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Lexington Minuteman: November 30, 2000 ]]> http://bobrebello.com/archives/351/feed 0 http://bobrebello.com/archives/26 http://bobrebello.com/archives/26#comments Tue, 12 Aug 2008 04:33:32 +0000 Bob http://bobrebello.com/?p=26 One Man on a Mission Committed to a Cause Worldwide Impact

Mission: To raise $100k for kidney cancer research in memory of my brother John by running worldwide marathons on 7 continents.

Worldwide Marathons for kidney cancer research marathon number: 2 [2^nd continent-Europe]

Marathon: Dublin, Ireland Marathon

Marathon date: October 30, 2000

Marathon Goals:

1.To exceed the $4,635.00 that I raised for the USMC marathon.

Result: I raised $7,145.00 for the Dublin marathon.

2. To beat my USMC finish time of 4:39:55 and run all 26.2 miles.

Result: My finish time was 4:09 and I ran all 26.2 miles.

My worldwide marathons rating: Worst weather – rain, wind, and cold.

Most memorable moment: I got Walking Pneumonia after the race.

Amount raised for kidney cancer research: $7,145.00

Marathon Highlights:

· Meeting some of the 4,000+ US runners entered in the marathon.

· Irish hospitality – the “Friendly Marathon”.

· Dublin’s many Pubs.

· The run through the historic Dublin streets.

· Worldwide marathons story featured in the Lexington, Massachusetts Minuteman newspaper.[11/30/08]

Marathon selection and registration: I decided to run my 2^nd worldwide marathon, and 2^nd continent, for kidney cancer research in Europe but before I selected the country I needed to renew my passport, which took about 2 months until I received my new passport. After checking out the many European marathons that would be held in the September to November timeframe, I selected the Dublin, Ireland marathon that would be held on October 30, 2000. The reasons that I selected the Dublin marathon was because it had been running for about 21 years, it was well managed, and there would be a large number of US runners entered in the marathon – and what better country to celebrate the start of the new millennium than Ireland. I registered for the marathon in March of 2000, 7 months before the marathon, by mailing in my check for the $50.00 registration fee. About a month later I received my registration confirmation and my Bib #489.

Kidney Cancer Research fundraising: The Dublin marathon would be my 2^nd worldwide marathon to raise money for kidney cancer research in memory of my brother, and best friend, John. My goal for the Dublin marathon was to exceed the $4,635.00 that I raised for the USMC marathon in 1999. My fund raising efforts for the Dublin marathon began in March of 2000, once I had confirmed that I was officially registered. The commitments that I made to my donors were that 100% of all money raised would go directly to kidney cancer research, and that I would do all of the work and pay all of the expenses. At this time I did not have a website where people could donate on-line which meant that all of my fundraising efforts would be made through flyers that I would design and send out through the US mail to my growing distribution list. For the Dublin flyer I included my copyrighted cartoon runner and used green paper for the flyer. Printing the flyers took almost 2 days as I had a very slow Printer that would only print about 10 flyers at a time. Once they were all printed I folded the flyers, addressed them, and mailed the flyers 3 months before the marathon. I am happy to report that I received a large number of donations prior to my leaving for Dublin in October.

Travel: After receiving my marathon registration confirmation and my Bib# I made my hotel and air reservations. My daughter Lisa would be traveling with me for the marathon and we would be spending 5 days in Dublin [10/27-10/31] and 3 days in London [11/01-11/04] after the marathon. We flew Aer Lingus from Logan airport on October 26^th at 7:30pm – it was a good flight and I met a number of people on board who would be running the Dublin marathon. While in Dublin we stayed at an excellent hotel, the Shelbourne Dublin, a national treasure built in 1824. A luxury 5 star hotel in Dublin city center overlooking St. Stephen’s Green, Europe’s grandest garden square. It is close to Dublin’s cultural and historic buildings. Near majestic St. Patrick’s cathedral, Trinity College, and the shops on Grafton Street. The hotel was only about 15 to 20 minutes walk to the marathon start line. I made my airline reservations with Aer Lingus from Boston to Shannon airport. While in London we stayed at the Royal Lancaster hotel – opposite the 600 acres of Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, minutes walk to London’s West End shops theatreland, and Buckingham Palace. Another excellent hotel with a great location.

