Met up with Clyde and Paul and hit a bus at 5:00 without even waiting in line. Once to the start, just tried to keep relaxed, warm, and use the bathroom a couple times. Jogged around the start line for just a minute and stretched for a second and decided it was time to be ready. Goal was to go together with Clyde and Logan and pick people off as they fell off giving us someone to always go for and pull us to our sub 2:30. I really felt like 2:27 was what I wanted and 2:25 was the best I had in me (Both of which were probably right on). 1-5:27 I was worried about what the effects of getting out so much faster than last year would be (6:20 and 6:14). But I knew I had to do it to bring the time down. 2-5:34 Kind of got out of the crowd and tried to settle a little. 3-5:17 Tried to talk a little, but I was pretty anxious. Had trouble getting my drink here at 3. Maybe I could have done without it, but analyzing my other marathons made me think I had suffered from some dehydration by the way I bonked - so I didn't want to do it again. Ultima
4-5:18 Back rolling again. 5-5:28 We caught up to Nick Mcoombs here and it seemed to kind of kick him into gear. Clyde and I settled back into this pack and Logan stayed up front with Nick. 6-5:16 Dropping down toward Veyo group stayed the same. 7-5:24 Threw my dad my hat in Veyo and got a hardy yell from him. Logan is starting to move away with Nick. Clyde and I look at our watches and realize we are doing extremely well and can keep it calm up the hill. Water and Gu
8-6:13 Maybe just a little slow, but everyone that passed us going up, we caught later in the race. 9-5:48 Clyde fell off me a little here. But I seemed to recover from Veyo okay and wanted to set up a good Dammeron set. 10-5:42 Feeling good. 11-6:02 Last of the Dammeron's. I had gradually pulled to the left of the road (all by myself) and then realized that the aid station was on the right, so I had to slide back. Ultima
12-5:43 Still see Logan up on me by about 40 seconds and think about closing the gap. But I am still right where I want to be and decide the race still has a long way to go. In retrospect, I think I should have closed up on him if possible. 13-5:28 Half in 1:13:35 This is exactly where I wanted to be. See a tall fellow in the distance. It is Steve A. 14-5:24 Doing well through Diamond and closing quickly on Steve. 15-5:20 Encourage Steve to go with me during this mile - and he does. Again the aid station on the outside of a turn, dumb. Water 16-5:08 Always a fast mile. And I let out a gleeful little yell. 17-5:14 Trying not to think about Winchester hill. Instead trying to use the downhill. 18-5:25 Still trying to stay forward. Fatigue is coming. 19-5:53 Didn't hit this hill as well as I should have. But my ward's aid station at the end got me moving across the top again. The yells were deafening. Very cool. Ultima and Gu. 20-5:36 Hit 20at 1:50:50 and thinking 2:25 is possible if I can keep 5:30's, but my stomach starts grumbling. 21-5:23 I really worked on the Twist in my training, so hopefully it will pay off. But as I am dropping through, my stomach is just twisting. Throughout the race, I had been battling having to make a pit stop, and I'm hoping it can hold off for just a few more minutes. Bad news was the stomach didn't back off - good news was it decided to come up the other way. So for about 1/2 mile I threw up about every 10 steps as I tried to keep pushing. After loosing it about 15 times, my stomach seemed to relax a little. 22-5:45 Legs are really spent. I feel someone get right up on me and start drafting as a little breeze picks up. It's Steve A. 23-5:39 Steve goes around me quickly followed by Clyde. I attempt to go with Clyde, but I am really maxed out. It felt like I was standing still, but the times were still okay. 24-5:46 Another yell from my dad and I pass Mike Kirk. 25-5:58 Clyde and now Matt Harmer had pulled away from me and I was just trying not to loose all I had worked for as I came down Diagonal. 26-6:03 The turns were hard as I lost momentum and had to get going again, even though nothing was there. .2 (,25 on the Garmin)-1:25 (5:46 pace) saw that big clock ticking toward 2:27 and I knew I could break it, so just dug whatever was left and did it! Race went extremely well. I really couldn't be more pleased with it. Nearly a 14 minute PR, and I ran all of it how I wanted - even held on through my puking during mile 21. And already I have analyzed how I can take 5 minutes off for next year. Of course that is going to take a ton of work, but next year I want a top 3 finish and a time that sets me up for an A standard when the window opens back up again. Here's my 5 minute plan - 10 sec./mile : just by being a more experience runner and with better training (260 seconds). 10 more seconds on Veyo and 10 on mile 11 (280). And finally 10-15 each on miles 22-26 (340 seconds) - for a total of 5 minutes and 40 seconds = 2:21:12
Congratulations to all the bloggers - so many of you ran awesome races. Of course especially Paul and Logan, great job guys! And it was great to meet many of you at dinner and at the race. | 