Well, this was another bummer year at the St. George Marathon for me. Finished in 2:55:01, 101 place overall, and 24 in age group. Usually I do a great job keeping splits with the Garmin, but my battery died at mile 16 (about the same time I died), so I finished without knowing what my time was. I would have paid more attention at the finish, but for me the highlight this year was running across the finishing line with my two youngest boys. I've never done this before, and I figured since my race was basically over at mile 16, I would have some fun at the finish with the boys. I started really good and James Holt and I helped each other through Veyo. I went through the first ten miles right at 1:02 which is what I was wanting to do. The half was around 1:22:30 Soon after the half I started cramping up and really had problems with the legs. Everything was in pain, quads, calves, hips, hamstring. I really started to slow and began stopping at most aid stations and stretching. Around Winchester Tyler came flying by looking strong. Also around Winchester Steve Hooper came along. It was nice for Steve to be there as we were both struggling with cramping issues. It became almost funny because I would walk some and Steve would run, then I would catch to him and he would walk and I would run, this went on until about mile 24, when I was able to keeping running a little longer. I felt so slow going through town, however it was fun watching some different people from the blog come flying by. My main goal was to not get injured so the pace was real relaxed. Like I mentioned once I got close to the finish I found the boys and had fun finishing with them. I'm sure it will be something they will remember and also something I'll always remember. So in summary a bummer race, what is next? I don't know. I enjoy marathons but I always feel better running 10K's and halves. I can handle the longer races, but really I have more fun when I'm out just running with the guys and having a good time on the longer runs. I was really happy to see some of the performances of my good friends. Steve Piccolo did awesome ran 3:02, qualified for Boston, and had a 22 minute PR. So I found a lot of joy in seeing others have good days, when mine didn't go quite as planned. Here are the splits up until my Garmin died (Boo) I was actually having a really good race until this point. The overall average was right at 6:16 1-6:20 2-6:18 3-5:59 4-5:50 5-6:00 6-5:46 7-5:46 8-6:46- Veyo Hill 9-6:40 10-6:25 11-6:52-Starting to notice some unusual pain in the legs
12-6:34 13-6:13 Half 1:22:30 ? 14-6:22 15-6:10 16-6:00 Garmin dies and so do I... bummer.
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