Got up at 3 in the morning to run the marathon. Not a great night sleep due to little buddy waking up. ANyhoo-was on one of the last busses to the start and we still got there with an hour to spare. ( just love the Long ride to the start-realizing how stinkin far 26.2 miles really is) Anyway-my race plan was to start easy to let my calf warm up and be ready to pull out at any time if it hurt. If I had no pain-Iwould run as hard and as strong as my body would allow.
Got to the starting line and I talked to Kassi Harmon who won the overall girl-(I ran against her in highschool and she is amazing!) Before I knew it the gun went and we were off. The first mile seemed kind of hard-my body wasn't awake and it was slight uphill. Of course Kassi took off like a bandit and I was racing beside Julie Thomas. After the first mile or two my body started warming up and it started feeling easier. I was slightly ahead of Julie in second place and I stayed that way until mile 7 or 8 with the huge uphill by Deer Creek. She passed me going pretty fast. I told myself to stay relaxed and at mile 9 I took my first gu. My leg was pleasantly not bothering me at all and after I took the gu I felt more energized. She stayed about 5-10 seconds ahead of me for the next couple of miles and then around mile 12 I caught back up to her and we ran together about 1-2 miles before I passed her. My split for the 1/2 was around 1:27:49 (alot better than I expected) and I was feeling good and loving all of the downhill and using it to my advantage. By mile 18-19 I realized that I could run a 2:56 if I just kept the last 6 miles at 7 minute pace. ( I was super stoked realizing what a great time I had going) I had a pretty good lead on Julie but knew I was starting to feel very tired. I believe she passed me about mile 20 or 21. Coming out of the canyon by mile 20 I had definitely hit "the wall." My legs were wanting to quit and it was rough not having steep downhill to propel me forward. At this point my "good splits" were going down the drain. I couldnt believe I still had a 10k to go. My pace at this point dropped drastically-but I just kept telling myself I needed to stay strong. With about 4 miles to go I had to walk for about 10 seconds or so and quickly stretch. My pace was soooo slow-but I just kept trying to put one foot in front of another. The last couple of miles were definitely "rough" I did my best to go as hard as possible the last hundred or so meters as I crossed the line. 3:01:07. I was exhausted-but very happy. I did not know what to expect with my lack of training the past 6-7 weeks and I was really happy with the way my body held up and the fact that my calf did not bother me. (I think taking it super easy the last 2 weeks really helped) I am shocked that my time was that fast because I did not expect it-but I am very happy with my time and hopefully I will run under 3 hours at St George.
Side note: My brother (who just got back from his mission last week) also ran the marathon! He did it bc my hubby told him he would pay him 100 bucks if he could do it under 5 hrs...His time was 4:28-not too shabby for never training and gaining 35 lbs! LOL-(at least he is 100 bucks richer-not sure that makes up for being 1000 times sorer)
splits-I missed the first 2 bc my gps was off-but I believe they were 6:40, 6:41, 6:33, 6:38, 6:29, 7:06 (big hill) 7:02, 6:27, 6:39, 6:27, 6:39, 6:59, 6:38, 6:42, 6:39, 6:55, 6:42, 6:29, 6:41, 6:46, 6:57, 7:15 (hitting the wall) 7:18, 8:21, 7:56, 7:45, last .21 in 1:23.
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