The Mayor's Marathon is run on the weekend of the summer solstice, and it has earned its nickname as the Midnight Sun marathon. This far north, on the longest day of the year, Anchorage gets nearly 19 hours of daylight! The sun barely dips below the horizon, and it doesn't truly set until close to midnight. There is something special about toeing the line knowing the day will never really go dark. We started at 7:30am on Saturday morning, and the sun was already high and bright in the sky.

The forecast was about as good as a marathoner can hope for. It was sunny and clear with a 0% chance of rain. This was a welcome change after the rain-and-wind battles I fought at Detroit and Big Beach earlier in this stretch of races. The temperature started at a crisp 56℉ and only climbed to about 64℉ by the finish, with a low dew point and just a gentle 8mph breeze off the water. Better still, the course spends most of its miles tucked into shaded trails through the woods, so even as the sun rose, I was running under a cool canopy for the majority of the race. I could not have asked for friendlier conditions.

I came into this one fit and healthy for once, having strung together a clean training block with no illness or injury derailing my long runs. Because of that, I set goals I actually believed I could chase, building my plan around a 3:15 target:

• C Goal: 3:15:00
• B Goal: 3:10:00
• A Goal: 3:05:00

From the gun, I locked into a controlled rhythm right around 7:00/mi and just sat there. The opening miles ticked by like a metronome—7:03, 7:03, 7:01, 7:04—with my heart rate parked at a comfortable 153 the whole time. The only early hiccup was a climb on mile 6 that pushed me to 7:12, but as soon as the trail tipped back down I rolled right through a stretch of 6:53–6:56 miles without any extra effort. I crossed the half at 1:34:16, feeling strong and very much in control, which is a feeling I have been missing in my recent races.

What I love about looking back at the splits is how flat that bar chart is. Outside of the one hill on mile 6, every single mile of the race fell between 6:47 and 7:12. No blow-up, no death march, no yo-yo of speeding up and crashing. Just 26 miles of the same honest, repeatable effort. After a string of marathons where the second half turned into a survival shuffle, running this evenly felt like getting an old friend back.

This is not a flat course, though. The Mayor's Marathon weaves through Anchorage's greenbelt and trail system. Comprised of The Tour of Anchorage trail, Chester Creek, and the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail, the course racks up nearly 1,000 feet of climbing along the way. After dropping down to the coast early on, the course grinds steadily uphill from around mile 11 all the way to a high point above 320 feet near miles 17–18. That is exactly where a marathon usually starts to unravel, and where my heart rate began its slow climb from 153 up into the 160s.

But here is the part I am most proud of: I never once stopped to walk. Not at a single aid station, not on a single hill. Not the whole way. If you have read any of my recent reports, you know that has not been the case lately. Detroit, Big Beach, even Grandma's all had me taking walking breaks in the back half just to hang on. This time I kept my feet moving the entire 26.2, grabbing water on the run and pushing right on through every climb. As the hills bit and my heart rate drifted up toward 168, I just told myself to hold form and keep turning the legs over.

Even better, I had something left for the finish. Coming off the high point and back down toward the city, I actually got faster. Mile 23 was deep into the part of the race where I am usually falling apart and was my single fastest mile of the day at 6:47. I closed out the last 10K by reeling people in rather than getting passed, and ran my final mile at 6:55. My two halves came out almost dead even (1:34:16 out, 1:35:54 back) on a hilly course, which is about as well as I know how to execute a marathon.

I crossed the line in 3:10:10, an average pace of 7:15/mi. That landed me right on my B Goal, just a hair over the 3:10 line, and well inside my 3:15 training target. The 3:05 A Goal slipped away by a few minutes, but honestly, I am not the least bit disappointed. My average heart rate of 159 and the way I finished tell me the fitness is there, and that sub-3:05 is squarely in reach on a flatter day.

The result that really made me smile, though, was the placement. I finished 19th overall out of 820 marathon finishers, and grabbed 3rd place in the Male 40–49 age group, an actual podium spot! A little bittersweet detail: my time was almost identical to Grandma's Marathon a year ago (3:10:22 there vs. 3:10:10 here), but the two races could not have felt more different. At Grandma's I faded and walked my way to that time… here I ran every step and felt strong doing it. Same clock, completely different runner.

