This was a science experiment race - I wanted to see if the high intensity low volume training plan (Ancestral Athlete Marathon by Ben Greenfield) I had read about really worked. Apparently it did.

I was in a lot of pain by the end (hips, mainly) and I think that is because living in very flat Oberlin and training on very limited time around work and kids, I had to heavily modify a lot of the hill workouts from the training plan. There just aren't hills around here. In any case, I am happy with my 6th place finish and with doing this really hard race (>2200 ft of climbing) as my first marathon. It was fun to challenge myself and run a marathon, but I think I'll go back to my shorter distances. I like the ability to go really fast for less time. Sprint tris, crits, track, cx, and 5ks for me.