A fun race on a toasty day! I secretly had the goal of going sub-3:00 and didn't really know if my training would suffice, so I basically kept quiet about it. I did however, consider joining the recent prerace discussion on the blog of those looking to do the same, but chose to keep it to myself. Not that it would have been a bad thing in having the morale support of others with the same goal in mind, I was just a little intimidated. Heck, I even felt out of place in putting myself in the "elite" coral even with my orange bib.
As I did with TOU, I printed out a pace band of my goal splits based on the course's terrain. I figured that it seemed to do me well before, therefore it was definitely worth trying again. A big thanks to Paul Peterson with his "Marathon GIS" for putting the splits together! Aside from the uncertainty of my training, I also know that I do not fare well in hot weather. I would take getting soaked in rain, than in my own sweat any day! I packed up a windbreaker jacket, some jogging pants, a beanie and some gloves in my drop bag for the prerace wait. I know this sounds counter-intuitive, but I also know that it can be a little cold at the start. Needless to say; my warm clothing never left my drop bag and headed straight to the finish. I found myself wishing the race to feel even a few degrees cooler than the pre dawn at central.
I enjoyed the race and held to the suggested splits (Aside from a 20 second p.o.p stop in Veyo, which I quickly made up) until the hill at St. Ledge's Parkway, around mile 18. This cost me about one minute, which I never regained. Fortunately, my deficit remained the same until I crossed the Snow Canyon Parkway around mile 23. From there to the finish, I managed to lose about one more minute. I guess it wasn't a major blow-up from 18 onward. It was just the culmination of my left calf muscle cramping up, the heat, and some minor headwinds along the way.
I'm glad that I finally achieved a new marathon pr, which had held since St. George 2009. I feel like I've learned a lot about my personal fitness in the last 3 or so months and intend on continuing to implement those findings. A couple examples: Long runs done too often seem to only make me slower, and give me limited improvements on my endurance. I feel like it was making me a 'long, slow runner!' Speed work has been most beneficial, and has reset my 'cruising' pace. I can definitely perceive a difference in effort exerted at varying pacing ranges.
Now for the worst part of this report...THE RACE IS OVER! After spending all year getting all pumped up and excited, I have to wait another year! Oh well; it was a great experience and I'll be looking forward to next year!
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