And of course, no marathon is complete without a trip for my traditional post-race tattoo to increment the tally. That's 43 and counting!

Alaska was one of the harder states to get to on my 50-state quest, and to finally check it off with my best-executed race in a year made the trip more than worth it. Next up is marathon number #44 in Hartford, CT. Stay tuned!

Race morning greeted us with a thick, soupy fog you could practically swim through. Draping the whole course in a dense cloud, it was otherworldly down by the waterfront where the ocean simply dissolved into a wall of mist just past the dunes. You couldn't see where the sand ended and the sea began. The air was cool and damp at the 7:00 AM gun, sitting right around 60°F, and honestly it felt like perfect running weather for the opening miles.

I should have known that calm couldn't last. As the sun climbed, it burned the fog off in a hurry, and the back half of the race turned bright, sunny, and surprisingly hot. The temperature shot up into the low 70s°F with the sun beating straight down on the exposed stretches of road — a brutal swing from the cool, foggy world I'd happily settled into for the first 13 miles.

• C Goal: Finish
• B Goal: sub 3:15:00
• A Goal: sub 3:07:00
• Stretch Goal: sub 3:05:00

As I do with most races, I went out locked in on my target pace of about 7:05/mi, and for the first half I absolutely nailed it. I clicked through the 5K in 22:43 and the 10K in 44:45, rolling along through the fog feeling strong, smooth, and in complete control, give-or-take a few seconds per mile.

Then the fog lifted, the sun came out, and one by one the wheels started to come off. The heat crept up on me, and somewhere around the halfway mark my legs turned to lead and my breathing grew labored in the rising warmth. My once-metronomic splits began to drift, and I could feel that the back half was going to be a grind. By the time the oceanfront opened up bright and blue like this, the morning fog was already a distant memory.

I had to stop and walk several times over those final miles, something I always hate to do, but my body left me little choice in the heat. I hit the wall hard, and my pace fell right off a cliff — my slowest mile crawled in at a painful 9:22, a far cry from the 7:02 I'd been cruising at earlier in the cool. The gap between my fastest and slowest splits really tells the whole story of this race.

Smoothed out, the toll the sun took is plain to see: a flat, steady line through the foggy first half, then a long, steady climb in pace as the heat wore me down in the second.

Digging deep, I gutted out the closing miles, alternating running and walking until I could finally spot the finish. With the line in sight, I managed to scrape together one last gear and push it home with a smile and a fist in the air.

I crossed with an official time of 3:23:00. Not the day I'd drawn up when I set out at 7:05 pace, but given how quickly that fog gave way to full sun and heat, I'll happily take a finish in the low 3:20s and call it a hard-earned battle with the conditions.

The heat clearly took its toll on the whole field, because even with my second-half struggles I still came in 150th out of 1,977 finishers, and 10th in my 40-44 age group. Not bad for a day that did its very best to cook me!

After cleaning up and refueling, I incremented my tally!

Next up, we have marathon number #43 in Anchorage, Alaska on June 20th. Stay tuned!

As I write, a massive winter storm is rocking Central and Eastern United States, bringing tons of rain, snow, strong winds, and freezing temperatures to states from Texas to Maine and all in between. To be honest, I wasn't sure this race was going to even start, with the winter storm hitting the Alabama Coast literally during the marathon race window. I was comforted to hear that the only way they would cancel it was if there were lightning strikes in the area, which thankfully did not occur.

When I went to bed last night, the forecast had a 95% chance of rain throughout the entire race. But something shifted overnight, and this morning was dry! The temperature was still quite warm and unpleasant though, starting off at 70°F, with 94% humidity. Made me wish for a bit of rain to release some of that humidity!

