Denouement

Lots of sleep and no cooking!  Gotta love Mother's Day!  And they gave out big candy bars to the women at church!  That is the gift that keeps on giving!  I gave 1/2 to the family and ate the rest myself.

Such a hard time sleeping because of too much sleep yesterday and nerves starting for Ogden Marathon. Since I visualized the race several times over last night I decided that's the last time I get to do that before sleep this week or I will start to go crazy.

I'm going to run in the afternoon today to get in more miles with less strain on the body. This will be my version of a taper for now.

It was raining during the whole run and I was thoroughly soaked! And there was about 2 inches of snow at my house when I got home. Yet it's supposed to hit 80F on race day Saturday. That's just not fair!

7 miles even in 59:03, 8:26 ave pace. Ran with JH a pretty little road loop. If I would have put some shampoo in my hair before leaving I wouldn't have needed a shower when I got home.

Afternoon: boring 3 miles on treadmill, total time 23:31

Evening: abs, stretches, walked to park with kids and ran 1 mile with them.  They are so strong and motivated! It is so cool! 

AM: Ran 4 miles on the treadmill in 31:47.

weight has stabilized at 125 for now. I hoped to be down to 124 for the race Saturday, so if I dehydrate myself severely. . . I am totally just kidding!

Later AM: Ran loop from the Springville Walmart. Warmed up .75 then stretched, did .25 then started a marathon pace tempo, just to get a feel of running comfortable at a fast but not super fast pace.

Mile 1 - 6:58 gradual uphill, and have a side stitch, worked it out by .5 or so

Mile 2 - 6:55 a little steeper uphill then some downhill toward the end

Mile 3 - 6:47

Mile 4 - 6:45, overpass then gradual downhill, at the beginning of this mile I went on an overpass on 400S which had a metal pedestrian section, but it turned out to be rickety and bent in places and I was strategizing how I would grab onto metal as I fell if it broke under me, ran 7:30 for probably .1 in there while concerned about it.

Ave pace for whole run 7:11, 5.64 miles

Hard time falling asleep last night.  I plan on sleeping with no alarm set tomorrow to make sure I get some good sleep.

Ran with MacK easy. I didn't check pace but didn't feel energetic.

Got great sleep last night. The night before I got bad sleep and so yesterday I felt bad all day. Headachy at times, sore throat at times. I slept today until I woke up naturally, a luxury I won't get again until next marathon taper in October (except I plan on doing this tomorrow morning too).

Today I feel great! What a difference getting enough sleep makes. I ran a little bit in a new running skirt I bought yesterday, but I asked a pedestrian if it was flipping up in back so she could see my bloomers and she said yes, so I stopped running and am returning that $60 skirt. Also I had three gu's in the side pocket and it bounced too much. It was ok with two gu's but the bloomer-flash makes the skirt a no-go. So I went home after less than a mile, changed to the race shorts I got from the St. George Running Center, and to my delight the small pocket actually fits three gu's if you cram them in, plus it doesn't bounce. So I am wearing the shorts I am supposed to wear. Go figure.

I ran the rest of my run at the park by my home, doing striders on the downhill part of the loop. It was 10am-11am and mid 60's so that is pretty similar to how the middle of the race will feel.

ave pace 7:57

time to carbo load baby! I am focusing on my grains at this point. Going on a date with Paul tonight since the weekend is packed and we missed our date last weekend because my babysitter went up to see David Archeletta in Murray, forgetting all about her commitment to me. Where are her priorities ? : )

I slept until I couldn't sleep no more, unfortunately, that was 6am today.  Then I put on another new running skirt and drove to Salem for a short run.  Tapers are sweet!  I only saw two men in the first .5 mile of my run so I asked the older gentleman to assess my skirt, which is navy blue with light blue shorts underneath.  He said he could see just the bottom of the shorts.  He said, "Don't worry, you are decent."  So the champion skirt I bought for $20 at Target is a keeper, while the skirt I bought for $60 is going back.  Go figure.

I met up with Clay at about .75 and ran a couple of miles with him.  It was so nice to be able to chat with him.  I actually sped up accidentally while running with him (sorry Clay!).  

I feel good but not as fresh as a real taper would have made me, but I don't have the months of high mileage behind this marathon that would make a taper worthwhile.  

I see the marathon as being a very long tempo workout that starts easy and gets progressively harder.  That's how I plan to race it.  I hope to meet all my blogging buddies.  Don't be shy introducing yourself if you see me and I don't initially recognize you.  This is going to be so fun!

