I went down with Cheris and Michelle M. We followed Dean and Kris in their car. It started raining in Cedar City and we had to throw everything from the back of the truck inside the cab. I was hoping this meant cooler weather. No such luck. We got to St. George and checked in to the hotel. Then we went to the expo and then to Greg's condo for a nice spaghetti dinner. I actually felt pretty calm the week leading up to the race.
I printed off a weighted pace chart for a 3:28. My real goal was to finish in 3:30.
The race..
For the first 7 miles I felt great. I was hitting my splits and feeling like I had this. I carried my water bottle for the first 5 miles. It was nice and I didn't have to stop at the aide station at mile 3. I had to use the POP at the mile 7 aide station that's right before Veyo. I figure this took me about a minute.
Veyo and the next several miles uphill were no problem. I didn't walk at all. I hit mile 13 about 13 seconds ahead of schedule at 1:45:08. Then I started slowing a little. By mile 18 I was about 1 1/2 minutes behind. I figured I was ok. I had given myself a 2 minute cushion to get a 3:30. Then my quads starting cramping up. This has never happened to me at St. George. By mile 22 I could barely get my legs to move. I had to walk downhill. This mile was horrible. When I got to mile 23 my brother in law Ryan was there. He was my hero. He asked me what kind of splits I needed to finish with a good time. I told him to just not let me walk. He helped me a ton. I just followed his lead. I had to tell him to slow down a few times, but I didn't walk. I didn't have any sort of kick left.
After I finished, I was in so much pain. I sat on the grass with the rest of my group. My legs just ached for about 30 minutes. I took the ibuprofin I had been carrying and that helped quite a bit. I wish I had thought to take that during the race. Oh well.
My splits were:
1-5. 8:10, 8:08, 7:41, 7:38, 7:54 / total time 39:33
6-10. 7:32, 7:25, 9:41(bathroom break and Veyo), 8:11, 8:16/ total 1:20:42 (5 sec ahead)
11-15. 8:21, 8:11, 7:53, 8:32, 7:44/ total time 2:01:25 (1:10 behind)
16-20. 7:49, 7:56, 8:06, 8:42, 8:29/ total time 2:42:30 (2:49 behind)
21-26.2. 8:51, 10:30, 9:32, 8:09, 8:32, 8:53, and 9:18 for .2
I'm not sure what I should do differenty next time. I took GU at miles 5, 11 and 17. I planned on another one mile 22, but i guess i was in so much pain I forgot. I thought I drank enough, but I do think I was pretty dehydrated.
| 