Not too sure what to say about this... I originally planned to do this as a training run again for my ultra in 2 weeks. I didn't sleep well at all in the hotel. I kept waking up. I have a lot on my mind with work-related items. I woke up to a warm (66 degrees) in Provo and thought the heat would cause me problems. There was a big problem looming....but it wasn't the heat. I got to the start area with about an hour to kill. I used the time to take care of nature issues and just relaxed in a grassy area. I decided that I wanted to try to see if a 3:25 was possible without too hard of an effort so I could get my Boston shirt like in years past. I set a goal to have a 7:20 average by the turn at Deer Creek before the rolling hills started. It seemed like a good idea. At the start I felt good and we had a good tail-wind for several of the miles heading out of Wallsburg. The wind shifted at the 5 mile mark and then shifted back behind us for a while at 6. This was just a sign of things to come. I had a 7:18 average at the turn which is around the 7.5 mile mark. When I turned for the first uphill and the 30+ mph headwind slammed in to me....I hit the wall. I couldn't seem to catch a decent breath and it felt like I was carrying someone on my back on the uphills. When I would hit a downhill stretch it felt like I was still working too hard and my heart rate was too high. I took a bathroom stop at the aid station at mile 9 hoping I could catch my breath and do better. It didn't work. I threw all goals out the window and decided it just wasn't my day and I would just take it easy and run/walk to the finish. I ran in to Bret around 16.5 after walking a good portion of the uphill. She was having a bad day as well so we ran most of the rest together. I would run ahead for a mile and then walk until she caught me. I thought I might be feeling better on mile 19 so I tried to focus and see what kind of pace I could muster. I fought the wind and pushed that mile. It felt like a 7:10-7:20 effort. When the split popped up on my Garmin...it said 8:15. Are you kidding me? I knew I was toast. I stopped at 20.5 to talk to Smooth who was cheering us on in her walking boot. She said a lot of people were having bad days. Bret and I played leapfrog the rest of the way in and she came in just behind me. I was very glad to be finished with this long day. Hopefully the walking will speed my recovery so I am ready for my ultra. Marathon number 88 is in the books. Ugly!
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