Believe to Achieve

Clocked out of my work at 4:58 am.  Drove home  (one mile) and dressed on my front porch.  Couldn't get my timing chip on my shoe in the dark and I was pushing the clock so I just put it in my pocket of my shorts.  Really getting sleepy but not quite through normal end shift time so knew I could at least last through this half at an easy pace.  Arrived just outside the tunnel of the half marathon start at 5:34 am.  Thought I would miss the 5:30 am start but hoping it would run late.  It did and started at 5:44am.  Enough time for me to use the porta-potty and mingle in the crowd.  Didn't see anyone I knew. I stayed about half way back.  Not going for a PR after an all nighter and a 51+ miler not even a week ago.  Hoping to just keep it at 8:30 AP but after two "warmup" miles at 8:38 and 8:36 I looked down at my watch reading 7:30 current lap pace and decided to see how I could do with that since it felt real easy.  Remember I ran Ogden with an AP of 7:24.   So this even on no sleep was totally doable, except for the ailing saddle soreness and nerve pain down the back of both thighs.  This prevented me from lifting my legs fully for a good stride.  But I knew I could push thru the pain as I always do.  I have an appointment with a specialist next week to work through all this ridiculous lower back pain.  It sure does throb!!!  Pain scale score 7.  Oh well.  I am a true blue masochist.  I passed lots of early pace pushers and never was passed after mile 3.  I am pretty confident that if I slept and hadn't run the 50 last week that I could have run this thing under a 1:30.  My heart was totally strong the whole way.  It was the pain holding me back.  It did this to me at Ogden and the last 10 miles of my 50 miler.  AP for 13.17 miles = 7:36 (I started my watch with the gun so I have added footage and  I am using my garmin time as I don't know chip time yet.  Actually I probably won't have a chip time as I was signed up for the full marathon and ran the half.).   It was fun seeing my AP change from 8:38 down to 7:36 with each subsequent mile.  Here are the splits:  8:38, 8:36, 7:30, 7:30, 7:18, 7:23, 7:24, 7:35, 7:28, 7:32, 7:19, 7:19, 7:19 and last .17 at 7:15 (no sprint, just taking it easy).  Slowed and drank up at each aid station.  Tried to help push other runners throughout the course.  13 miles versus 50 makes it all that much more doable.  Got a  ride to my car by a good friend (THANKS JESSICA!!) and saw the unbelievably fast women runners this year.  Melanie looked strong at mile 22.  Amber was soaring about 1.5 miles ahead of that.  Some woman came in at 2:45!!  I didn't make it back in time to see Melanie (at least she had her nephew there to pace her).  The single lane traffic and tons of lights made it impossible. I was frustrated but what do you do? I got a great view of all the runners from the halfway point to the finish. Great food at the finish.  Steak fries and pizza hit the spot.  Went home slept from 1045am to 3:05pm.  Off to work all night again very  soon.