Ogden Marathon would be my only road marathon for the year. I'm not focusing on marathons this year like I did last year when I went to Boston. The results kind of showed it. If you get older, marathon speed drops off fast if you don't work hard at it. I don't, and I'm not really interested in working at it, but it is always interesting to see what ulltra training can do in a marathon.
I met up with fellow ultrarunner, Phil Lowry and we rode the bus up together. We had zero interest in standing in that huge smoke cloud at the start, so we did a slow run up the canyon, doing three miles to stay warm. It was great fun to talk to Phil and watch the swollen creek roaring down the canyon. It was so peaceful. A deer even came out on the road ahead of us.
With that easy warm-up, we returned to the start and met up with many ultrarunners. It was funny to see that almost all of us were wearing Hokas. We all believe in them. Most of us had the new Bondi B model that is also great for roads. I kind of hated to see the race start because I was having so much fun talking to many friends.
Finally we were away. Since this is my only marathon for the year, my strategy was to try to do well and let my heart rate and breathing decide how fast I would go. I wanted to take advantage of the downhills. I knew my legs could handle them well, and they did. I hoped to run each of the first 8 miles, each in sub-7 pace.
I suceeded. Downhill miles 1-8: 6:18, 6:50, 6:45, 6:44, 6:57, 6:57, 6:57, 6:59. Those last few miles were close. Each time I would speed up with 0.2 left to bring it under 7 and then try to carry that speed into the next mile.
Once I hit the small hills, it was a tougher. (miles 9-14) 7:29, 7:32, 7:51, 7:58, 7:59, 7:58. Now I was trying to keep all the miles under 8-minute pace. I hit the half marathon mark at about 1:34:30, about a minute slower than last year, but I wasn't worried because I knew I felt apart last year by mile 18 due to dehydration. I hoped that wouldn't happen this year.
This year the conditions were perfect. Cloud cover, cool temps, and a cool breeze in the face. I also drank much better.
However, still, I felt apart. I just haven't trained enough to hold that pace much further than a half marathon. My legs were fine, but the heart rate and breathing were holding me back. I think my blood pressure also went low because I was dizzy. That has happened at times when running fast on treadmills. I then check my blood pressure and it is pretty low. My brother is also affected by it, so it probably is a genetic thing. Oh well.
So, my speed dived. I did manage to keep all the miles up to mile 23 in under 9-minute pace. But none were under 8. By mile 20, my ultrarunning buddies, Phil, Tom, and Chad had all passed me. I tried to keep up but just couldn't find the foot speed.
So, I held on for dear life for the last six miles, pushed as hard as I could. I didn't leave anything out on the course. My slowest mile was mile 25, a 9:15. I knew that nine-minute miles would just not cut it to come close to my PR from last year. But I did want to at least run a Boston Qualifing time, and I did by about six minutes. (I wouldn't go to Boston with this slow time. If I was serious, I would train for a marathon and then go run one at sea-level. But I'm more interested in running on the trails.)
So, I crossed the line in about 3:29:30, about 5:30 slower than last year. I'm not sure about the time because they didn't have the times posted before I left. But this was the time from my Garmin. Garmin showed the course to be long 26.4
I was a little disappointed but really, what should I expect? Last year I was doing lots of tempo runs and ran Boston and several half marathons and shorter road races leading up to Ogden. This year instead I ran a 100-mile race three weeks ago and a 54-mile run last weekend. Not exactly your ideal marathon training.
But this did get my attention. I'm not a spring chicken at 52. If I want to keep my performance up this year, I need to work even harder. So this is great motivation to me to work even harder.
It was a fun day! The best part is being with friends. | 