Cool Runnings!

AM - 3 easy miles outside by myself at 7:40 average pace (naturally sped up as my body warmed up), then another 2 easy miles with Sparky at avarege pace of 8:30/mile.  It felt good to run today.  I am getting really excited for St. George - less than a week away now, and I am feeling good.  My legs are good, I feel in good shape - the only thing that has been concerning me has been a mildly sore throat.  This could just be due to allergies - I am not sure, though.  Poor Adam has been sick for a few days now with a fever and sore throat - I just hope I don't catch what he has - that would be disastrous.  I have decided that instead of 4 miles/day this week, I will go ahead and do 5.  I ended up not running on Saturday becauses we got up early for Lybi's race (I was the cheerleader that day), and I was tired from not enough sleep, so I didn't run in the morning, then took Sam and Joey to a birthday party at the pool and messed up something with my shoulder diving off the high dive.  I have a wicked knot there right now that keeps coming back.  I am considering going to the chiropractor this week, but we will see.

AM - slept in until 5:30, ran 2 easy miles with Sparky, untimed.  I decided when my alarm went off at 5:00 that it was more important this week to make sure I get enough sleep than it was to get in all the miles in the morning.  I will plan on doing another 3 miles this evening, whether on the treadmill or outside.

PM - Okay, I may have done something rather stupid here . . . <start big cheesy grin>.  I went out for a run, and my legs were feeling so good, lets just say that the horses were neighing so much they could not be restrained.  After starting off at what felt like a pretty easy pace, I took off fairly quickly and hit the first half mile at about 6:40 pace, around 1/2 marathon pace.  I apparently sped up from there, because I was at 9:18 for 1.5 miles.  I didn't look at my watch for the second 1.5 miles, but knew the second 1.5 mile split was 9:25.  Total time, 18:44, average pace of 6:15/mile.  This is totally at my 10K pace, and I absolutely could have sustained this for another 3 miles, probably more.  My legs felt and still feel fine, although cardiovascular-wise, I could tell I put in a good effort.  I cooled off, and was amazed at how quickly I felt completely recovered.  Let the smackdown begin . . . <end big cheesy grin>.  I promised Lybi I would not run any more fast miles the rest of this week until it is race time, and I plan to keep that promise.  Please tell me I didn't do anything to jeopardize my chances of breaking 3:00 at St. George!

PM  - 4 easy miles outside after Webelos Scouts.  I finally got a replacement charging cradle for my Garmin, so I am back in business for knowing the exact distance and my average pace.  Average pace for this run was 8:17/mile, nice and easy as promised.  There was just a hint of soreness in my legs (calves mostly) when I first started out, but that went away by the first 1/4 mile.  Felt good to get out and run.  On a side note, I got my new Grid Fastwitch 3's today, and eager as I am to test them out, I will NOT be wearing them for the marathon, but will be itching to try them out soon after.  They provide a small amount of stability and weigh only 7.4 oz.  And best of all, they are Bright Orange!  I'm talking LOUD, people!  I love them!

AM - drove to St. George for the marathon.

PM - after we checked into the hotel, Lybi and I went for an easy 2 mile run, average pace of around 11:00/mile.  Her hip was bothering her a little bit, so we took it easy.

Let me first start out by saying that this was by far the most physically demanding of the three marathons I have run.  When we got up to the starting line, the wind was blowing and it was starting to rain.  It seemed to have gotten colder from the time I got up there until the start, although this may have just been perception.

