Completed my first marathon at 6 hours and 12 minutes! San Diego's Rock 'n' Roll Marathon is one of the hardest marathon courses around, and crossing the finish line never felt so glorious. All of the training runs, fitness seminars, & books read culminated to this moment, and what an experience it was. I'm used to running half marathons in 2 hours and devouring a meal, similar to lifting for 1.5 hours and eating. But for the full marathon it's all about energy management. During the first few miles I always had to watch myself and slow my pace down. As a first timer at this distance, I had to run it very conservatively to make sure I had enough juice near the finish line. I consumed gel shots and munched on carb bars every few miles to keep my glycogen levels up, because I knew that if my nutrition game wasn't on point my body would be looking for a meal at the halfway mark. By the time I got to the 13.1 mile marker at Mission Bay I was still feeling energetic, but when I reached Fashion Valley Mall at mile 19 I started to slow way down. After the 163 south uphill I hit a wall at mile 22 and did a lot of walking, but I started to run a lot more on the downhill towards the downtown finish. A word of advice: don't hit walls bro. I learned a great deal from this race and the journey leading up to it, and I'm excited to get back to lifting lol. Proud to join the top 1% that can complete a marathon, and looking forward to shattering my PR at the LA marathon in 2016! #rnrsd #marathon #outrunalifter #outliftarunner (at Rock 'n' Roll San Diego Marathon & 1/2 Marathon)
