Well, this was a very interesting race for me. I really had no plans to run a marathon this spring, in fact I haven't done any races since the St. George Marathon last year (I seem to go in cycles of being into running and then being burnt out). I thought maybe doing the Half Marathon would be a good way to start back to more serious training. However, by the time I decided on that the Half was filled up, so Bill Campbell and Mike Warren talked me into running the full with them. The plan was for me to help pace them to a sub 3 hour marathon. It was a good plan, however we came up short today. The last few weeks my training hasn't been very good, and really leading up to this marathon I didn't get in enough long runs. I figured I could give a good effort for at least 20 miles, but would probably struggle with the full marathon.
Thursday/Friday- I had a great time going up to Provo with Mike and his family hanging out on Friday and driving the course. I got sick after lunch on Friday and threw-up a few times which wasn't fun.
Saturday- We were up by 3 am and on the bus by 4 am. We met all the guys up at the start and it was actually not too bad weather wise we had rain, but it didn't seem as bad as St. George in 2008.
The plan from the start was to try to run sub 3, realizing with the rain and not being sure exactly what the course was like that we would maybe have to readjust our goals. Bill was really wanting the sub 3 and Mike was just needing to break 3:19 to have a big PR (which I knew he would do with no problems
1-6:52- Good easy start
2-6:51- Nice and easy
3-6:58-
4-7:07 This was actually closer to 6:00 for me because I stopped to use the bathroom, then speed up to catch back up to the guys.
5-6:35- told the guys we needed to pick it up a bit
6-6:47 (41:12) Feeling good
7- 7:36- Some hills here and Bill starting to struggle a little bit, so I slowed down and helped him up the hill
8-7:43 Decision time Bill is really starting to get cold and I could tell he wasn't doing good. He said to go ahead and help Mike. I felt really torn because I wanted to be able to help them both, but Bill said to go on. I offered to let him take my ipod to help pass the time, but he said no it was ok, so I decided since I had already slowed down so much it was now time for some tunes, took a long time to get the ipod on a going, some kid actually asked if I was ok, he thought I was stopped and hurting.
9-6:20 Pick back up the pace to catch Mike and head down the canyon. (This race had a lot of stopping and starting for me, my legs were probably confused most of the race
10-6:56
11-7:23
12-6:27 Catch up to Mike and tell him to start picking it up with me down the Canyon
13-6:40
Half- 1:31:30? I stopped at the half and stretched some and waited for Mike he wasn't far behind
14-7:36 Some hills
15-7:25 Legs starting to feel like bricks
16-6:49- Encourage Mike again to push the downhill, did some miles with Camdog and MarcieJ
17-6:44
18-7:26- Stopped and puked
19-7:04
20-7:30 (2:20:587) About this mile Mike takes off and looks pretty strong, so I was happy for him. At this point my pacing was done and so was my race pretty much.
These last 6 miles were absolutely terrible. You can't cheat a marathon, if don't have the base or endurance it will eventually catch up to you.
21-7:20
22-8:16- My legs and hips are really starting to act up now
23- 9:08 This mile I decided that the long sleeve undershirt had served its purpose well, so I stopped here and made a wardrobe change. I know probably a dumb reason to stop, but I figured hey this race is really a glorified training run for me, so if I want to change my shirt that is what Little Buddha is going to do.
24-7:51 Struggling
25-8:47 Had to stop and stretch some
26-10:10 Stopped a few times and thought I was going to puke again. Walked with an old man up the over pass then started running again.
.34- 2:34
Finish time 3:15:08 Don't know my official place, just know this was officially my slowest marathon ever, but it was also a good experience seeing Mike run so well.
Aside from puking a few more times once I got back to the hotel and having sore legs and hips, this was a good way to start off my summer of training. I really need to work hard the next 16 weeks and see if I can get in good shape and be able to hit a good time this fall at STG.
Anyway, congrats to all that ran today.
Little Buddha out!
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