My goal was to finish faster than my Ogden marathon time (about 3:52), but was kind of hoping I would hit the 3:30 mark. From everything I had heard this was a brutal course, so I was a little unsure of what to expect, which kind of worried me.
Miles 1-5: 7:47, 6:30, 6:54, 6:51, 7:19
First few miles were a breeze. Felt really good. Ended up running with some guy from about miles 2-7. He definitely made me go faster than I probably should have, but I was feeling good. He broke away from me on the last uphill stretch.
Miles 6-10: 7:28, 16:26, 6:50, 7:58
Uneventful. The uphill was not too bad, but was a little steeper than I thought.
Miles 11-15: 7:49, 7:15, 15:33, 7:11
I hit the 14 mile mark at 1:44, so I knew I was ahead of 8 minute miles. I ran miles 13-15 with 3 other people. They were talking, while I was listening. My guess is that they finished a good 15-20 minutes ahead of me.
Miles 16-20: 8:14, 7:43, 8:40, 7:47, 9:31
Was still trucking along pretty good until I hit mile marker 20. Then the mental battle began. I hit mile marker 20 at 2:33. Was very surprised by this, but I knew I was in trouble for the rest of the race.
Miles 21-26: 11:21, 7:37, 9:52, 9:52, 10:10, 11:16, 1:53
The 7:37 came on the downhill stretch that was right before Rice Eccles stadium I beleive. Looking back, this 7:37 leads me to beleive that I had more in the tank than I thought, and most of my problems were mental.
Overall, I had a lot of fun. Would have helped to have had my brother Mark running with me, especially from about miles 18-end. Makes me sick to think that if I would have just run 9 minute miles from 20-end that I would have finished so much better. It sucked getting passed by so many people the last 3 miles. Luckily, this race gives me a lot of optimism and leads me to beleive that I could cut a good amount of time off if I train better in the future. | 