Another PW?

So I seem to get slower no matter what I do.

In July I did my 4th and slowest half ironman.

In October I ran Chicago- it was my fifth and slowest marathon. I had run each of the previous 4 faster than the one before it- somehow I got it into my brain that every marathon I run will be faster than the last (logically this doesn't make sense- but it was fun while it lasted). At Chicago it was 90 degrees- I backed off early in the race- finished 4 minutes slower than my first marathon (PW #2 of the year), but was happy not to have needed a trip to the hospital the way so many others did that day.

So I thought- why not try again? I picked out the new Manchester (NH) marathon. This gave me a 4 week break. I hadn't pushed that hard in Chicago and felt I recovered fairly well. I did a couple med-long runs, but spent most of the 4 weeks recovering and re-tapering.

Going into the race I somehow knew I didn't have it in me- I revised my goal by 10 minutes (at Chicago I'd wanted to aim for 3:50, which would have been 4 minutes faster than the 3:54 PR I had last year). Things started out fine- but I was generally coming in 5-10 seconds slower than I'd meant to- and I didn't want to go any faster. By 16-18 miles I was starting to slow way down. I felt fine otherwise (well fine for 2/3 of the way through a marathon). By mile 20 I'd lost all drive to run faster. I kept running, and picked it up a little in the last couple of miles, to finish at 4:23. This was my second PW marathon in under a month (2 minutes slower than I ran in Chicago when it was 90 degrees).

So what's going on? I started dating a great guy in January- it's probably cut into my training a little (but not that much). Is it possible that I could have lost the drive to compete in 10 months? I'm not even that disappointed- as I was running along I kept thinking 'well there's more to life than PR's and racing'.

Any thoughts?

not knowing your history (ie how long you've been running and competing), off the top of my head it sounds like you might need a break.

I know at the end of my season in September, I had no "go Juice" left. I just could not seem to push to go fast. I am still feeling that way a month later.