Training: During 2000 I ran a number of races to give me a sense of my readiness for the marathon and to estimate my marathon pace. The races and results were:

Date Race Finish Time

04/20/00 Lexington    10k 56:14 [9:05 pace]

04/30/00 James Joyce 10k 52:17 [8:17 pace]

05/13/00 Covered Bridges ½  1:50 [8:25 pace] 4^th in age

09/23/00 N.H. Relay 11 miles 1:28

To prepare for the Dublin marathon I used the same 12-week 450-mile training program that I used for the 1999 USMC marathon. I ran into a medical problem in the 4^th week of my Dublin training, when I had my yearly physical examination, my doctor found a slight spike on my EKG and would not let me continue my training until I had passed a stress test. The test results were okay and I was back training again in a week’s time. I went through the rest of my training schedule without any injuries and met all of my training goals. My only concern was that my weight when I left for Dublin was 164 pounds – 9 pounds over my Dublin marathon goal of 155 pounds.

First 3 days in Dublin: [10/27/00 to 10/29/00]  We arrived at our hotel around 11:00am on Friday the 27th. After settling in our rooms we went out to do some sightseeing and get something to eat. The weather was cloudy, cool, with a light mist of rain, and the marathon day weather forecast was for heavy rains, cold, and windy – welcome to Dublin, Ireland. We spent the rest of the day doing more sightseeing and shopping on Grafton street – I was in bed by 10:00 pm. The next morning I got up early and took a taxi to the marathon Expo and even though I was early there was a very large crowd of people waiting in line to get into the Expo. It took me another 2 hours of waiting in line to finally get my Bib# and chip – a very confusing Expo setup. That evening we went out for my pre-race Past dinner – had a great meal at a restaurant around the corner from the hotel – after walking around for a while we went back to the hotel – I was in bed by 10:00 pm.

Marathon day: [10/30/00] I woke up at 6:00 am and got dressed in a heavy long sleeve jersey, gloves, and hat - after a light breakfast my daughter Lisa and I walked the 15 minutes to the start of the race. Marathon day found the weather to be the worst weather in the 21 years that the Dublin marathon has been run. The weather forecast for the marathon was heavy rain, cold and 30 mph winds throughout the race. I arrived at Ormond Quay, the start of the marathon, about 45 minutes before the start of the race and found that most of the 9,000+ runners were already there for the start of the marathon. The street for the start of the race was not very wide which made it difficult to get into your designated projected race finish time position. The rain went from a light drizzle to a heavy and cold rain, which made for a very long wait for the start of the race. Finally the race countdown began, accompanied by very loud cheering from the runners and the crowd, and then the 9,000+ runners started walking toward the start line when the start gun went off at 8:30am. It took me about 10 minutes to cross the start line but I was now on my way to running my 2^nd worldwide marathon for kidney cancer research.

Miles 1 to 8: Miles1to 8 were quite flat with a few rolling hills along the route. The first mile took me almost 12 minutes to run because of the many runners and the streets were not very wide – there were a lot of people cheering you on even though the rain was pretty heavy. Once I got to Dublin’s bustling O’Connell street I was able to increase my pace to 9:45/mile because the street was wider and it was not as crowded with runners. At Miles 2 and 3 we past Trinity College and the American Embassy, at mile 3 there was a water station where the runners were given 20 oz; plastic bottles of water. It was difficult opening the bottles and holding them as my hands were really cold and I had gloves on. From miles 4 to 8 I increased my pace to 9:40/mile as we ran past The Elm Park golf Course, around Dublin College, and over a bridge on the Dodder river. There were very few people along miles 3 to 8 because of the weather and at mile 8 I found myself starting to run against the steady and cold rain as well as some strong headwinds.

Miles 9 to 19: Miles 9 to 19 were flat with no rolling hills with hardly any people cheering you on as the weather went from bad to worse keeping everyone indoors. Between miles 10 and 11 we went past University College and St. Stephen’s Green. At mile 13, the ½ waypoint in the marathon, we crossed a bridge over the Grand Canal and went past Harold’s Cross. My overall time at the ½ waypoint in the marathon was 2:06[9:35 pace]-If I kept up my 9:35 pace I would finish the marathon in about 4:12. Miles 14 to 19 were very flat and the route took us South along a highway and past a number of parks and Kimmage Manor. At mile 19 it stopped raining, and the sun came out, which gave me that extra “boost” to continue running at my 9:35 pace. I knew, at this point in the race, that I was going to finish the marathon by running all 26.2 miles and would break my USMC finish time of 4:39.

