II Almaty Charity Marathon — Pred 3:39:11

Today I finished II Almaty Charity Marathon and set Personal Record (Pred) -  3:39:11

Su: Race 26.2
pace 8:29/mi, average HR 179
11th overall (male)
8th or even higher among amateurs (male). It depends on who they treat to be a pro. If professional ironman is pro, then I hold higher place :)

Thank you notes!
First of all, I'm REALLY thankful to my support team (Aziz and Dauren)!!! They fed me with energy gels and water throughout the entire distance, and took pictures/videos of me. If not them, I could have stopped on last miles and walked. But their kicks and motivational speeches kept me going. I simply couldn't argue with them. I just shut my mouse and kept running, finding excuces from time to time to reason my slow pace.

Statistics
I'm really glad that I did it in 3:39:11 according to my watches (no official data was released). Though my Garmin recorded 25.79 mi but that might be minor statistical error.
First 20 mi were covered @ 8:12/mi, but then the marathon started and last 6 mi were covered 9:46/mi. Neverthless I'm glad that I didn't stop.
First half was done in 1:46 but second slowed by 7 minutes and I completed it in 1:53. No way of thinking of half split or even negative splits.

Race experince
I slept really bad the night before, not like I usually sleep. My efforts not to think about the marathon didn't help and anxiety crawled into my bed.

The START line simply couldn't handle all the participants. As an obidient runner I lined on the start and were waiting for administration to line everybody else. Not following Kazakh mentality race started exactly @ 8:00 am and nobody lined the crowd to the START line. All of sudden insane crowd started running.

As an exprienced runner I didn't follow herd instinct and paced myself according to my plan. My HR was surpiringly high in the beginning (around 180) and it didn't go down much for the entire distance. I was worried that with such high HR I will be done around 20th mile. I planned for 165-170 HR. But my preparation plan did pay off and I was able to finish with even such a high HR.

The weather was really good for marathon day. Sun shined only for first 7-8 mi and afterwards clouds took the horizon. Temperature was 54F (12C) in the beginning and remained on this level. You simply can't imagine a better weather for a marathon.

I stuck to my plan for first 20mi and was fueling properly. Though sometimes I felt overfueled and my stomach was a bit full, but not too much. I still have to find the right fueling plan. Overall I consumed 7 gu energy gels (2 before the race and 5 during the race) and about 16OZ (500 ml) of gatorade. The gatorade volume is really low, but while running, if I drink more I got full and slow down.

The most interesting part, of course starts from 20th mi. As it's commonly known that the real race is last 6mi. I didn't do it well. But considering elevation level of the course, I think it's OK. I maybe over pushed myself and hoped that after 20th mi I will be able to run with set pace. That didn't happen. Internal dialogue didn't happen in my mind on last 6 mi, as it should have been. It was shut down, by my friends monologue shouting me to speed up. He said, that I worked hard and his efforts for support not to be wasted, etc. His strategy worked I didn't stop and kept running.

My effort to speed on last 2 mi were stopped by small cramps I started having. I quickly understood my legs position should be fixed with no lateral movement to prevent cramping. You know what I mean. My last effort to finish strong on finish line was stopped again by small sign of cramps and I decided to finish easy. Finish! I did it!

Hardly breathing with little power to walk away from FINISH line and I bend touching knees with my hands. I simply didn't have power to answer volunteer's questions "if I'm ok or if I need help". I was even unable to head up and watch straight. After 2 minutes zombie finally found power to get away from finish line. I got water and gift pack for finishing.

I made photo shots with my friends and went to catch a taxi to get home. By that time it started raining and it got really dizzy. When I bent my legs to get into to taxi, cramping nightmare started. I clenched my teeth and pinched my legs. My legs were cramping from top to toes. I realized right movements not to get serious cramps. Shower, a lot of water, gatorade, juice and lunch and I'm in the bed. Though unable to sleep, seems to be not wasted yet :)

The best part of the race is that nobody passed me after mile 12. Really! From that point it was only me passing others and playing killer game, when you kinda "shoot" laggers which boosts your self-confidence.

Organization
To my memory it was the second marathon with such scale in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Around 5,000 people participated in the marathon (9, 12, 42 km), 300 on full marathon. Good job, guys!!! One can always find cons (especially me) everywhere. But overall, for our young marathon really good organization level. With lessons learned from the last year. Almaty really needs such event and it should not be occasional, but systematic to happen every year.

PROS:

CONS:

THOUGHTS
I realized that it's still not my limit and I can improve my results again. But the other question is whether I need it. Ideally, I would like to have a marathon every year. It can serve as a lacmus page of my health level. Also, visiting different countries to participate in the marathon sound like a really cool idea. But I suspect that my competing instinct will push me to run faster and faster.

There are many things in my life, which I need to give more time besides marathon. Marathon preparation takes a lot of time and mental ability. Of course, I'm not exception on desire to squeeze everything into the life. But that's really hard thing. I need to think about my life priorities and of course time will tell everything.