Quick update: 2:41:40ish, 8th overall, 1st in AG. Disappointed with my time (didn't even hit C Goal of sub 2:40). Course not as fast as I thought. Calves started to have issues early (4M) and my last 5M was a death march.
More later. Ok here is later...
Walked to the bus pickup with Kory and Bill M and met up with MattK (from the Blog), Walter and his friend Scott. Nice ride up to the start. Only had about 40 minutes to wait. Got ready and saw lots of FRB'ers at the start then we were off.
Ran steady with Walter from the start. The front pack of 4 guys took off about mile 2, followed by Sasha and Jeff (Steve A joined them shortly as well) and Kory was running just back of us for most the race (until he passed us!). Steady and easy on the rolling downhill out of the canyon. It was a beautiful running day and nice scenery. However, about 3 miles in I could start to feel my left calf tightening and I mentioned it to Walt at mile 4. So here we are, me and my calf and Walt and his cold congestion trying to run fast, quite a pair. We are hitting our splits ok (averaging about 5:50ish) coming down the canyon. Lots of mileage on concrete (which sucked, it was very hard and we could both feel it).
Hit mile 10 at 58:35ish feeling ok (calf still tight, Walt having issues with his congestion still). Start to get into Provo and all the turns start! This was actually a real pain in the butt. Hit half at 1:17:22 (a little behind now) and Walt has to duck into the portapotty. I see Kory coming on as we run an S-curve (the first of many sharp turns)! Still a slight downhill but feeling mostly flat.
We run into town and get away from the highway (by running behind a strip mall, how scenic!) and onto the Jordan River Pathway. Now the curves and dips really start as we wind along the river and duck under roads via tunnels...momentum sappers! I start to see Steve A at mile 16 and can tell he is slowing (as am I..my average pace is now moving from 5:50 closer to 6:00 all the time, yikes!). I tell myself to stay patient as there is a lot of race left and my calves are still tight, no need to implode trying to catch Steve.
At mile 18, I am coming up on Steve and he stops and tells me he is done. I wish him well and marshall on knowing that Kory is coming on. I am running in 7th, but the legs are weakening and the calves are preventing me from pushing with full power on the kick. I only took 3 gels during the race (at 7M, 15M and about 19M) but I don't think any more would have helped. I am walking the line between trying to maintain a decent pace and not pushing too hard so I don't crash even more and cramp up hard.
At mile 23, Kory catches me and we run together for a stretch. He is such a strong finisher I try to stay with him but my legs don't respond (still no power) so I just try to keep him in sight. At mile 25M I see him weaving all over the road (is he going to fall? no, he is just trying to be a good friend and pull me along!) as he looks back to try and encourage me to come up...not in the cards. He puts nearly a full minute on me in the last 3M, great job Kory!
As I enter the mall parking lot, I just start to push with all I have...since I missed my A, B and C goals I think maybe I can get 2:40:32 for a third time...nope. As I hit 26M, I run as hard as I can to the finish and cross the line pretty pissed off at myself.
Overall an ok race but disappointing in the time and my fitness. The course was not nearly as fast as I thought it would be (Sasha told me this right before the race, he was right). Still have some tweaks to do in my training to try and get back in the 2:30's in a future race. Focus on more "big workouts" and long intervals, more hills and more fast finish long runs (including at least 2 20+ milers) before the next marathon.
Splits: 1-6:09, 2-5:39, 3-5:52, 4-5:54, 5-6:10, 6-5:45, 7-5:39, 8-5:47, 9-5:47, 10-5:43, 11-5:51, 12-6:08, 13-6:00, 14-5:51, 15-6:02, 16-6:09, 17-6:14, 18-6:18, 19-6:21, 20-6:29, 21-6:28, 22-6:35, 23-6:49, 24-6:34, 25-6:42, 26-6:41, 0.2 (0.34 on garmin)-2:08.
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