt. I started to run for
about a half mile and walk a half mile. Drew was doing the same and
caught up to me just short of the 20th mile. We then did run/walk as
best as we could but my legs were starting to quit on me - hamstrings,
quads, knees, calves, ankles - you name it - it hurt. My feet started
to really swell so I kicked off the shoes and did some walking for
about a quarter mile or so - around mile 23 I put them back on. Here
is were things REALLY got bad - I had to sit and stretch for a few
minutes - got back up and we started to walk again. We then jogged
for about a quarter mile then we were forced to walk yet again. I
paused for a moment as I thought I might get sick, and while I was
waiting to see if I was, I got the most crazy cramp in my calf and
fell to the ground. Drew walked back to me to help me stretch it out
(he said I yelped like a sick dog and turned to see me lying in the
road begging for runners to run over me). Once the cramp cleared, we
decided we were both done and werent going to finish - by my Garmin we
had 2.5 miles to go. We hopped a ride in a support vehicle that
happened to drive by and they gave us a ride back. My first ever DNF.
Not a great feeling.

I keep second guessing the decision to stop/quit - we toyed with the
idea of trying to jog 1/2 mile and walk 1/2. But looking back now
with a relatively clear mind we wouldn't have made it. Drew and I
both feel defeated today - we have all the soreness of a full marathon
but no sense of accomplishment. We did meet and run with some fun and
friendly people for quite a bit of the race - Liz from Duxbury (1st
time racer finished in 4:14:45) and Sean from the Cape - 4:35 - both
were great to run with and talk to.

I plan on recovering this week - and start gearing up to take my
aggression out on a 5k that's coming up at the end of November.