Distance (miles)	Split Time	Total Time	Actual Split Time	Actual Total Time	Comments
1	6:50	6:50	6:56	6:56	First mile, we were taking it easy at the start, especially since it was windy and raining.
2	7:05	13:56	7:05	14:02	I think there was a very slight uphill here, in any case, we were still taking it easy, especially because of the wind and rain.
3	6:39	20:35	6:37	20:40	Made good time on this downhill mile.
4	6:40	27:15	6:39	27:19	Right on pace for this mile, sticking with RivertonPaul and Andy.
5	6:52	34:08	6:59	34:18	Had an issue with my left shoe where the sockliner became loose and started to bunch up under my foot.  I stopped to adjust it and lost some time.
6	6:22	40:31	6:38	40:56	Had the problem with my shoe again - this time, instead of trying to adjust it again, I just pulled it out and threw it aside, hoping that wouldn't lead to my getting blisters on that foot.  At this point, I lost sight of Andy and RivertonPaul and couldn't find them again, but I did catch up with Paul Thomas and his friend Nathan.
7	6:24	46:56	6:32	47:28	On this mile, Paul stopped to fix his shoe, and I never caught sight of him again the entire race.
8	8:06	55:02	7:44	55:13	One word - Veyo.  I must admit, I was surpised this mile was as fast as it was, considering we were averaging about 8:30/mile going up Veyo.
9	7:24	1:02:27	7:25	1:02:39	Sucking a little wind, recovering from Veyo
10	7:12	1:09:39	7:25	1:10:04	Still recovering, met up with Tom here.
11	7:31	1:17:10	7:18	1:17:22	Was intent on at least hitting the half in 1:32, so I surged a little bit - no one went with me.  I didn't see any of the the rest again until the very end (when Tom caught me).
12	7:04	1:24:15	6:56	1:24:19	Met up with Marcie here, who was struggling a bit after having taken it out kind of hard.  Towed her along for a couple of miles, tried to encourage her a bit.
13	6:43	1:30:59	6:56	1:31:16	Little slower than I was expecting, but overall, I was pretty happy with this mile.  We ended up going through the half at just about exactly 1:32 by my Garmin.
14	6:45	1:37:44	7:22	1:38:38	I think I was trying to stick with Marcie here and got a little complacent.  She didn't want to start attacking the hill until we had actually reached the downhill.
15	6:31	1:44:15	6:33	1:45:12	Hit the downhill, I was trying to keep towing Marcie along, but she told me to not wait for her.
16	6:22	1:50:38	6:08	1:51:20	Fastest mile of the entire marathon.  In retrospect, it may have been too fast, but I just wanted to get down the hill.
17	6:34	1:57:12	6:40	1:58:01	A little slower than I wanted, my legs were starting to really complain here.  Starting at about the halfway mark, my calves had started to get kind of tight, which was a little cause for worry for me, but I had decided that nothing was going to keep me from running, save an injury.  Took a gatorade and gel here.
18	6:31	2:03:43	7:07	2:05:09	My legs were starting to give out here - I could not muster the turnover to keep up the pace.  I was seeing 3:00 slip away here, and was setting my sights on a new goal of 3:05.
19	7:03	2:10:47	7:50	2:13:00	The last hill of the course really took a lot out of me.  My legs had no pop to them, and I really struggled up this hill.  However, I had already decided that I would not stop and walk.  Started to walk through the aid stations right around here, to make sure that I was getting enough gatorade.
20	6:38	2:17:26	7:09	2:20:09	This was the beginning of the last big downhill, and again, I could not muster the turnover needed.
21	6:24	2:23:50	6:50	2:27:00	I couldn't do any more than this - my legs were really hurting, but I was determined to not stop and walk.  I did, however, walk through the aid station to drink a gatorade and (I think) take a gel.
22	6:55	2:30:46	7:48	2:34:48	Legs were dying here - I was getting passed by other runners and just could not do anything about it.
23	6:30	2:37:16	7:48	2:42:36	Ditto.
24	6:37	2:43:54	7:39	2:50:16	Slightly faster than the previous two because 1) I met up with Dustin, who was having leg and back issues, and towed him along, and also saw Lybi, who took some video and screamed some encouraging words to me.
25	6:33	2:50:27	8:06	2:58:22	Okay, I have to admit that at the end of this mile, I had to walk for a little bit.  My legs were on the verge of giving out.  At this point a police officer on a motorcycle made some comment to me about being so close.  I chose not to reply . . .
26	6:41	2:57:09	10:31	3:08:53	I totally blew up on this mile.  After stating to jog again after my stint of walking, I had to walk again.  I was finding it difficult to even swing my arms.
26.2595	1:50	2:59:00	2:03	3:10:56	Tom caught up to me here with about 0.1 miles to go and told me to get going, so I summoned all of the strength I had left and "sprinted" to the finish.  I think he was surprised I had so much left, as I passed him up.

Afer I finished, I stopped and started staggering like a drunk.  A national guardsman came up to me and asked me if I was okay, to which I replied "I think so". He asked me if I could make it (to the end of the chute), and again I replied, "I think so."  He apparently was not satisfied with my answer, so he put his arm around me and guided me down the chute, and handed me off to another guardsman, who asked me if I knew what day it was as he was guiding me to the first aid tent.  I still had my wits about me and was able to answer correctly, so I just spent about 10 minutes in the first aid tent, where I ate 2 Clif bars, half an ice cream sandwich (call me crazy) and half a bottle of gatorade.  I then made my way out of the tent and staggered out to the recovery zone, where I saw Marcie and Josse.  Marcie had come in just barely behind me, and Josse had run 3:15.  I kept going to the end, where I met Lybi, who remarked that my lips were blue.  I guess I was cold - I certainly didn't realize it until she made the remark, at which point I started shivering like a banshee.  Since they didn't have my clothes when we went over there, we went back to the hotel and checked out, then went to Denny's where I devoured almost all of their Heartland slam - 2 eggs, scrambled, with bacon, country potatoes and cheese mixed in, 2 sausage links, 2 strips of bacon, hash browns and 2 pancakes.  Plus we got some hot chocolate for me.  Then we went back down, picked up my clothes, got my official chip time, which was exactly the same as the time on my Garmin, and left.  Overall, even though the weather prevented me from reaching my original gold or silver goals, I was still able to set a new personal best, and was able to reach my bronze goal of hitting a BQ for the fastest age group, of which I am no longer a part of.  Given the fact that almost everyone ended up running about 10 minutes slower than they were expecting, I am happy with these results.  I enjoyed meeting up with and running with the other bloggers, and a special thanks to Tom for giving me a figurative kick in the butt at the very end.