Rockford Marathon Race Report

(If you stumbled on my blog looking for race results, go here. If you're looking for photos, go here. Or you could just stop and stay for a while!)

Today, I ran in my first marathon.

I won't make you wait... I'll just get right to the good part:

I completed my 6.27 miles in 59:03.

That's a personal-record pace of 9:25.

I'm in total disbelief. After reviewing my recent runs and races, I was aiming for a 10:25 pace. So this blew me away. Granted, my last 5K was run in a 9:26 pace, but this was twice as far!

So overall, I'm thrilled.

Here are a few photos and a rough rundown of the day...

The race went off with a bang at 7 am. It was a BRISK 39 degrees outside.



Our sports reporter was there capturing the action.



After the race started, I wasn't sure what to do with myself. I walked over to my relay start, but no one was there. So... I went home. It was only a 10 minute walk back to my apartment. I warmed up inside, drank some water, and watched some "Property Virgins" haha.

Around 8, I meandered back towards the race. Our 2nd relay runner came in around 1:55. We high-fived and I was on my way.

About 2 miles in, I thought to myself, "I'm way too tired. I'm probably going too fast." I don't know my mile splits, because I started my race somewhere around 13.5 miles.

Around 4 miles, my hip started aching. Fortunately, it never got so bad that I had to slow down.

At 5 miles, we started heading up hill. It was really tough. I saw some extremely strong runners slow to a walk under the hilly conditions. But I kept chugging along and would NOT allow myself to walk.

I neared our final relay checkpoint, and I was feeling pretty decent. I was able to give it a good push up the final hill and enjoyed a large cheering audience. I high-fived our final runner, and she was off.

I felt good, but hungry. We drove back to the finish line, and I scarfed down a bagel and some chips.

At 3:48, our anchor crossed the finish line.



One thing I'm dissapointed about is that the marathon and HM runners all got medals, but the relay runners did not. Boo that.

We checked our final time on a nearby computer, and found a big surprise. It said we finished in 1:10! That's right... under 3 minute miles haha.

I guess what happened was our 2nd runner got lost along his route and ended up CROSSING the finish line before he even hit mile 12. Well, he was wearing his chip, and it must've registered that we finished our race. Woops!

Oh well... no harm done. Someone else must've made the same mistake, because it said we got 2nd place overall. I just don't want anyone to think that the local news team tried to cheat!



I got a little sunburnt. I know I should've worn sunscreen, but when it's 35 degrees and you can't feel your fingers, slathering on sunscreen is the last thing on your mind.

Thanks for everyone's support recently. I feel really great about my race and especially my time. Even though 6.27 isn't an official race distance, I'm going count this as a big fat PR! Now that I've done this, I look forward to signing up for my first 10K.