Really happy with my race today. Goals coming in to the race were A. Break 2:50:00 B. Low 2:5xs C. Best last year's time of 2:56:05. I knew breaking 2:50:00 would be a bit of a stretch, but I had to go for it and I'm glad I did. I ate a banana and granola bar at 4:30 am and then another banana about 45 minutes prior to the race. It was cold and windy (in the right direction) up at the start. Ran with gloves up until around mile 20 and a beanie up until about mile 13.
First half in 1:27:30 Second half in 1:23:26
Miles 1-7 6:37, 6:41, 6:25, 6:23, 6:33, 6:21, 6:16 I pretty much started the race running with Melanie B. and Julie E., just like I did last year. This was good as they are pretty dialed in and keep the pace honest and steady. I was probably about 5 seconds slower than I wanted around miles 3-5, but I wasn't too worried. Stomach was good and legs were feeling fine. These miles flew by quite quickly.
Miles 8-13 7:23, 6:53, 6:52, 7:02, 6:47, 6:29 I hit the bathroom right before Veyo (I have to pee at least once in every marathon which is something I need to solve), and while it slowed me down, it didn't slow me down as much as I thought. The tailwind up Veyo was great, but then on the subsequent climb it kind of switched to more of a crosswind. Ran with Melanie up through about mile 11, but then I was pretty much on my own...as far as running with anybody that I knew. I probably lost my shot at breaking 2:50:00 during this stretch of the race. I just bled a little too much time and took it a little too easy on these climbs. But I was trying to find a balance. I crossed the half at 1:27:30 and I knew I was about 45-60 seconds off where I needed to be.
Miles 14-20 6:31, 6:20, 6:20, 6:27, 6:26, 6:38, 6:23 I was looking forward to this next part of the course. Running through Snow Canyon is great and I knew this is where I could make up some time, plus you start to get more crowds along the way. There were two girls that went flying by me down the descent in Snow Canyon. They never did come back. There were two other guys that passed me up the climb on mile 19 who also slowly pulled away. I believe these were the only people that passed me in the second half of the race. While I did make up some time on this part of the course, I didn't feel like I was really able to get going like I needed to. Right around mile 19-20 I could feel the beginnings of the pain/doubt zone. I knew I just had to work through it and things would get better. I surprisingly got up the hill in mile 19 quicker than I thought.
Miles 21-26.2 6:15, 6:26, 6:19, 6:14, 6:17, 6:15, 1:22 (5:59) This section ended up being my favorite part of the race. I just tried to find a balance between pushing hard, but not too hard. My feet were hurting and numb, but I really just got into a good rythem here and started clipping off people in front of me. I was definitely in the pain locker, and was looking for anything to keep me going. The spectators, the bands, the other runners, thoughts of good training runs I had done.......I was doing and thinking of everything I could to keep my pace up. I was able to pass a lot of people in these last few miles, and despite feeling really crappy, my pace was getting faster. Those last two miles are tough as the terrain seems to flatten, and I was so happy to round the last corner. I passed one guy right before rounding the corner and there was no one else in sight ahead of me. I could see the clock getting close to 2:51:00 and I had to at least come in under that. I was spent, but so happy with how my things went, especially the last 6 miles (and in particular the last 4).
I was happy to see/hear that things went well for so many others. I owe a big thanks to Matt, Mike, Scott, Reed, Chad, Toni, etc. I started running about 1-3 times a week with them about 2 months ago and it has helped me a ton. It's kind of a one-sided relationship with these guys as I don't bring a ton of value to the group, but I get all the benefit of running with them. They are smart, talented and very motivating and the runs I've done with them gave me a lot of confidence during this race. Also a big shout-out to my bro Mark, who I have run a lot of miles with building up to this race.
When I started this running stuff several years back, I never would have thought I could have run a marathon in the low 2:50s. Very happy with this race and looking forward to recovering and learning from this one and trying hit the 2:45:00 mark.
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