2 Cities Marathon 2015

Today I ran the 2 Cities Marathon as a pacer.  I paced the 3 hour 58 min group.

The race takes place in my hometown of Fresno Ca and also goes through Clovis Ca for part of the race as well.  I had a very good size group of about 20 people at the beginning of the run.  As the run went on it continued like it does every year. By the half marathon point my group was about 10 people deep, by mile 18 I had 3, and then at mile 21 I was down to one person.

I did my best to run even splits the entire run.  The runner I had left with me at the end was running his very first Marathon.  He was getting pretty tired twords the end of the run.  I did my best to push him until the end of the race.  Around mile 25 he started falling behind and I kept encouraging him the best I could.  Unfortunately somewhere just after mile 25 he fell off pace. I wanted to wait for him, but I had a finishing time that I was required to hit.

I continued to run at my pace and I crossed the finish line at 3 hours 57 hours and 33 mins.  Not too bad, I was only 27 seconds fast.

After I finished the event I started walking to my car to go home.  As I was walking to my car I ran into the gentleman I was pacing until mile 25ish and he thanked me for helping him out.  He told me he finished in just under 4 hours, and that was his overall goal, so he was pretty happy.

I always enjoy pacing this marathon.  It's nice to help out at a local event, pace a few local and out of town runners, and help other people accomplish their goals.

This was probably my last race for the year.  I had a 100k and 50k race that I planned on doing, but money is a little tight right now so those 2 events unfortunately won't be happening for me this year.

I plan on still running a lot until the end of the year, just not any official events right now.  Next weekend I'll help pace my friend Dave at his very first 100 mile event at the Rio del Lago 100.  It should be fun running the last 50 miles of this event with him.  I'm looking forward to helping my buddy at this event and being with him as he crosses the finish line.

Until next time...

KEEP RUNNING!!!