Coming from training in freezing temperatures and low humidity throughout the New York City winter, The drastic change in weather conditions was a bit tough for me to adjust to, and I felt it immediately during my warm up mile before the race. I had a rough training cycle for this race, due to falling ill with a rough flu for 3 weeks late December. I missed, or was forced to cut short, my 3 longest long runs of the cycle, so I knew today would be a little rougher than most races, especially in the latter half. I didn't adjust my plan though, but I could already feel it was going to be unlikely to meet even before the race started.

• C Goal: Finish
• B Goal: sub 3:15:00
• A Goal: sub 3:07:00
• Stretch Goal: sub 3:05:00

I ended up hitting my C Goal today, which I can still say I'm proud of given the conditions and my training levels. But I started off pacing towards my A Goal, locking in a 7:08 pace in my watch. I maintained that steady pace (give-or-take a few seconds per mile) for the first 13 miles.

Around the halfway point, my legs started feeling like lead, and I found it harder to breath with the humidity, surely starving my muscles of oxygen. I found myself needing to walk every so often just to catch my breath a little. So the second half saw my pace steadily decrease, all the way up to miles 20 and 21. A nice guy who was running with me for several miles initiated a conversation and while talking, both of us picked up the pace a little. Funny how taking your mind off of the pain is a way to power through it. When he dropped off to walk a bit more, I ended up slowing down too without the distractions.

The last 5 miles for me were brutal. Facing a strong headwind from the incoming storm, and still dealing with the high humidity, I really struggled. I got into a cycle of running about 1/4 mile, then walking, then running another 1/4 mile, then walking again, repeat, repeat. I totally hit the wall. Metaphorically with my will to keep going, but also literally as the wall of wind pushing me back as I tried to run forward.

I persevered though, and despite being my slowest miles of any recent race, I made it through, and crossed that finish line with a final time of 3:25:05, meeting my C Goal of simply finishing the race.

I think a lot of other runners struggled with the weather too, because despite not being anywhere near one of my fastest times, I still finished in 25th place out of 445 runners. Not bad!

While walking back to the hotel, the sky opened up and the storm dumped a TON of water on the region, with extremely high winds. There was even a tornado watch alert broadcast to the area. I am pretty lucky to have finished before all of that happened, as I think with my mental state in the last 5 miles, I might have given up and had a DNF.

After cleaning up and refueling, I incremented my tally!

Next up, we have marathon number #42 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in early March. Stay tuned!

Happy Thanksgiving! With friends in Seattle, my family decided to head out west to Washington for friends-giving, and I thought it would be great to squeeze in a marathon in a new state while here on the trip. I didn't have high expectations for the race, so took it easy on both training, and running the race, with very little pressure. I'm glad I did, because race day had its challenges.

• C Goal: Finish
• B Goal: sub 3:20:00
• A Goal: sub 3:15:00
• Stretch Goal: sub 3:10:00

Running in the Pacific-Northwest in late November, I was expecting to run in full, or at least partial rain. Every day leading up to race day saw rain, but to my pleasant surprise, Sunday came and the sky was completely clear! Once the sun rose, it remained sunny for most of the run, however, the temperatures started off at 33°F and never rose above 41°F during my run, making it a bit chillier than I prepared for. I kept my warm up clothes on until mile 20 or so, and ran in some emergency gloves I picked up the night before.

This race finish was a triumph over abnormally cold weather, and hills!

Fingers and toes nearly frozen, I ran freely in the first half. With my body struggling in the near-freezing temperatures, running faster than I should have helped to keep my core temperatures elevated, and extremities circulating blood. The hills definitely did not help, but I was able to maintain a solid pace, with an average pace of about 6:50/mi through the first half.

Temperatures slowly rose around miles 14-15 but by that point, I was bonking due to going out too hard. I kept it a bit slower from there on out, allowing myself to walk when needed as well. My pace dropped linearly from there, down to my slowest 9:30/mi around mile 24. With the end in sight, and the temperature more comfortable, I picked up the pace a tad to finish off the race.

In the end, I finished with a time of 3:12:36, well under my A Goal of 3:15:00. Not a spectacular finish by any means, but still one I was happy with given the conditions, and my lower expectations of myself on this fun holiday run!

