Park City Marathon 2008
My main goal for this race was to finally have a race where I was able to finish strong. I started out too fast in both of the marathons I have run this year and ended up crashing and struggling the last few miles. I was really craving that feeling of pounding out some fast splits during the last 10K of a marathon. My time goal was something around 3:10 because of the nature of the course. As far as other goals that I set for the race, I wanted to finish in the top 10 overall, top 3 in my age group and move into 3rd place overall in the Grand Slam standings. Since Walter wasn’t going to be running this race, all that I had to do was hold off the guy that is 2 minutes behind me and I would move into 3rd.
I don’t have my watch with me so I can’t give any splits but will try to give an overall feeling of the race. I started the race with the lead pack but didn’t feel like I was working very hard. I kept looking at my Garmin to make sure that I wasn’t starting too fast and the pace was right where I wanted it to be. I let them (6 runners) pull away as we approached the first mile marker and I crossed it in 6:45 (about 5 seconds behind the front runners). I’m not sure why they started so slow. I guess they were just trying to get a feel for the race. Second mile had a little climbing in it and I let the lead pack pick up another 10 seconds on me. After the second mile, they decided to drop the hammer and I didn’t see them again.
A runner in orange shorts pulled ahead of me by about 30 seconds over the next few miles and I was running with a couple of other guys. I was able to put a little distance on them on the uphills and they made up the difference on the downhills. Somewhere around mile 6, I realized that I was really tense through my shoulders and tried to settle into a more relaxed pace. This helped and I started making up ground on the orange shorted runner. A guy from Boston came up alongside of me and I decided to hitch a ride with him until I got past Orange Shorts. I ran with him for a few miles and we were able to get past the targeted runner. Most of my splits were around 7:15/mile. This was just right for the steady, gradual uphill that we were running. I was feeling alright except that I was a little light headed and felt bloated. I started getting concerned that my body wasn’t absorbing and processing the Gatorade, gels and everything else that I had eaten the past couple of days. As we started the slightly steeper climb through miles 10-13 the Boston runner and a runner in a red shirt started gapping me. My hope was that the altitude would be too much for the Boston runner and I would be able to catch him once the downhill started. I hit the half in exactly 1:36:00 and was in 9th place so I felt like I was right on target for my goals.
As I started to make my way to Deer Valley, my legs started to hurt. I was wearing Zensah compression sleeves on my lower legs and they felt great but my hamstrings were really burning. I tried to focus on keeping my form as smooth and comfortable as possible but I was fighting a lot of negative thoughts. After hitting the Deer Valley parking lot we turned back towards Park City and I was happy for the downhill. Apparently the 2 runners ahead of me were more happy because they were able to gap me. As the course looped back, we started passing the runners going up to Deer Valley. This got my adrenaline going and I was able to pick up my pace. Almost every runner that I passed was encouraging which was really nice.
Ran through the open air mall in Park City then made a turn towards the one block that I was dreading the entire race. It is a nasty climb that is short but incredibly steep. When I ran this race in 2006, the course went the other direction and we came down this hill. Going up it was not going to be fun. **WARNING: If you don’t want to lose all respect for me, don’t read the next 2 sentences. As I started up the hill, I realized that walking would be faster and would take less energy. I made the tactical decision to walk for approximately 10 yards going up the hill. Now is the time that I was hoping to start hammering out some good splits. Unfortunately, my legs had different plans. As with the 2 prior marathons this year, my legs were fried and I was just hoping to maintain anything that resembled a decent pace. For the next few miles, I was averaging 7:15 despite the general downhill nature of the course (was hoping for 6:50’s). The Boston runner was out of sight but the guy in red was still there (probably 45- 60 seconds ahead of me). I was able to keep him in sight so he must have been struggling as bad as I was. Every once in a while I would consider picking up the pace to catch him but when I did it hurt too bad and I slowed down. I slowly started to get closer to him but really started to suffer the last 2 miles and wasn’t able to catch him. I think that my pace slowed to 7:30-7:40 for the last 2 miles.
Crossed the finish line in exactly 3:13:00 so I ran the 2nd half in 1:37:00. I missed my time goal and I wasn’t really pleased with how I felt at the end but I’m trying to look at things in a different perspective and not be so negative. I was able to meet all 3 goals in this race (top 10 overall, top 3 in AG and maintain my position in the GS standings).
So, I can’t figure out if I’m not cut out for this marathon thing, if I have unrealistic expectations, or if this is just how the last 8 miles of a marathon are supposed to feel and I need to do a better job at pushing through the discomfort. Now I have to try and figure out my goals for TOU and SGM.
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