Plan was to pace Duane and Tyler at the Ogden marathon to a sub-3, a first for both of them. Picked them up at 8 miles. My instructions were to hold pace at 6:50/mi through mile 14 (between 6:45-6:52). First mile: 6:50. Second mile: 6:52. At that point, Duane started falling off the back just a little, so I held back to stay with him while Tyler slowly pulled ahead. Duane held right around 7:00 through 14, then hit the big hill with a 7:30 mile, which was according to plan. However, Duane started cramping (calves) right after we crested the hill, so we slowed down dramatically. He tried to gut it out for a while but finally told me that he was done and asked me to try to catch Tyler and take him in. Tyler was well ahead of us at that point, so catching him required some effort. My first mile trying to catch Tyler was just under 6:00. When I still couldn't see him up ahead, I slowed down and paced one of the lead women for a mile or so (should have asked her name). At that point, I saw Tyler up ahead, so I pulled away and caught him. He was starting to hurt (we were around 18-19), but he was still holding at 6:50-7:00. By mile 20, he started cramping (calves and quads), so we slowed down a bit. The initial wave of cramps passed pretty quickly, so pace wasn't affected too much. However, by 22, he was really hurting. At 22.5, he looked at his watch and determined that he still had 60 seconds "in the bank." He quickly calculated that he could give up 15 seconds per mile and still stay under 3:00. His mind changed pretty quickly, though, when his cramps came back with a vengeance, and he had to start taking walk breaks interspersed with slow jogs. Since it was clear that the goal was no longer in sight, I left Tyler at mile 23, where I was planning to stop (since my longest run in over a year until today was 10 miles). After a minute, though, I saw the woman I had paced earlier, and she looked tired but still strong. I jumped back in and ran with her for another mile. She was fading. Had to take a potty break at about 24, so I left her again. When I came out, I saw Tyler again, so I decided to help him limp home. He was still hurting, but he was able to take less frequent walk breaks over the final mile or so. He finished in 3:11. Duane finished in 3:19. I felt bad that they missed their goals, but they both took it in stride and are planning to spend the summer tweaking their training in hopes of taking another shot at the goal in the Fall. It felt great to be in the middle of a marathon again after having not run one myself in 2.5 years.
AHR 166. | 