Darkside New Years’ Day Marathon
By Don Swinford, Run Club USA Co-Founder
After the Rocket City Marathon in Huntsville, Alabama on December 10th, I went public with saying I was done with running marathons. The reason for this announcement, which went worldwide on Twitter, was due to injuries to my feet. I have been suffering for 18 months and I had enough – I needed to take time to heal.
I took a few weeks off from running – just did a little walking. There was no improvement in my feet. I started gaining weight due to inactivity. So I decided to run in moderation. Then it happened on New Year’s Eve – two of my friends, Alan Reynolds and David Millican started talking about running the Darkside Marathon on New Years’ Day, which was less than 24 hours away. And like a drug addict, I decided to do it too — bad feet and all.
The Darkside Running Club was founded in December of 2002, by Al Barker and Scott Ludwig. It’s a great group of members from around the country and solid leadership. Scott is the President of this Club. They do a great job serving the community by offering free events throughout the year. I highly recommend that you join the Darkside Running Club.
The Marathon consisted of 5 loops and 5 short out-and-backs on the running paths in Peachtree City, Georgia. My goal was to finish in 5:30 hours, but I was focused on doing 5:15.
The first 7 miles were really consistent (11.00 – 12.00 pace), but mile 8 I took an extra long break and my pace for that mile was 18.36. Mile 9-18 I average a little less than an 11.00/mile pace. On mile 19 I saw a friend, Ben Kirkland, who was out for an 8 mile run. Ben ran with me for the next 3 miles which ended up being my best pace of the race. Miles 22 – 26.2 were the normal gut check miles. Overall I felt fine, except for my feet! My last mile was an 11.03/mile pace.
The good news about my results is that I achieved a Negative Split:
- 1st Half = 2:41:16
- 2nd Half = 2:28:24
Darkside was my 11th fastest marathon (out of 13). Over the past 56 days I have run 4 marathons. My times were: 4:08, 4.32; 5.24, and 5.09.
The best part of a marathon is running with friends and other runners. Alan and David finished the race strong. And thanks to both for encouraging me to run the Darkside.
Run Strong!
