Just got back from St. George and got the kids to bed and got on a computer for the first time since leaving Friday afternoon. So FINALLY : D I can write my report. I went from feeling pretty crappy all week and continued all night before the race. Even awoke with very stiff calves from my hill work the day before and was slightly concerned. I got up at 6:30am and left the door at 7:10am to try and see the course. I could only see five miles of it because the rest looped around a golf course a few times so wasn't sure about how it ended but felt confident the course wasn't too difficult. Nothing like the hills I have been running around here. Anyway, picked up Melanie at her place and drove back to the start at 8:20am. Parked a 1/2 mile from the start and ran a 2.1 mile warm up. At first we were both very cold and thought "no way" to taking off our leggins' but after a mile warmup we were surprised as the sun came up how quickly we felt we could lose some clothing. I changed out of my black tights at 8:35am and finished the warmup and luckily ran into Kim and Jane on their warm up. Mel and I ran 2.1 miles at 8:13 AP. Bathroom break and chatted til the start. The start was right on time. We basically were right down to the wire in time. I turned on my iPod just before the race to hear the words "BATTERY LOW". I was totally bummed, banking on adrenaline boost from my music. Now I know why I accidentally left my iPod home last week when I did that long SW on the TM. Time to break away from "music mode". I ran the first two miles with music then paused it until mile 7 or so, at times turning it off to conserve battery power for the end. I don't think it made a difference. I felt great the whole time, even chatting with everyone I passed by, if they were sans music of course. Here are my splits and brief dialogue, if any: 6:59 *only problem with the start was it was on time and I wasn't quite ready AND many runners that run slower stood at the line and I was back 6 seconds. I literally had to pause at times in order to shuffle around the slower runners "blocking me". 6:58 feeling good. Keeping it easy. Just worried my tight calves and left leg might give me problems if I went too fast. 6:53 lost one of my lucky gloves (it has a picture of a girl runner and says "Runner Girl" on it). Someone after the race told me they saw it and wondered who had time to place a glove on the ground in a "hang loose" sign. Aren't I talented? Took a gu just before this mile just for fun.
6:53. 6:55 7:00 Good but short uphill portion. Aid station right at the base of this steep hill. 6:51. Seriously I am thinking when will this get hard but still worried about picking it up so I figure I mightaswell stick with what works. 6:55 7:04 Steepest uphill portion and mile 9 is at the top of it and so is an aid station : D. Took a gu just before this mile. I took only two gus total and drank water at each aid station.
6:59 6:54 7:01 That uphill again (same as mile 6) but hey I am almost done. Now where does this thing turn off to the finish? I sure hope I don't miss it. Passing lots of walkers/joggers that I am looping. Hard to book it down a hill then turn sharply over bridges with others to worry about but not really causing much anxiety. I feel great and decide to pick it up. 6:49 I sure hope I didn't pick it up too soon? I couldn't see the finish line...turn, oh there it is...I guess its time to sprint to the finish. 0.1 miles at 6:22 pace. I had my watch on pace mode so didn't realize my time so much but knew I was under 7 AP (6:55 to be exact : D). Wish I had it in time mode. I would have tried a little harder to get under 1:30. I had it in me. IN FACT I seriously could have run another 10 miles at 7 even pace. No soreness, no notice that I even "raced" a half marathon yesterday. I am beginning to think I just may be able to break three hours in the marathon in the near future. I felt this pace was just under lactate threshold, which helped me feel so good the entire time. I figure if I keep training more wisely I can get there. : DDDDD. Totally happy with this race. 2nd master overall. 2nd in age category. A cute 40 year old woman came in three minutes before me. I guess if she can do it I CAN. I didn't know her. She is from Salt Lake. There were a lot of new faces at the race and a lot of people from the blog that I got to talk with : DDDD.
| 