I am so lucky to have my family and friends out to support me, even in the cold. Here is a video taken on mile 25 by my loving wife.

And of course, I incremented my tally!

Next up, we have marathon number #41 in Gulf Shores, Alabama in January. Stay tuned!

I am so happy to share that I recently finished the 2025 TCS New York City Marathon! Coming just two weeks off of the Detroit Marathon, this was my 5th marathon completed this year and 39th overall! This marathon was also a special milestone race as it was my 10th New York City Marathon! This is always my favorite race to run and I plan to keep running every year that I can. My hometown race is a world major, with the best crowds, and the most exciting course. I am thrilled to be able to run it every year with the NYRR 9+1 Program, and this year was no exception!

With this race so close to my last one, I knew that I would not be setting any records. I had a loose time goal in mind, but was really treating this like the fun run it is. My main goal was just to finish, and enjoy the experience, but was hoping to get less than a 03:10:00 time while doing so.

• Goal: Finish
• Stretch Goal: sub 3:10:00

Starting off at 9am, the weather was perfect on race day. It was 49° and sunny, very little wind, and relatively low humidity. It rose to about 56° by the end of the race, still very comfortable for running.

I took it pretty easy out of the gate, going slower up the Verrazzano Bridge than I normally would, and just soaking in the atmosphere. My first mile was 07:39/mi pace. The bridge was packed, excitement was high, and I was psyching myself up for the rest of the race. Unfortunately there is only one photo of me on the bridge, and I had my eyes closed! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

After the bridge, I found myself feeling great, running freely and aligned with the 03:05:00 pace group. I knew I wasn't going to be able to stick with this pace the entire race, but I thought I would stay with them as long as I could. Turns out that was for about 19 miles!

Brooklyn is always really fun to run through. I always high-five the kids, tap the power-up signs, smile and wave to the crowds when they cheer me on, and just enjoy the energy. The course is lined with tons of spectators almost the entire borough.

Despite the energy I get from the crowds, and my love for the support, my absolute favorite part of the race is the Queensboro Bridge as it is completely silent. No spectators are allowed on the bridge, so it is just you and your thoughts. I always use it to check-in with myself, find my focus, and make adjustments to my plan as necessary to finish the last 10 miles of the race as strongly as possible. On this particular day, I still felt great crossing the bridge, and decided to go a little stronger.

On 1st avenue I felt incredible. In years past, I have hit the wall here, or had a tough time on the slight 1st Ave incline, but this year I was flying. I was passing people left and right, and feeling really strong. Miles 17-19 were my fastest miles of the day, averaging a 6:30/mi pace.

The New York Harriers had a big cheering section on 1st Avenue around mile 18, and it was so exciting to see them! I took that energy into the Bronx and was hoping to ride it out to the end of the day, but my body had other plans…

On the Willis Avenue Bridge between Manhattan and The Bronx, I started to feel a little uneasy. Perhaps I drank too much at the last few aid stations, or maybe I had too much energy gel, but I started to feel some nausea coming on, and ultimately had to vomit a bit on the bridge. Not fun, but it did help me feel better after getting it out of my system.

I lost about 2 minutes with that stop, but felt instantly better and was able to keep running. I kept up that fast pace for another mile, but started to feel some more nausea coming on at mile 22 so decided to not push it super-fast anymore, dropping my pace and just trying to get to the finish line.

I saw some Harriers on the 5th Avenue climb on mile 23 which is always a much-needed boost on a tough part of the course. I never recovered my top pace, but still finished those last 4 miles strong, and with a smile on my face the whole time.

In Central Park, I saw my family, which was another great boost right near the end. I was starting to feel great again, and picked up the pace just for the last 0.2mi to the finish line.

I finished with an official time of 03:08:54, well ahead of my stretch goal!

Outside of the Covid years, I haven't missed a single New York City Marathon since my first one in 2015, and I plan to keep that streak going while I can. No tattoo yet for this marathon, but I will be sure to get one soon and increment the tally!

Next up is marathon number #40 on November 30th in Seattle. Stay tuned!

