I was worried about bonking bad on my run last weekend and tried to do a taper this week. Hate the phantom pains that come along with that.
Picked up my packet last night and got to say hi to Sarah and Sasha Pachev. Nice to see them again.
This morning I got on the bus up to the marathon start. I'd been hydrating for a few days and carbo loading and hoped that would keep me together. Reports of wind had me concerned, but reports of cooler weather had me rejoicing.
In Wellsburg, chose to hold a barn up with a bunch of other runners. I saw too many near the fires trying to get stickers out of their clothes and didn't want to deal with that. I was also amazed at how many people ignored the requests to get their drop bags in the truck.
Hung around the start line and saw Kelli and Walter and wished them well. I was concerned about not being cold at all after getting out of my warm clothes - expected a warm day as a result.
I knew I wasn't well trained for the race, but was hoping to do 2 minutes running and 1 minute walking for as long as I could maintain. Enjoyed the downhills with a mild tailwind and quickly settled into my routine. I avoided music until I got on the highway to keep that as a reward.
Once on the highway - the headwinds started. I have never battled headwinds like this in a race before and they lasted from mile 7-20, when we got out of the canyon.
I wasn't prepared for the number of long uphills, since the race advertises their downhills so strongly and the course changed completely since I ran it last. Except for parts of two of the longer uphills, I was able to maintain my rhythm. Made a pit stop at 9 to lighten the load (so to speak) and that helped.
That canyon seemed to last forever - I think the heat and the headwinds did not help. It was nice to break out of the canyon and see my sister. She had a cowbell and treats for me and met me every mile or two until near the end. I wasn't handling food well because of the heat, but I'm enjoying the treats now and sucked on an Ensure and then a Powerade for part of the run.
At 5 hours the body wanted to quit, so I switched to run 1/walk 1 minute. The legs were tired but not hurting. Strapped up the IT band at mile 17 after a few downhills started a flareup. Tried a new method for taping the balls of my feet to avoid the blistering issues I've been having lately and that did the trick, although the tape did take off a bit of the outer layer of skin. Beats blisters.
Motivated a few people, met some new people and beat my expected time by almost 13 minutes. Not a bad day. Now to get in shape for St. George. | 