Found out yesterday that the money is 6 deep instead of 10 deep like the year before, so I know I don't have much of a shot at it, but there is also money for americans 3 deep so there's a chance for that. I get to the resort at 5:35 because they said that we were leaving at 5:45 in shuttles to go to the start line. I chat with some people and ate some oatmeal and drank Cytomax and water. My legs were feeling good, but I felt as we shuttled that I was still waiting for the adrenaline of the race to get me. I eventually felt it as we lined up and did strides in front of a huge crowd. My goal was to average 6:20 for the first 1/2 of the race, which is net uphill, then perhaps go under that if I felt wonderful, which would get me to 2:45. I also knew I wasn't feeling too great that I could back off 10 seconds a mile without trouble and still PR (pr is 2:50:40). I knew from the course tool that heading for a 2:50, I could still get a couple of miles 6:40ish due to grade differences, so that I wouldn't freak out at splits. Phase I of race - Michelle has it together
1 - 6:12, a little bit of an exuberant start. I have two ladies ahead of me who were planning on going 6:20 pace, so I wanted to stay in touch 2 - 6:22 3 - 6:20 two ladies still just ahead 4- 6:23 I come up to two ladies and say hi 5 - 6:23 6 - 6:13 A lady passes me and I want to keep touch, but she's going pretty fast, so I have to run my own race 7 - 6:22 8 - 6:28 starting uphill, slight grade
9 - 6:29, slight uphill 10 - 6:26, 1:03:38 for first 10 miles, 18 seconds off 6:20, gps stopps working so catch splits by hitting split button, also each mile marker has timer so can calculate splits as I run Phase 2 - wheels start to wobble
11 - 6:36, starting to wait for 1/2 marathon, not a good sign 12 - 6:21, slight downhill 13 - 6:30, 1:23:51, so heading for 2:48, I guess I am ok with that 14 - 6:50, includes first bathroom break, so likely 6:25-30 without 15 - 6:31, slight uphill, I felt like this was a gutsy mile, considering the race, I was still trying to make something out of the race
16 - 6:52 17 - 6:41, bad sign - me calculating what pace I would have to run to make PR, realize its out of reach, because my legs are burning, and I realize its either quitting time or a long death march to the finish for a non-glorious time Phase 3 - The long death march (second title: Feel the burn) - I hope I'd learn something from the torturous conclusion even though I knew I wouldn't meet any of my goals.
18 - 6:48 every time I try to surge I am in pain, especially my quads
19 - 6:44, seven miles to go, at around 18.5 I am slowing and I calculate what 7 minute pace for the rest of the run will give me, answer 2:54 20 - 6:59, getting passed left and right, can I really have another 10k of this misery, race is in slo mo 21 - 7:32, includes a potty stop 22 - 7:15, I congratulate and encourage those passing me, might as well, since my breathing is fine, its just my legs are on fire 23 - 7:19, with every futile attempt at a surge I either, let out an involuntary cry or gasp from the pain, or I curse under my breathe, or try to talk myself into maintaining the pace 24 - 7:03, I tell a guy as he passes me, "Feel the burn!" 25 - 7:20, I try to pass some people, I pass a couple, I get passed by others 26 - 7:15, where is Alli? I just want to stop and cry in her arms (mind you I've never even met Alli, just know her from the blog and feel like we're remote friends and that she'd understand). .2 - 1:26, not much of a kick, but did speed up when I realized I was close to breaking 2:56, 2:55:53 is the final verdict When I finish the race, I am a mixture of very disappointed, so relieved it is over, and proud of myself for fighting. So I am needless to say very disappointed. I think I have already come up with some lessons learned. You'll see they're all related to each other:
1) I was in shape for a good half but not a good marathon. If I was a good coach to myself, I would have realized this and switched to the half. 2) I started building up lactic acid way too early in the race. I need to focus on lactic threshold workouts for successful marathon racing.
3) Training for a January marathon is too difficult and dicy in Utah. I had a couple of long hard runs planned that didn't happen because of the weather or because I couldn't find company so I wussed out and didn't do them on my own. 4) I need to be tougher and just plan on running all my hard workouts alone. If I can get company, then I'll just consider it a bonus. 5) I need a coach. I have three years to reach my potential so I don't have time to fumble my way through it. Some of you have watched my training this year and I would especially appreciate your feedback on other insights you have about what other lessons we could learn from this training cycle. I'm just glad there wasn't a shot at qualifying so I could learn these lessons on a practice race. Post race notes - I ate lunch with Bonnie. She drove up from Tucson to have lunch with me, which was so sweet. She was tracking me from the website, with 5k updates sent to her phone, so thankfully there was no need to explain the results or the unravelling, she was an eyewitness. She helped me work through the race and was the perfect combination of compassion and insight. I appreciate her friendship and support. The thought of food disgusted me until my bacon burger and fries were in front of me, then they were really good! So was the trader joe's chocolate bar she gave me! I walked for 20 minutes in the airport, making circles in my small terminal, per Bonnie's instructions to help work it out. My legs are killing!
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