Time to sit down and write about this year's SGM. Absolutely no regrets. I reached and tried for something that was possible but was not in the cards for this year. I finished walking but smiling and saving my knee from injury that could have taken me out for a while. I would much rather be ready to run again soon than to push it till I was out for months.
Mile Planned pace Actual pace Thoughts
1 8:24 8:29 Easier to weed through when I had lined up at the 3:35 than at the 4:00.
2 8:21 8:21 Right on the money and enjoying the sound of feet in the dark.
3 8:02 8:03 Not worrying too much about watching the watch...nice to be so close.
4 7:51 7:46 A little fast but does not feel too fast.
5 8:07 7:51 Hard not to go too fast at this point.
6 7:57 7:42 Excited to be here...hard not to go too fast. Saw a friend pacing here...thought I'd maybe try with them...too fast, but got caught up in it for a bit.
7 7:57 7:36 With Veyo ahead I got nervous that I was going to fast. Let friends pass.
8 9:06 8:49 A little too fast but feeling good.
9 8:46 8:36 Feeling fine.
10 8:31 8:47 Realizing I can give myself a few seconds on the hill.
11 8:51 8:55 Glad to be getting done with the hill segment. Wind coming at the face.
12 8:26 9:02 Needing a little breather, a little slower here. Lo and behold, who do I see? Tom....He had decided the legs didn't want to go fast so he was slowing and waiting for me to catch up. Looks like I have a partner for the rest of the race. He was not disappointed, he knew it was risky after his hard down hill marathon 3 weeks ago.
13 8:12 8:28 I think I hit the half way mat at 1:50 and felt good about that.
14 8:12 8:34 Hmmmmm....is Tom slowing me down? J/K...not sure why I was slowing here.
15 7:47 7:58 I had stopped watching the watch and was just running what felt good. Hoping I was staying fairly close. Decided to skip this water stop.
16 7:47 7:57 Looks like I was losing a few seconds each mile but still felt like a great PR was in store.
17 8:02 8:08 Feeling the same...thinking of the hill coming up soon.
18 8:02 8:44 I think it was around here I started feeling the knee problem showing it's ugly little head. Also a little stomach issue trying to make me hit the wall. It was ok, but made me nervous. Had a hill to think about and Batman running in front of me to keep the knee at bay.
19 8:26 9:29 Looking forward to the water stop ahead. Decided to try to get a Clif Shot down....not really pretty...most of it stayed down though.
20 8:02 8:59 The down hill stuff coming that everyone looks forward to is now causing trouble with my knee. I had to stop and stretch it a few times.
21 7:42 9:28 Losing too much time to the painful knee. Stretching helped it for a few seconds but not for long...stretch again.....making new plans....
22 8:02 9:08 Still able to run but starting to feel too much injury coming on.
23 7:59 11:24 Kind of hard to see hundreds of runners passing me. Tom was trying to be encouraging by saying "10 minute miles can still get you a PR....but we aren't actually hitting 10 minute miles". Realizing there is nothing to prove any more and saving my knee to run another day is now my priority. I told Tom I was going to walk the rest of the way. I told him to go ahead and run it in so he didn't have to walk past all the spectators but there he was walking right by me right to the end. I think he was ok with the idea too since both our plans had blown out the window.
24 8:07 15:06 Needing to stop and stretch my knee even though I was only walking. I stopped and held onto a pole and my back locked up. I thought I was going to be staying there for the rest of the day. But I was still ok with all that was going on. I honestly am not disappointed in anything that happened. I smiled and talked to people along the way. We thought it was funny as people try to figure out what to say to you as you walk by them at that point. It is hilarious when they say..."You're looking good!" At this point we are trying to figure out a new goal for this marathon.....how about our worst clock time at SGM....that is it!
25 8:07 19:00 These last few miles are not quite as pathetic as the pace makes it look. I was able to walk ok so I didn't slow down quite to that point. However, when we saw friends along the route it was fun to stop and say hello. We don't usually do that on a marathon.
26 8:12 18:07 It would have been fun to give a little run this last while to please the spectators but it just wasn't worth it to me to run on the knee so we kept the walk till the very end. I know it is not what the crowd would like to see and it is not what we would have liked to be doing but that is what happened on this particular day.
26.2 1:48 6:42 While we were going up here we saw several friends, both on and off the course. Lots of fun hellos and explainations along the way. On the side line was a girl holding a picture of a little baby that I had seen earlier in the race. I wanted to know the story behind the little guy in the picture so we went over to talk to her. I asked here about him and she said that he had died a few months ago after a really tough time on the earth. Her hubby was out running for this little guy...it was her son. She mentioned that Elder Rasband (her father) had mentioned him in his talk in LDS Conference. We remembered that talk....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MwfYVne_Us ....this was the talk. I was so grateful to stop and talk to that cute mom and have her share her story with us. That would not have happened if I would have got a PR today.
Funny thing right before I got to the finish line I heard my name and looked around to see my friend Michelle Chapman right next to me. We trained together this summer and we took our final step across the finish line together. It was kind of funny that we hadn't seen each other the whole morning but our finish line picture will look like we ran it together.
So that's my story. I knew when I ran the Nebo 1/2 marathon a month ago that I was risking my SGM PR. But it was a risk I was willing to take. (And I totally loved that 1/2 marathon PR!) My knee started acting up after that and I wasn't sure I would have what it would take to reach a 3:35 or 3:40. But I knew I had the training in my and I knew I had to try. It was a perfect day for a Booyah attitude as everyone was celebrating the Booyah attitude of Braydon Nielsen.
As I thought of the 11 marathons I have done (6 of them SGM) the only time I have had knee troubles is at SG. There are three things I feel add to this....1. down hills...even though I was very well trained on down hill this year it is still just hard on my knees..... 2. the slope to the side on the road through much of SG marathon. I have a hard time when the road is not flat....and 3. all of the other marathons I have ran just for fun with no pressure.
Anyway, I am happy to have my 6th consecutive SGM behind me and congrats to Tom on getting into the 10 year club and getting us into the nice dinner on Saturday night.
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