Miles 20 to 23 “The dreaded Wall”: Miles 20 to 23 is where the “dreaded wall” appears in a marathon but at this point in the race I felt very strong and I knew the “dreaded wall” would not get me in this marathon. The 3-mile route was flat and ran mostly along a highway where there were large crowds of people cheering the runners on. The sun was now shining, the wind decreased dramatically, and the weather was no longer a factor in the race. I stopped looking at my watch to check my pace and just focused on keeping a steady 9:30 pace throughout the rest of the race.

Miles 23 to 26: Miles 23 to 24 took us across a bridge on the river Liffey and then onto a highway heading to the finish line. From miles 25 to 26 the road started to narrow and the crowds were the largest I had seen throughout the race. The crowds kept urging us on and that we only had a short ways to go.

The last ¼ mile: The last ¼ mile took us to a point in the road where we had to navigate through the huge crowds to get to the finish line- this is where I saw my daughter Lisa cheering me on. It seemed like it took forever to cross the finish line and when I crossed the finish line and looked at my watch I was elated to see that I had finished in a time of 4:09 and I had beaten my USMC time by 30 minutes.

Dublin: [10/30 to 10/31]: When I crossed the finish line I was very surprised, and upset, to find out that they were not giving out medals to the people who finished the marathon. After walking around and doing some stretching I looked around for some food that is normally given to the runners when they finish a marathon – I couldn’t believe it when I found out that what the runners were given was “tea and candy”!!! . Fortunately I found my daughter Lisa in the crowd she had some food that she brought for me along with some dry clothes for me to change into. It was about 2pm when we started walking back to the hotel – my legs were really sore and I was starting to get a sore throat. It took about an hour to get back to the hotel because it was very painful walking after running the marathon in the rain, wind, and cold. That evening we went out to eat and stopped by a couple of the many Pubs in the area, there were a lot of marathoners at the Pubs celebrating finishing the marathon under very difficult conditions. The day after the marathon I bought the local newspaper to read about the marathon and the paper called the 2000 Dublin marathon “The marathon of suffering” because of the weather.

London: [11/01 to 11/05]: We flew from Dublin to London 11/01 to spend 3 days sightseeing prior to returning to Boston on 11/05. During the taxi drive from the airport to our hotel I really felt sick and had aches and pains everywhere – didn’t know what was ailing me – took some Advil – didn’t help. While in London we stayed at the Royal Lancaster hotel and did some sightseeing, took in a musical – my daughter Lisa did some shopping at Harrod’s. The day we were to leave for home from London I became really sick and couldn’t wait to get home. The flight home was the worst flight I had a constant headache, every bone in my body was aching and I had trouble eating any sold foods.

Back in Lexington, Massachusetts: When I finally got back to Lexington [11/05] I went to see my doctor, he took a chest X-ray and found that I had Pneumonia [left side] and gave me an anti-biotic. He told me that I could not exercise for 2 weeks and I had to cancel a trip that I was going to take to San Diego. Fortunately after taking the antibiotics, and resting, I was okay and could resume my training for my next worldwide marathon in 2001. On my first week back from the marathon I was pleasantly surprised to find out that a reporter for the Lexington minuteman newspaper had heard about worldwide marathons for kidney cancer research and wanted to interview me. The worldwide marathon story was featured in the newspapers11/30/08 edition. I spent the rest of November and most of December making thank you cards for the many wonderful and caring people who made donations to kidney cancer research in memory of my brother John.

If you would like to learn more about Bob Rebello’s worldwide marathons to raise money for kidney cancer research please got to www.bobrebello.com

To get in touch with Bob Rebello:

Bob Rebello

One Man on a Mission Committed to a Cause Worldwide Impact

Founder/Marathoner Worldwide Marathons for Kidney Cancer Research

1399 9^th Avenue #918

San Diego, CA 92101

Cell: 858-883-3447

E-mail: rjreb@aol.com

 Mission: To raise $100k for kidney cancer research in memory of my brother John by running worldwide marathons on 6 continents.

Worldwide Marathons for kidney cancer research marathon number: 1

Marathon: USMC Marathon

Marathon Goal: To finish the marathon in 4:45 and to do it by running all of the 26.218 miles.

