Lloyd and I got up to the start a littler earlier than planned, but it meant that there were no lines for the portapotties. It had recently rained, but the clouds were broken up overhead. We found our way down to the tent by the starting line and sat there for a while before deciding that we'd better make one more visit to the portapotties before the race started. As I was standing in line, I turned my Garmin on and was a bit shocked to get a low battery warning as I had recharged it just the day before. I always kind of run by feel, but I would have liked to know my splits afterwards and check my average pace from time to time. It's hard running a race without having any idea of where you're at. About fifteen minutes before the start I took an eGel with some water.
As we lined up at the start it was still a bit dark and a little chilly, but we really couldn't have asked for better conditions. I had decided to just go with a short sleeve shirt and no gloves and was hoping I wouldn't regret it. Lloyd and I started out together at what seemed to be a very comfortable pace. I had a few little aches and pains that concerned me a little, but they started to go away as I got warmed up. We covered the first mile in eight minutes by Lloyd's watch, which is about where I wanted to be. I knew I'd have to speed up a bit, to between 7:30 and 7:45 pace to take advantage of the downhill, but hopefully not pound my legs too much. Lloyd was still with me at the two mile mark and announced that we also covered that in eight minutes. He was breathing fairly hard at that point, but I knew I needed to speed up a bit. He'd told me prior to the race that he was only going to try to hang with me for the first mile or so, so I wasn't too concerned when I looked back over my shoulder and he had just disappeared.
Over the next few miles I just felt great. My legs felt good, temperatures were just right and I thought that maybe it would be a PR day. The mile markers were coming up faster than expected and I was hitting on all cylinders. I passed the 10K mark in 48 minutes which mean that I was at about a 7:45 pace. I was in good shape at that point. I'd planned to take another gel at mile 9, but I was got distracted and didn't realize we were at the aid station until it was too late to get one down. I was talking to a guy from Michigan that was trying to run a marathon in every state before he turned 50. He said he was about half way there and described some of the marathons that he'd run recently. I took the gel at mile 11 and felt pretty good for having finished more than a third of the race.
About mile 12 I felt that I was running out of gas a bit and was concerned when I hit the half way point and saw that my time was 1:44. It was noticeably warmer when we hit the bottom of the canyon, but there was a light rain falling that made it very comfortable. I felt the gel starting to kick in and started to pick up the pace again. The next few miles passed quickly. I'd decided to take another gel at mile 15 and gave myself plenty of time to get it down. Things were still going well through 17 and 18. I felt like I was holding a good steady pace and although I might not PR, I'd at least finish in a respectable time. I was planning to take another get around mile 19, so I'd have some energy the last three of four miles, but I was feeling a bit nauseated at that point and decided I'd better hold off. After about a half mile I knew I was going to have to make a longer portapotty stop at mile 20 and was kind of hurting by the time I got there. It was also on uneven ground which made it seem like you were on a ship at sea. I don't know how much time I lost there as I hadn't noticed the clock just a short distance away, but I got going again just after crossing the wires at almost 2:48. I was feeling very good at that point, but my legs were still working. As I hit the next few mile markers, I really started to feel the exhaustion setting in, but there was no way that I was going to get another gel down. By mile 24 I was out of gas. I walked through the water stop and just leaned against the portapotty to stretch my legs out a bit, but it was all I could do to get moving again. I didn't stop until the next mile marker, but I had to walk a minute or two after having a much needed drink. I pushed on to the finish by chanting to myself and about fell over after crossing the finish line. I just found a place to lay down and hardly moved for about ten minutes. After downing a couple of chocolate milks, I started to get my energy back, but I just sat under a tree waiting for Lloyd to come in. He ended up finishing around 4:14.
For the most part, I really enjoyed the marathon: the course was beautiful, the crowd support was great, the weather almost perfect. I wasn't thinking about a PR going in to the race as I haven't trained as hard this year and I was almost five pounds heavier than last year at this time. My goal was to finish under 3:45 or within the top five in my age group, but that didn't happen. It was my slowest time in the last four years (not counting Boston which I ran with an injury), but all in all I wasn't overly disappointed. When I didn't get into St. George this year, I know I lost some of my motivation. I really need to figure out the refueling thing though. I've experienced the nausea several times around mile 20, which leaves me feeling really empty for the last few miles. It doesn't really come up during the training runs as I haven't been going over 20, but I need to experiment with some other combinations of fuel on the run. I also need to build a better base early in the summer.
Well, I'm just happy at this point to be able to relax a bit and then enjoy some of the nice fall running weather. | 