Keeping myself sane!!!

A quick run down:  I had a great first half, and dissapointing second half.  It was a bit warm, but I'm unsure how much that affected my performance today.  Being my 10th. marathon this year, maybe my body was telling me to back off.  I was hoping for a pr, but it wasn't to be.  More details later...

Initially, my goal was to go sub 3:00.  If that didn't work out, I felt that I'd be close and at least have a new pr.  I felt great the first half, and hit it around 1:32:30.  With the major hills behind, the second half should have been an easy negative split.  I continued feeling decent,  but knew there was some work to be done, so I took nothing for granted.  Around mile 20, a dreaded slowdown started to hit me.  I didn't 'hit the wall,' but my pace began to lag and it only continued to decline as the final 10k progressed.  I figured I could still hold on and make the best of it, so I became more focused on the finish and not so much my bombed out splits.  It was around mile 25 when I had the realization of not setting a new pr, being slower than last year, and it was not a fun feeling.

I'm begining to really wonder if my recent marathons have taken their toll on my speed.  When running them close together; I spend my time recovering from one before running the next, and not getting in good quality mileage.  My training mileage has therefore gone down, and I have become a little stale.  I guess this year has been more about sheer numbers rather than speed.  I have no regrets, but have to accept the reality of quantity over quality.

It was easy to see early on that this would be an interesting event for me.  I forgot my Garmin, so I knew I'd be running blind.  This also being a new event; I expected there to be some 'hiccups.'  There were some indeed!  The race started about 15 minutes late, which was not a big deal for I have dealt with worse.  What really messed things up for me were to find out after the race that they had lost my drop bag.  I had a premonition this would happen, and should have heeded its warning.  The worst part of it was the response I received from the race director: "Well, that's just the nature of the marathon."  Responses like that, without any form of apology or sympathy is about the easiest way for me to black list an event from future participation!  I'm hoping I can get a hold of him in the days to come, and see if they did ever find it.  I can replace most of what's lost, but it was his attitude that perturbs me the most!

Now, on to the race details...We parked at Ellison Park in a field to catch the bus bound for the starting line.  There were about 6-8 busses lined up curbside to the park, and I was able to hop right on one.  One thing that entered my mind upon seeing how few busses there were was a couple of prerace e-mails that had been sent out.  The participation had been capped at 1200, and they had anticipated it completely filling up.  What I didn't realize is that number was for the total of all four distances: 5k, 10k, half marathon, and full marathon.  So, this ended up being a fairly small marathon.  No big deal, as I enjoy marathoning both big and small.  The ride to the start was uneventful, but sure felt never ending!

The start was about a mile north of the Field Garr Ranch on the east side of the island, and followed a mostly flat, but gently rolling roadway. The only real climb (and not much of one) began around mile 7, peaked at mile 8 and had dropped back down before mile 10 as we headed out the causeway.  The causeway was definitely the longest stretch for me, which lasted about 7 miles and felt like running on a treadmill.  Oh boy, doesn't the Great Salt Lake smell so wonderful?! It was completely level, and seemed to go on forever!  From here, the course lead us alongside corn fields and eventually through residential areas.  The last of about seven turns beyond the causeway sent the runners in the final stretch to the finish in Ellison Park.

Without my GPS, I just ran on how I felt.  I did ask another runner at 13 what the elapsed time was, so he told me 1:37.   So, I certainly slowed WAY down in the second half!  My legs were definitely feeling the wear and tear of this year's running season.   I have a couple of half marathons this month, which will sign me off from running races until early next year.  (Unless I find myself having withdrawls before then!)

My goal was to run this course below 1:30:00.  The conditions ended up being perfect, and I felt fresh. The hills in the late miles of the race did less damage than I thought they would.  I exchanged positions with the second and third place women multiple times, and they turned out to be unknowingly good pacers.  Of all the distance races I've participated in, I think I enjoy the half marathon the most.  It's short enough that I can give it all I have and not worry about 'hitting the wall,' but long enough to make it worthwhile to plan a trip around.

Melissa and I were accompanied by my father, my sisters, and one of my sister's friends to run the race.  My brother-in-law, a neice and nephew also came and provided the cheering section at the finish. It was exciting to have a group of us to take part and motivate one another.  We rented a house, watched some movies, and ate some meals that were better than I've had at my own home in a long time.  All of us had an enjoyable experience.

This didn't end up how I had hoped, but 'Some days are diamonds, some days are stones!'  I definitely lacked the aerobic capacity to propel myself to bettering my time from last year of 1:24:01.  I guess it's back to the drawing board.  I plan on taking a break from racing, and to focus on my training through the winter, so I can come into next year's race season with a vengeance!    

The weather was perfect and the course was really scenic, so from those standpoints; it was a great day.  The race had just over 700 participants last year, and had grown to almost 2,500 this year!  It seems that running events are really gaining in popularity, as I've seen races growing and/or filling to capacity in record times.  I remember registering for events only days before, but now that's not the case.  It's a good thing I registered for Ogden already, for I would have been bummed to sit that one out!