Marathon date: 10/24/99

Amount raised for kidney cancer research: $4,635.22

Finish Time: 4:39:55  [13.1 mile split 2:09:55]

My worldwide marathons rating: Most historic route  “The Marathon of the Monuments”

Most memorable moment: Finishing at the USMC Iwo Jima Monument.

Marathon Highlights

• Running past the many historical Monuments and Memorials in Virginia and Washington.   
• The thousands of people cheering you on during the marathon 26.218 route.
• The 2,200 hundred Marines manning all of the water stations and encouraging you as you went by.
• As a former Marine it was great to meet many other Marines who ran the race.
• Having coffee with Brigadier General Leif H. Hendrickson the Quantico Marine Base Commander.
• As a former Marine Sergeant having the USMC 2ND Lieutenants remove my chip from my shoe after finishing the race.

Marathon selection and registration: My story began in early March 1999 when I made a commitment that I would finish worldwide marathons on 6 continents to raise $100k for kidney cancer research in memory of my brother, and best friend John, who lost his battle with kidney cancer on February 27, 1999. After much deliberation and many hours on the Internet looking at the hundreds of worldwide marathons that will be run in 1999 I decided that my first marathon for kidney cancer research would be in the US and it would be the USMC marathon, “the people’s marathon”, that would be held on October 24, 1999.  The reason that I chose the USMC marathon was because I am a former Marine and I felt it would be great to meet and run with so many other Marines –“once a Marine always a Marine” – Semper Fidelis, which means “always faithful”. After finally making my marathon selection I thought that registering on-line would take a few minutes – boy was I wrong. During the on-line registration process it looked like I would not be able to register for the marathon because there were so many people trying to log on that it took me 2 days before I was able to successfully register for the marathon. I found out later that I was fortunate to get registered because they closed the on-line registration 2 days after I registered. After finally registering it seemed like it took forever for me to get confirmation of my registration and then it took at least 2 more months before I received my Bib# [13499].

Travel: Now that I was finally registered and had my Bib# my next step was to make my hotel and Air reservations. I traveled alone and was fortunate to get a single room at the Hyatt Regency in Crystal City Virginia from 10/22/99 to 10/26/99. The hotel was only 15 minutes from the start of the race using the Metro and the marathon Expo was located in the hotel – excellent hotel and great location. I made my airline reservations with US Airways departing from Boston’s Logan airport and arriving at Dulles airport in Washington D.C. Because there were over 20,000 runners registered for the race I made my hotel and air reservations 6 months before the marathon.

Training: During 1999 I ran in a number of races to give me a sense of my readiness for the USMC marathon and to estimate my marathon pace. The races and my finish times were:

James Joyce Ramble 10k              51:41 [8:28 pace]

Great Bear Run 10k                      51:19 [8:22 pace]

Covered Bridges 10k                    56:39 [9:07 pace]

Wellesly 5 miles                           41:17 [ 8:23 pace]

People’s Beach to Beacon 10k      51:53 [8:23 pace]                 

Although I finished both of the marathons that I had run I never had a training program – and believe me I suffered because I did not have a well-planned and executed training program. My first two marathons [Boston in 1989 & 1995 as a Bandit] produced the normal injuries, aches, and pains that you would get for not being prepared to run 26.2 miles. I made sure for the USMC marathon that I would not make the same mistakes that I made for the 2 Boston marathons and with the help of a number of seasoned marathoners I was able to put together a 12-week, 450-mile, training program. Prior to starting my training I had a physical to ensure that I was fit to run – there were no problems that would stop me from running the marathon but I weighed 170 pounds, which was 15 pounds more than I needed to weigh to ensure that I would finish the marathon in a credible time for my age of 63. So along with my training program I setup a weight reduction plan to bring my weight down to 155 pounds before the USMC marathon.  I started my 12-week USMC training on August 2, 1999 while I was living in Lexington, Massachusetts and running with a great running group – “The Concord Runners”. I was able to train almost every day during my 12-week training program even though there were days of less than ideal weather – rain, wind, muggy, and cold – typical New England weather. During my training I also ran three 10k races to help prepare me for the USMC marathon. I ran 6 days a week with 1 day of rest and my longest runs were 20, 21, and 22 miles. I was very fortunate that during my training I avoided any major injuries. During my training I really worked on controlling my weight and by week 12 my weight was down to 160 pounds. I tapered my last week of training and felt that I was ready to finish the USMC in a creditable time for my age.

