I ran in the Park City Marathon, my third road marathon of the year. What's up with that? Am I converting to the dark-side of running? Well, actually, this marathon is not your typical road marthon. It is run at altitude and has about ten miles of dirt. The hills are never-ending and it makes an amazing huge circle around the valley, visiting Deer Valley and Park City. I think this marathon experience would be very attractive to ultrarunners.
Well, yesterday I ran marathon distance, doing a much tougher run up to the top of King's Peak (13,528 feet) and back with 5,000 feet of climbing. What was I thinking running a marathon the very next day? I've never been accused of having judgement that makes sense when it comes to my running. Yesterday's mountain marathon left my legs somewhat tired, but not sore. I was more worried about the stress my system experienced due to severe dehydration. Also, I had only slept about 8 hours over the past 48 hours. It was not the best way to rest up for a marathon.
However, I was excited to run in Park City because I really wanted to have a good long tempo run at 7,000 feet. I didn't study the course much and was very suprised to discover how many hills we had to climb. Oh well, what goes up, must come down, and I had a great time blasting down some hills, especially when they were dirt hills.
I wasn't very serious about this race. I lined up mid-pack at the start, talking with my friend Jim. As we were talking the horn sounded. Oh, I guess I better start running. My race started very good. I was surpised how well my legs felt. I had to dodge and pass tons of runners, but my first mile was 7:17. I lost track of the mile signs, but I reached mile 4 at 30:28. Not bad, about 7:30 pace on some good uphills. Mile 5 was 6:59 and mile 6 (hills) was 8:36. I kicked it back into gear with a 7:26 mile 7 and a 8:01 mile 8.
About that point, the wheels came off my race. I knew I just couldn't sustain that pace today. We were running on the long railroad trail which was dirt. I loved the dirt and the views of the valley, but after awhile I was ready for something new. Mile 9 was 8:39, Mile 10 was 8:54, Mile 11 was 10:10, and Mile 12 was 9:51.
I next started to have severe gastro problems, very uncomfortable. My pace slowed significantly to 10:31, 12:11, and 11:41. We then made a long hot climb up to Deer Valley, doing a loop. I recovered somewhat and no longer had scores of runners passing me. Next splits were 11:11, 9:40, and a fast 8:13 as I enjoyed cruising the downhill, passing many runners.
I was now in "hang-on" mode as we ran above Park City. 10:23, 10:53, bringing me to mile 20. The gastro problem was crippling me. So, no other choice but to take an 8-minute bathroom break. Pretty funny to take such a long break during a fast marathon race. I believe the dehydration from yesterday just stressed out my digestive system too much. Bummer. I worried that I would need to visit every porto-poddy from there to the finish, but I didn't have to.
Oh well, I now was back in top shape. I looked at my watch and realized that finishing in sub-4 hours was very unlikely. However, I had plenty of spring in my step, so why not end this marthon training run in fine shape?
Mile 21 was 8:52, Mile 22 was 9:38. I then dug deep on the downhill to the finish and really kicked up the speed, passing probably 30-40 runners along the way. I eventually caught up to runners I had seen at mile 20 before my long break. It was becoming very hot. I drank as much as possible and started to splash myself with cool water. My final miles were: 8:06, 8:03, 8:42, and 8:16, with a 1:35 for the home stretch. It was a great feeling to finish off strong.
So I finished my 5th marathon in 4:05, my slowest time. But how many of those other runners also ran a marathon distance yesterday? Ha, ha.
As I was resting at the finish, I saw Smooth finish about 20 minutes after me. She had an impressive race! I wished I could have watched others finish, but there was no shade at the finish and it was getting hotter. I decided to just head home.
It was a wonderful two days, getting in some great altitude and heat training. | 