There is no "FORMULA"

After running the Shamrock whole last year, and feeling like a champ, pretty much the whole time, I thought that I had "THE FORMULA" down. Not so much. This weekend I ran the Pittsburgh marathon, my hometown race. The weather was great, mid 50s with some light drizzle for about an hour. By the way, the course was great, the support from the neighborhoods was incredible...just an amazing event!! I thought I did everything right. The eating, the sleeping, the running...at mile 9, that's when it started. The search for the port-o-john. After three stops and an agonizing 17.2 miles I finished in 4:10 and some change. Quite a difference from 3:27 at Shamrock. Fortunately, I had those 17.2 miles to make up my mind that I was happy to be there (stomach cramps and horrible splits, and all) and used those 4 hours and 10 minutes to start planning how I was going to change my training for Richmond.