In search of old age PRs

Warm up and cool down with 5 x 200 at East High School

Warm up and cool down with 4 x 200 at East High School

3 x 200 at East High.  The track has been very busy this week with school starting.  I'm glad my marathon is on Saturday.  My mileage has been low this week, but the 200 meter sprints are wearing me out. 

2 x 200 at East High School

Last run before the marathon.  1 x 200 with warm up and cool down.

Great PR race for me today.  Bloggers filled the top 4 spots (excellent job Jeff, Kory and Bill).  This is a great small marathon.  The course sets up a lot like Top of Utah.  This course is probably a little harder with the steeper climbs the 2nd half.  

The race director does a great job with this race.  I walked out of my motel at 4:55 AM, got on a bus and it left promptly at 5:00 AM.  I was off the bus by 5:30 AM and had just enough time for the warm up and porta-potty then on-time 6:15 AM start.  

The first half is where the entire drop is.  I believe I was around 1:23 coming through the half.  The half marathons were all on the side of the road cheering like crazy.  It was a great boost.  The 10K and 5K people did the same thing.  It was nice to run by them before their race started. 

The second half is not very scenic and pretty difficult.  It has several rollers and a large hill at mile 21.5.  It's funny; I didn't see any wildlife until mile 22 in town.  I almost stepped on a coiled up rat snake!  Crazy!  Last 10K was pretty hard, so my spilt was around 1:29. 

I ran most of the race by myself in 3rd place.  I ran the start with Angela (women's winner) then caught up to Bill Mandler and ran 1-2 miles with him. 

The finish was a kid's paradise.  They had free "blow-up" toys the kids could play in and FREE cotton candy and FREE BBQ with baked potato!  For SWAG we got a very nice gym bag, the best long sleeve technical shirt I've ever received, a cool medal and a large bag of potatoes with hash browns!  This is a great race and the people and volunteers in Pocatello were wonderful.  I highly recommend it.

Splits:

Mile 1-6:13 Drop then small climb then more drop.  I was around 10th at the start.

Mile 2-6:23 More drop and runners are settling into their pace.  Most of the rabbits are reeled back in.

Mile 3-6:08 Feeling pretty lose, so I set my goal down a little.  I wanted to be out of the canyon in 1:26, but with this much drop I decided to take what I could get then.

Mile 4-6:13

Mile 5-6:14

Mile 6-6:15

Mile 7-6:33 Out and back climb.  You can get a good look at the leaders and other runners on this climb and return back to the main course.

Mile 8-6:14 Dropped hydration at the water stop...arg!

Mile 9-6:16

Mile 10-6:10

Mile 11-6:16 Dropped hydration again...this time I stop and go back!

Mile 12-6:10

Mile 13-6:21 Course begins to flatten out

Mile 14-6:13 Half marathoners gave me a boost with their cheers

Mile 15-6:24 Course begins to hit the rollers.  I hope to stay sub 6:35 for all the miles until the big hill on 21.5

Mile 16-6:36

Mile 17-6:47 Oh no.

Mile 18-6:36 Better

Mile 19-6:27

Mile 20-6:36

Mile 21-6:48 up the big hill and no cramping.  I would have been happy if the course ended there.  You also hit a 5 lane road here and will run it almost all the way to the park/finish.

Mile 22-7:20 Paying for the hill.  I almost stepped on a snake!

Mile 23-7:05 Looking for Bill in my rear view mirror.

Mile 24-6:57 At this point I knew I could break 3:00 even if I walked in. The aid station people said they couldn't see anyone behind me--lol.

Mile 25--7:16 Finally getting off the 5 lane road!

Mile 26--8:02 High-fiving and coasting in.

Last 0.2 at 6:49 pace. It was great to see Elizabeth and Lucas at the finish!  Ran the last 0.05 with my 2 year old (Lucas) and he loved it!

I had 26.2 at 2:52:02, but I probably did a poor job with the tangents up top.  The road is not closed, so you have to look and listen for cars as you run that section.