I had read this a little while ago, but I wanted to share it with the rest of you. Here’s a writeup by BD about his first marathon - and IMO he did it exactly the right way. Very cool.
http://www.livejournal.com/~bd1/3779.html
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I'm Richard Stanford, a fit, happy runner. Of course, that wasn't always the case. Dip into the archives to follow my progress from couch potato to sub-four hour marathoner.
I also like to cook, write, code, and play with power tools...
| Distance | Race | Time | Pace |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marathon | 2006 Freescale | 3:54:07 | 8:56 |
| 20 Miles | 2006 RunTex | 3:00:08 | 9:00 |
| 30K | 2005 RunTex | 2:42:44 | 8:45 |
| Half M | 2006 3M | 1:42:57 | 7:51 |
| 20K | 2005 Decker | 1:40:42 | 8:06 |
| 10 Miles | 2005 Pervasive | 1:20:13 | 8:01 |
| 10K | 2005 Dublin Dr Pepper | 48:43 | 7:51 |
| 5 Miles | 2005 Turkey Trot | 37:01 | 7:24 |
| 5K | 2005 Margarita Run | 22:32 | 7:15 |
| 4K | 2006 Fila Relays | 17:24 | 7:15 |
| 1 Mile | 2006 Congress Ave | 6:23 | 6:23 |
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| Runner | Time | Pace |
|---|---|---|
| George W. Bush | 3:44:52 | 8:35 |
| John Edwards | 3:30:18 | 8:01 |
| Carrie Sapp | 3:29:06 | 7:59 |
| Boston Qualifier | 3:10:59 | 7:17 |
| Lance Armstrong | 2:59:36 | 6:51 |
| Gilbert Tuhabonye | 2:23:07 | 5:28 |
| Paula Radcliffe | 2:15:25 | 5:10 |
| Paul Tegat | 2:04:55 | 4:46 |
| Haile Gebrselassie | 2:03:59 | 4:44 |
Nov 19th 2004
10:00 AM
thanks for the link, richard!
i agree, one of the finest race accounts. he did it RIGHT!
Nov 19th 2004
10:33 AM
That was beautiful. I felt really excited reading that. Can you post that again in the spring?
Nov 19th 2004
4:37 PM
Hi Richard - thanks very much for your response to my article at completerunning.com. I’m glad you enjoyed it and I will be posting often so please visit again soon. I really liked reading through your site - runners are the BEST kind of people and a wonderful community to belong to. Keep up the great work!
Marlene
Nov 20th 2004
7:08 PM
Wow, thank you for the kind words.
I think the way I approached the race might not feel right for some people, depending on their goals. If I were trying to qualify for Boston or beat a particular time then I ran the race completely wrong. But those weren’t my goals. My goals were to finish and enjoy the experience. Once I let go of the time goal (and that was very hard to do) I was able to relax and truly enjoy every second of the day. My marathon was not a grueling experience. It was quite the opposite. It was a celebration and a reward for my hard training. It was a birthday present to myself.
Thanks again for your kind words and for sharing my experience with others.
Best,
BD