Paced the 4:30 group at the Halloween Full. I am certainly not in marathon shape but thought running 10:18/mile would be manageable. Should have paid more attention to the course. It was tough. Almost as hard as Sogo. Started at Sundance and after 3 screaming downhill miles we headed up to Deer Creek. Lots of fun climbing. After the turnaround at Deer Creek, we headed back down the canyon to South Fork canyon. Headed up that for 3 miles. That was absolutely a killer. We gave back most of the 1:30 cushion we had built. The pacing became very difficult from here to the end because the mile markers were either non-existent or placed at strange places. I don't like to rely on my Garmin while pacing because the mileage isn't reliable, especially in the canyon. When there were mile markers, we were either 2 minutes ahead or 1 minute behind schedule. I wasn't sure what to do. Just maintained our goal pace. At mile 20 when we went up towards Bridal Veil falls, my pacing buddy started to drop back and I had to let her go. In hindsight, I ran too slow going up this section. I locked in 10:18 until mile 24 when I realized that my Garmin was going to measure very long and I was over 1 minute behind. Made up 20 seconds during mile 24 then pushed as hard as I could the last mile to make up the rest. Saw Becky and the kids with 0.1 to go and they ran in with me. Ended up being 17 seconds late but I can live with it considering the mile marker issue. I'm going to guess that the marathon option will not be offered in the future. I can't see any benefit to the race director to offer it. There were only 50 people registered so it was a pretty lonely pacing job. I was absolutely wiped out at the end. In more pain than I thought was possible. Probably couldn't have run much faster if I wanted to. | 