Great day today. Got up early and caught a ride down to Pocatello with Lynette and McKay. Once there, met up with Andrea and did a 3M warmup then got on the buses to the start. Stomach issues from yesterday continuing but not too bad up to the start. Right before we get on the buses, see a young guy in an ISU warmup suit and chat with him for a bit. He indicated a goal of 1:10, so I knew I was in trouble for the overall win.
At the start, the weather had settled down and the high winds in Poky had died out in Inkom at the start. This race is all rolling hills despite what the profile shows so keeping a consistent and maintainable pace is the trick. The gun goes off.
1- 5:21 Go out hard with the ISU guy, John Ricardi. The pace feels ok, but I know that I likely cannot sustain it for the whole 13 so I back off to run my race and let him go.
2- 5:34 Just crusing through the rollers.
3- 5:41 A bit more uphill here but still rolling and passing marathoners.
4-5:49 More hills.
5- 5:32 A bit of downhill section so I pick up the pace.
6- 5:39 Still feeling really good. The next mile is where I got my side stitch last year so I just focus on nice a steady running
7- 5:45 Feeling good. Take a Gu right about here.
8- 6:06 The hill under the freeway up to Century high school. Not too long but a momentum killer.
9- 5:58 Over the worst of the hill and now just catching my breathe and rolling on the uphill through here.
10- 5:49 Breathe back, but now starting to feel a little intestinal distress.
11- 5:51 Intestinal issues getting a little worse, just focusing on keeping consistent.
12- 5:55 Ok, insides not feeling good. Trying to decide whether to stop at a porta pottie or keep going...I keep going.
13- Made the turns into the park and I can see the finish...and the blue huts!
0.13 - 0:45 Finish with all that my insides will allow.
Overall I secured a second place finish, the 1st Master and take 3 minutes off my time from last year! Young ISU runner John smoked the run in 1:09:xx with a great race.
As for our little IF running group, Andrea won 1st overall in the HM, Lynette was 1st Master just behind her and McKay was 3rd in his AG! Not to bad for the IF group.
Afterwards, did a 2M cool down with Lynette, then a 4.9M cooldown with Andrea. After the awards, my family had driven down after my daugther's soccer game and we spent the afternoon at the Ross Park water Park. What a great day!
Kory W. deserves huge kudos for a smoking 2:36, new course record and outrunning Chuck Engle! His training was superb and he peak just right to blow the marathon away!
Tangent 3 - 26 miles | 