I am pleased to share that today I finished the 2025 Detroit Free Press Marathon, my 4th of the year and 38th total! But the weather made it a super challenging day, and I wasn't always so sure I had it in me to cross the finish line…

I knew coming into this race that it was going to rain. I have been tracking it for the past two weeks hoping for a shift in the weather patterns, or an inaccuracy in the forecast, but no such luck. The forecast called for steady rain throughout the entire race, and strong winds of about 20mph, with gusts up to 40mph at times. Yikes!

The worst of it was in the first 8 miles, where the rain was heaviest, wind was very strong, and literally everybody got soaked to the bone. My shoes were waterlogged within the first 2 miles of running through the poorly-drained street puddles, and my socks were squishing with every step. Wind made it really difficult to cross the Ambassador Bridge into Canada, and I was getting blasted in the face and eyes with rain sideways. It was miserable. The rain lightened up a bit after about an hour, but the wind kept strong for the rest of the race, making it a tough day out there.

Despite all of the horrible weather, I was too amped and went out faster than I wanted to go today. It was really exciting to run one of the only international marathons in the US, and I wanted to make the most of it. The Canadian miles in Windsor were my favorite parts by far. After coming off the bridge, we had about 3 miles running along the south bank of the Detroit River, with the sun rising, and Downtown Detroit waking up in views to our left. It was beautiful, and I was flying through those miles with the 3-hour pace group, sticking with them even through the tunnel back into the US.

It became apparent to me in the incline part of the tunnel around mile 8 that I had gone out too fast. I was dripping wet, cold, and started to feel some early signs of leg fatigue. It took me another couple of miles trying to power through to convince me, but I ended up abandoning my time goals, slowing down a bit and settling into a steadier pace around mile 10. I tried to focus solely on getting through the wind and rain and crossing that finish line on my feet.

Around the halfway point I was starting to feel really fatigued. Battling the wind really takes a lot out of you when running, and it really only helps when it is directly at your back. The rest of the time, it is just a constant struggle and energy-drain to run against. The rain stopped for a bit, but I was already soaking wet and carrying all the extra water weight the whole way. For just about every mile after the halfway point I stopped to walk for 30-60 secs as powering through was too tough feeling the relentless wind, and knowing how many miles I had left to get through.

I don't have much to report on for the last half—It was just a grind to get through it. There were some interesting neighborhoods I got to run through, and lots of great street art throughout the city. The few people who were out cheering were nice, but they also were not so excited to be out in the weather!

My friends Daniel and Jessie came out to cheer me on around mile 25 with their young daughter, and it was a really nice boost to see some familiar faces near the end and receive some speed-boosting high-fives!

In the end, I was able to cross the finish line, exhausted, cold, and soaked to the bone, but happy to be done. My official time was 3:19:36 so definitely not my fastest, but given the conditions, I am proud of it nonetheless.

And of course, I went for my traditional post-marathon tattoo and incremented my tally!

After cleaning up, I spent the day with my friends and had a blast, thanks for the great time!

Next up is marathon number #39 in 2 weeks, back home in New York City. Stay tuned!

Grandma's Marathon is a very unique race. Between the 5k, half marathon, and marathon, there were over 30,000 runners that descend on this small town of 100,000 residents. It is a massive race for a city this size, and is a huge annual event for the city. I've never been to Duluth before, but is a really nice city that sits on the shores of Lake Superior. I got to finish a marathon in Minnesota, and cross off another state on my journey to running in all 50.

Sticking with the theme of hot marathons this year, the Duluth weather was very warm and very humid, with a heat advisory for the day bringing temperatures up to the high 80s with very high humidity. We started relatively later in the morning, at about 8:15am with a temperature of about 62℉ and 89% humidity, but by the time I finished, the temperature shot up to 80℉

Coming off a rolled-ankle injury from the Brooklyn Half 6 weeks ago, I did not have high expectations coming into this race. I had to take 3 weeks off from running to recover during the peak weeks of this marathon training cycle, and my longest training run was only 19 miles. To be honest, I was not sure I would finish this race, as I seemed to have been struggling with endurance on the longer runs lately. As a result, I set my goals relatively lower than normal.