First 2 days [10/22/99 & 10/23/99]: I arrived at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Crystal city Virginia on Friday October 22nd at 5:00 pm as the flight from Logan airport in Boston was delayed for about 2 hours. After unpacking I went to the USMC marathon expo that was being held in my hotel. The expo was already packed with people waiting in many lines to get their chip and Bib# – it took me about another 2 hours to get my chip and Bib# as they could not find my registration information – what else could go wrong?? After walking through the expo, meeting some of the runners and visiting the many booths, I went to get a cup of coffee before going out for a short run. At the coffee shop I ended up sharing a table with the Commanding General of the Quantico Virginia base, USMC Brigadier General Leif Hendrickson and his wife. Had a great conversation with the General about the Marine Corps and how it has changed since I went to Boot camp in 1956 at Parris Island South Carolina. That evening I went out to an Italian restaurant for my Pasta to get loaded up on carbohydrates for the marathon. The next day, the day before the marathon, I just stayed in the hotel and relaxed – in the evening I went out with a group of runners that I had met for a “Pasta party”. After a great meal it was back to the hotel and in bed by 10:00 pm to get some rest before the big day.

Marathon day [10/24/99]: On the day of the marathon I woke up at 6:00 am to get ready for the marathon – stopped by the restaurant and had a bagel and a banana prior to getting on the packed Metro for the 15 minute ride to the start of the marathon. I arrived at the marathon 1 hour before the marathons start time of 8:00am there were about 18,000 runners of the 20,000+ runners that registered for the marathon. I ended up pretty far back in the pack of runners and was not able to move either forward or back – once you were settled you were not able to move. The weather was cool at the start, which is great weather to run a marathon. Standing near the USMC Iwo Jima Monument waiting for the start of the race made me proud to say that I am a former Marine. The race started at the Iwo Jima Monument in Virginia where the countdown began and before you knew it the cannon went off to start the 24th USMC marathon. The race begins and ends at the Iwo Jima Monument in Virginia. It took me over 10 minutes of, mostly walking, to get to the start line and once I crossed the start line I was able to start a very slow jog.

Miles 1 to 8: The first 8 miles of the racecourse took me past Arlington cemetery and the Pentagon, then around the Pentagon, before heading back to the starting line at the Iwo Jima Monument. After passing the start line the course crossed the Potomac River over Key Bridge arriving in Georgetown at mile 8. 

Miles 9 to 13: At mile 9 we past the Kennedy Center and the Lincoln Memorial and then turned onto Constitution Avenue just before mile 10. Along the way people were yelling at me “go Johnny” because I had my brother’s name on my hat. The crowds were very large and very loud, up to and past, the U.S. Capital, which helped to push me on to the ½ waypoint in the marathon [mile 13.1]. I reached the ½ waypoint in a time of 2:09 [9:50 pace] which if I kept up the pace I would finish the marathon in a time of around 4:18.

Miles 14 to 22:  Miles 14 through 22 took me south all the way to Hains Point where there were very few spectators to cheer you on. I was able to keep my 9:50 pace up to mile 19 but at mile 20 I hit “the wall” my body was telling me that I would not be able to keep up the 9:50 pace that I had set in the first ½ of the marathon. At this point in the race my goal was to simply finish the race because the most grueling parts of the race were yet to come.

Miles 23 to 26: Mile 23 at the 14th street Bridge marked the start of the most challenging 3 miles in the marathon. The on-ramp to the bridge is steep and all cement – I began to feel very sharp pains in my Quads and Hamstrings and it took everything I had to keep me from stopping and walking the rest of the way.  Once over the bridge I found a little more energy because of the encouragement from the crowds and I was able to continue the last 2 ½ miles without stopping.

The “dreaded” last ¼ mile: Ahead of me was the most daunting part of the race, the infamous USMC Marathons last ¼ mile. It took me past the marathon start line where I quickly had to start running up a very steep hill and then around a long circle that seemed to go on forever. The crowds along the hill were very large so that only a few runners at a time could climb the hill but the enthusiasm and encouragement of the crowd gave me the boost that I needed to overcome my last obstacle on the way to the finish line. Once I turned the corner I could see the finish line – and just in time because I did not have the strength to go any further.

After the marathon: I was so elated when I finally crossed the finish line that I went right past the area where the USMC 2nd Lieutenants removed all of the finishers chips from their running shoe. 