Ave pace 8:10 

I just got home so this is my race report.

I couldn't fall asleep well before the race, so I took Benadryl, not sure if it would make me groggy in the morning. It turned out I was just fine.

Plan for marathon: run 7 min pace for miles 1-8, 7:20 for rollers through 15, then try to drop the pace for the remaining two miles of rollers, and try to do some serious negative splits in the canyon and hang on to the end. I wanted 1:35 for the first half and dreamed of a 1:30 second half, but the hot weather seemed to not be a good indicator for such a strong negative split.

I jogged and stretched before the race, then lined up with Josse, MacK, and Cal. We were behind some people who really didn't look like they'd be racing the marathon, we were behind hundreds of people and I convinced them to move up and cut the people in front of us by half, but when the gun went off, there was such slowness I couldn't handle it and started doing some major swerving to get ahead of the masses. It became apparent that Josse, MacK and Cal didn't follow as I waited and watched for them to pull up on me and they never did, so after a mile or two I knew I was on my own. So much for running in a pack. Sorry guys, I really didn't mean to ditch you!

Miles 1-6 were majorly holding back, but it got to feeling more like marathon pace as I went on. Here's my splits:

1 - 6:57

2 - 6:57

3 - 6:55

4 - 6:51

5 - 6:55

6 - 6:54

7 - 6:56, took my first gu

8 - 7:04, took my first potty break, but must have sped up to make up for lost time, so apparently I lost only about 10 seconds

9 - 7:11, start of rollers, flat overall but plenty of rolling to keep things interesting, I started throwing water on my body at every water station after mile 9

10 - 7:12

11 - 7:13, going faster than I planned in rollers but still feeling like I am holding back some

12 - 7:08

13 - 7:12, 13.1 in 1:32:15 or so

14 - 7:23, took another potty break right after 1/2 -thank heaven for their port a potties, though this one also slowed me another 10 seconds, I take a second gu

15 - 7:23, the worst hill is in this mile, I was headed for a 7:40 at the top but was able to bring the overall mile time down after cresting, at the top of the hill, I said out loud "So that's it" because to me the top of that hill is a major turning point for the race, at the top of the hill I know now its time to slowly reel in the girl who was next ahead of me. I have no idea what place I was in.

16 - 7:02, I am speeding up, but so is the lady in front of me, I gain no ground

17 - 7:07, starting to gain a little on lady ahead, around this time I am thinking, I do like marathoning, this is my type of sport (no quick decisionmaking needed!)

18 - 6:35, I finally find out I am in 6th place, then pass the lady I had been reeling in, the downhill is beginning

19 - 6:36

20 - 6:41

21 - 6:43 - I pass three more girls in the canyon by mile 22

22 - 6:20 - I man on a bike follows me for a mile, tells me the number one girl was ahead of me by 38 seconds, I speed up (I am a drop of water being pulled down! I seriously used this metaphor by Paul to help me here). In .5 mile I am still 38 seconds behind

23 - 6:29 - I get within 15 seconds or so, then #1 girl sees me and starts pushing me. I pass Andy and he is struggling and I say, "Come with me, help me" and he very graciously does run with me and push me for about .75

24 - 6:52 - fatigue setting in, #1 getting away and I am just trying to keep under 7 minutes. I am also realizing I am needing potty break #3

25 - 7:30 - I hit the bushes at 24.2 miles, turn off my watch accidentally and didn't realize it so my split on this mile is approximate and includes the untimely bathroom break

26 and .2 - approx 6:56 pace (this is .94 on my watch at 6:56 pace).

I was so happy when I crossed and it was confirmed that I was the second lady! And my time was in the 3:02 range, better than my hopeful best case of 3:05. I am now quite sore but not as bad as St. George. I think I will be able to run but will keep it easy next week.

I am so pleased to get my second marathon under my belt and that it went better than I expected. My strategy of a negative split worked. I slowed at the end but not nearly as much as St. George and it actually wasn't slowing compared to the roller miles. I was much more postive mentally. I was able to work through some minor stomach issues, bathroom breaks, and a cramp without panicing. I also was able to keep cool by putting on the water often and early. I don't think the heat affected me by more than 2 minutes. It was a PR effort for me an a great way to start the summer of training.

Thanks to all who helped me, especially Andy.

Ave pace for the race 6:58.

Paul, my husband, said I couldn't eat french fries today just because I ran a marathon. I asked if I could have some after St. George and he said no. Don't get me wrong, I steal fries from my kids sometimes, but I haven't ordered any for myself since October. Oh well. I think I like marathoning better.