• C Goal: Finish
• B Goal: sub 3:30:00
• A Goal: sub 3:20:00
• Stretch Goal: sub 3:15:00

The course was really nice running alongside Lake Superior the entire way. The cool early morning mist coming off the lake felt a rush of air conditioning to the face, and the views were really nice where I could see through the fog. The course is relatively flat, and I was able to keep a strong pace of about 6:45/mi for the first half, locking in a time of 1:28:35 over 13.1 miles. I felt like my old self, with a glimmer of hope that I might be able to sustain this pace for the whole race, resulting in my first sub-3 hour marathon since Boston in 2023.

After the halfway point, I decided to take a 30-second walking break to give myself a little breather before launching into the second half, but in hindsight that was a mistake. When I started running again, I was not able to get back into my groove, and I started to feel a little fatigued. Ultimately, the next 6 miles were run much slower than the first half, and I was seeing my time slip. The endurance fatigue I had worried about was starting to show, and I was not able to keep pushing as much as I would have liked to. Combine that with the rising heat in the latter half, and my pace dropped and dropped, getting as low as 8:30 on mile 22.

I lost about 10 minutes in the second half from walking, and just running a bit slower, ending up with a final time of 3:10:22 which is still a solid time, but not quite the sub-3 hour marathon I was hoping for in the early parts of the race. With my pre-race expectations set really low, I was able to hit my Stretch Goal and I am pleased to have done that, but I was a little disappointed after seeing how well I started the race off. I think I could have hit a sub-3 had I not been injured earlier this year and had been able to get some longer runs in during training.

After the race, I got my tattoo, then spent some time exploring the city of Duluth on a gorgeous hot summer day -- for walking, not racing!

Next up is marathon number #38 in October, in Detroit, Michigan!

This race was a really fun one to run! We have some friends that live in OKC, so visiting them while running a marathon was a great way to spend the weekend. The course was beautiful, winding through Midtown, Riverside, Capitol View, Nichols Hills, The Village, and more. It was a scenic course, with lots of trees, parks, and suburban roads.

The race started off bright and early at 6:30AM just minutes after sunrise. The weather was on the warm side, kicking off at 64°F and 94% humidity, rising up to about 70°F and direct sun by the time I finished. This heat and humidity definitely made the day a bit of a challenge, but I was able to push through and finish soaked in sweat, with an official 3:23:57 overall time.

• C Goal: Finish
• B Goal: sub 3:20:00
• A Goal: sub 3:10:00
• Stretch Goal: sub 3:10:00

I started the race off pretty strong and disciplined at about a 6:50 pace, feeling great, and keeping up with the pacers. I was able to maintain that pace for the first 8 miles or so, and felt pretty good.

Shortly after mile 8 however, I started feeling a little nauseated. Most likely just the heat and humidity combined with the strong efforts, but I was forced to slow down a tad, until ultimately, I pulled off to the side to 🤮 just a little. After a minute or 2 to recover from that, I started to feel better, but I never regained my full pace and settled down to about a 7:20 pace for a good while.

Around mile 16, I started to run out of steam and felt some nausea again, so I spent some time walking for about 30 seconds every mile for the rest of the race, resulting in about a 8:00 pace on average for the last 10 miles.

Di, Eli, and our friends Jess and Ryan, all came out to cheer me on at multiple spots throughout the course. It was incredible to feel their love and support as I ran through the streets of Oklahoma City. It kept me going in a difficult race where I wasn't feeling my best.

I was able to finish strong, with a final mile pace of about 7:26, and a sprint to the finish line down hill.

And of course, I incremented my tally later on that day!

Next up, I have marathon number #37, Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota in June. Stay tuned!

• C Goal: Finish
• B Goal: sub 3:15:00
• A Goal: sub 3:10:00
• Stretch Goal: sub 3:05:00

Despite the abnormally cold weather and relentless, frigid wind, I was able to power through with an official time of 3:09:13, hitting my A Goal of a sub 3:10:00 race.