I had to go back and wait in line to get a seat while the Marine Lieutenant removed my chip; after my chip was removed I found it very difficult to get up from the seat, as my legs were so tight. I tried walking around and managed to get some food to eat – after eating I tried to do some stretching to work out all of my aches and pains. I went to the marathon results board to check my official finish time it was 4:39:55 and I came in 48th out of 127 males in my age group of 60 to 64. My legs were like rubber and my Quads, Hamstrings, and Shins hurt so bad that it was difficult to walk. The USMC Marathon was a challenge to finish but it was truly a great experience. The Marines and the organizers did an outstanding job in managing the event. 

It was starting to get cold out and I really wanted to get back to the hotel to get off my feet, take a shower, get some rest and then go out to get something to eat. I walked to the Metro station, which was around ¼ of a mile from the finish line; it was a very painful walk which took me over an hour. When I finally got to the Metro station there was a long line of people waiting to get on the down escalator to get to the trains. Once I got to the escalator I found out why there was a line to get on it – the escalator was broken and it was quite a distance to the bottom. The only way I could get down the escalator was to walk sideways because I could not lift my legs – all you could hear was people cursing and moaning because the escalator was broken. 

When I got on the Metro to go back to my hotel it was packed with runners and there were no available seats so I had to stand for the 15-minute ride to my stop. It took a while after getting off the Metro but I made it back to my hotel and immediately went to my room to shower and change to go get something to eat. When I went downstairs to eat at the hotel restaurant it was about 4:00 pm and by the time I finished eating it was about 5:30 pm. I paid my bill went back to my room took a couple of Advil laid down on the bed about 6:30 pm the next thing I remember is waking up the next morning at 7:00 am.

I arrived back home in Lexington in the evening of October 26th still very sore from the marathon and the flight back. I did not do any running for 2 weeks to rest all of my aches and pains and when I started running again it was very short and easy runs. The good news is that I raised $4,635.22 for kidney cancer research at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical center in memory of my brother John. I also beat my personal marathon finish time goal of 4:45 by 6 minutes and I did it by running all 26.218 miles. During the first week of December I started the planning process for next years worldwide marathon [2000] for kidney cancer research, my 2nd worldwide marathon, which would take place somewhere in Europe.

If you would like to learn more about Bob Rebello’s worldwide marathons to raise money for kidney cancer research please go to www.bobrebello.com

To get in touch with Bob Rebello:

Bob rebello

 Founder/Marathoner Worldwide Marathons for Kidney Cancer Research

1399 9th Avenue #918
San Diego, CA 92101
Cell: 858-883-3447
E-mail: rjreb@aol.com

After much deliberation I have decided to run the Berlin, Germany marathon for my 10th worldwide marathon the race will be on September 28, 2008. I registered for the race [$90.75] very early [1/1/08] due to the fact that it is Germany’s biggest race and it fills up very quickly. I have started doing some research on Berlin to prepare for my trip – this will be my second trip to Berlin.   J

January 2, 2008

Registered for the Carlsbad 1/2 marathon on January 20th  – I will use the race to work on my marathon pace [9:00/mile] as preparation for my Berlin marathon. I only have 2 1/2 weeks to train for the race but I believe I will be ready – hopefully my hamstring will be okay for the race. I have set a goal of a 2 hour 1/2 marathon – looking forward to the challenge.   

January 20, 2008 [Carlsbad 1/2 marathon]

I got up  around 4:00 AM as it is about a 1 1/2 hour drive from San Diego to Carlsbad – and I did not want to get tied up in the traffic on the highway. I arrived at about 5:45 and found a parking spot near the start of the race. It was a cold morning and fortunately I was able to stay warm until the start of the race. The race is sold out every year and the start is very crowded with marathoners and 1/2 marathoners. The start went off on time and fortunately I didn’t have to go around many runners. By the time I got to mile 2 I had plenty of room to run. My goal was a 2:00 marathon and at the halfway point I was on pace to meet my goal. At mile 10 my pace slowed a bit and I had to pick my pace up if I wanted to meet my goal of 2:00. At mile 12 I realized that I was just going to miss my goal and I finished in a time of 2:01. I was very surprised to find out that I came in 2nd in my age group of 70-74. For my 2nd place finish I received a very nice glass trophy. After the race I did some stretching because my right hamstring was really bothering me. This is the same injury I had at the Bangkok and Buenos Aires marathon. The injury just does not want to go away.