I'm Happy!

The marathon is done, Woo Hoo! My birthday isn't so we're moving on to that celebration now. Sitting here sippin' on a Guinness as I write. Ah, doesn't get much better!!

Here's what I know about the marathon (I'll post some pix later):

We went to the "expo" yesterday to pick up my packet and drive part of the course. The "expo" consisted of 6 tables with the race packets and t-shirts - no vendors, no chance to buy race souvenirs. Not exactly comparable to the TCM, but oh well, it's the first year for this race so hopefully for their sake it'll grow.
Got up early this a.m. and made it down to the start line around 6:50ish (8:00 start). Just hung out with Becca (my travel partner from MN who's originally from Indy so she came home for the weekend) and her mom. This marathon was different from many that I've done in that there were just over 3,000 runners total for both the 1/2 marathon and full marathon. Usually I'm used to there being 10,000 at TCM or 20-30,000 at some of these Rock N Roll series races. It was quite nice having the elbow room I'll say!
The weather couldn't have been any better! 47 at the start climbing gradually into the mid 60s by the time I finished, calm and sunny all morning.
The gun went off so we did too. It was actually a pretty uneventful race. I held a decent pace initially, but not too fast. Felt good, relaxed and in control. The first couple of miles were in downtown Indianapolis and then we moved out to some of the residential neighborhoods. The course took us through some "iffy" parts of town, but a mile or two later the view did a 180 and we were looking at some posh houses. I hit the half way point (mile 13.1) at 1:57. There was little time to celebrate because even though that's on pace to finish sub-4 I knew the 2nd half would probably be slower. We wound through Butler Univ., the gardens at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and headed back to downtown. The main road leading us back to the finish area was a 4 mile straightaway covering miles 21 to 25. The unfortunate part of that was the downtown buildings never seemed to get any closer. The bigger they are, the further away you can see them and the longer it takes to get there. Could've been just me at that point too though.
The 2nd half did turn into more of a struggle around mile 18ish, but I tried to keep chugging along. The buildings eventually did get closer, I made a few more turns along the course and finished in 4:13. Although I only got 1 Tier of Happiness (see last previous post) I'm hanging my hat on that it's the fastest marathon I've run this year and my 2nd fastest ever. Not bad for a 40 year old, right? Holy crap, I'm 40 now!!!
This morning was kind of funny. I came down to make my breakfast and Becca wished me a happy birthday. I had to think for a sec because I actually forgot it was my bday, I guess I was too focused on the race.
Becca and her mom were awesome this morning. Not only were they at the start that early with me, but I saw them at 4 other spots along the course as well as at the finish line! And unbeknowst to me Becca made signs too! Thanks ladies!
Even though I didn't hit all my goal times I am content and happy with how things went. I think I need to reevaluate my race day nutrition though because there were some iffy moments along those lines. Physically I felt as good as you can trudging along for 26.2 miles so other than doing a little more strength training I think my training schedule is getting there.

Well, off to get another Guinness. That's my last race of the year so let the off-season and my decade of 40something begin!