This is a relatively smaller race, with only about 3500 participants in total, about 1200 of which ran the full marathon. I was able to book a hotel about 3 blocks from the start line, so I was able to sleep in a little bit extra, get prepped, and roll out to the start line as late as 6:40am. Officially starting off at 7am, I had a little time to warm up and stretch, before shedding my layers and getting ready to run.

As the civic center of the state and city, naturally the downtown area of Baton Rouge is a ghost town on a normal Sunday morning, but on a race morning where many of the streets were closed, it truly felt as though the runners owned the streets. The first 4 or 5 miles were spend leaving the downtown area and heading towards the surrounding suburbs, the LSU campus, Mid City, Jefferson Court, and back again.

It was a bit chilly in the start, but around mile 5 or 6 the wind really kicked in and never stopped. It was a strong, cold wind, and somehow breaking the laws of physics, I seemed to constantly be running into it as a headwind. The wind proved to be a real challenge to keep motivation and speed up as I faced a 13mph average with even stronger gusts. It was definitely as an unexpected competitor on this course. I was able to commiserate with other runners along the course, and we all agreed that given the relatively flat elevation, the wind was the real challenge of the day.

I was particularly proud of myself for not stopping to walk at any point until mile 20, breaking a pattern I have seen in my past few races of needing to rest much earlier in the race. I think that the wind actually stopped me from pushing too hard, something I am prone to do early on in the race due to nerves, and lack of discipline. While not going out too hard, I was able to keep myself focused at a relatively consistent pace of about 7:00/mi over the first 20 miles.

Even though I afforded myself a little walking rest in the final 10k, miles 20-26 were no "walk in the park." Nothing was cramping up, I was well-hydrated, well-fueled, but the wind was at my face for the last 6 miles, and it was really difficult to keep pushing hard. It was like running through a 6-mile "wall", where I wanted to give up every step. Despite this motivational challenge slowing me down, I knew I would eventually finish, and stopped checking the pace on my wrist.

While it felt like I was going much slower than I actually was, My slowest split on those last 6 miles was 8:35/mi, so I didn't lose a ton of time in the end. Heading back into downtown and turning the corner on to N. 4th Street towards the Capitol Building, I dug deep and found some reserved speed, pushing strong through the finish line, towards sweet relief from the wind.

After the race, it was so chilly out that I skipped the free food and drinks and trekked back to the hotel to recover, rehydrate, and refuel. Later on, after a good rest, I set out to find a local tattoo shop and got my tally incremented by Alex at Black Torch Tattoo, a fellow runner who had to sit this marathon out due to injury.

Up next is marathon #36 in January, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma!

This race was a smaller marathon I wanted to run just so I could see the city, and cross off another state on my journey to running in all 50. I had originally planned for it to be my main Fall race, but I got into the 2024 NYC Marathon after thinking I wouldn't, only 13 days prior to this race, so I was not able to push myself for a stellar finish time. As a result, I finished with an official 3:15:33 overall time, which is still in the top 10% of marathoners, but slower than normal for me.

This race was really flat, with only about 600 feet of elevation gain over the entire course. The weather was really nice at about 47℉, but the humidity was a pretty high 86%.

For the third time this year, I started off strong for the first half, but then had a hard time keeping pace in the second half. I was seeing dreaded positive splits, but I was able to keep my average at 7:17/mi in total.

• C Goal: Finish
• B Goal: sub 3:15:00
• A Goal: sub 3:10:00
• Stretch Goal: sub 3:05:00

The claims of being the friendliest marathon were not unfounded. The volunteers were amazing, the course was well marked, and the spectators were great. I was able to get a lot of high-fives from kids along the course, and the cheering sections, though sparse, were loud and supportive. The course was really pretty, with a lot of tree-lined streets, and a few crosses over the James River.

After the race, I met up with my friend Chine to eat a celebratory lunch at a nearby Korean restaurant, get a tattoo, and hang out for a bit playing chess at a local board game cafe. A perfect way to wrap up a race day, and it was great to catch up with her.

Next up is marathon number #35 in January, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana!