I had a lofty goal going into this race. I thought based upon my increased mileage, results from a July half marathon on a flat course, cooler fall temps and a favorable downhill course that there was an outside chance of running a BQ time of 3:15:59. It turned out that I wasn't anywhere near ready to sustain that pace (7:29) for a full marathon.
Arrived in Logan Friday afternoon and immediately headed over to the packet pick-up. Got in line behind Court (FRBer) and his wife. Asked him if he was going to stay in Utah for the BYU v. Florida State game on Sat evening. He said they were headed back to Boise right after the race. Good call on that one. See worst BYU home loss since BSU destroyed them in Provo in '03. :-)
Selected a personal pan pizza and breadsticks as my pre-race carbo load meal- well that along with about a half dozen oatmeal cookies. [This ill-advised decision would come back to haunt me before, during and after the race.] I actually got a pretty good night's sleep on Friday night- 5 hours which is a PR for the night before a marathon by at least a couple of hours. Limited my morning breakfast to a bagel and half an orange. Why couldn't I have been so sparing the night before????
Got on one of the last buses up to the starting line. This was another ill-fated decision because it meant that I didn't actually arrive at the starting line until 6:15ish. Actually, it wouldn't have been so bad but for the extremely long POP lines and the fact that it seemed like every person was taking an inordinately long time in there. I did finally get some business done but the upshot was that I barely had time to strip off the layers, stuff them into the bag and get to the starting line. No warmup whatsoever.
It was cool at the start (mid 40's?) but not nearly as cold as I had anticipated and I knew from the forecast that it would warm up substantially during the second half. It did. I tried to take in lots of gatorade but I could never really get enough it seemed.
I'll cut to the chase and say that I came to the realization that I wasn't going to even come close to running a BQ time roughly halfway through the marathon. Finished the first half in 1:40 which meant I'd have to run a negative split the second half. No way that was happening. I adjusted my goal to a sub 3:30 finish.
During the last six miles I had serious doubts as to whether I would finish at all. My stomach wasn't getting any better and my left hammy was feeling as though it would pop. But more than that was the mental challenge of circumnavigating traffic and the maze-like, circuitous route during the last part of the race. Its one thing to run along traffic but its quite another to be dodging it. My pride kicked in though and I persevered, even though I walked through every aid station and beyond during the last six miles.
Splits:
Miles 1-19: 7:46; 7:21; 7:24; 7:23; 7:19; 7:44; 8:54 (1st pit stop); 7:23; 7:26; 7:34; 7:38; 7:54; 7:23; 7:35; 7:37; 8:09; 7:46; 8:05; 8:17;
Miles 20-26.2: 9:35; 8:23; 10:45 (2nd pit stop); 9:03; 9:37; 9:02; 9:28; 8:39 (.2).
As I type this I am sitting in my recliner and I can't make up my mind whether I'm just extremely sore or if I am injured. My left ankle (never fully healed from last years severe sprain) and my left hammy are the most sore. I've been icing and popping ibuprofen every 3 hours. My other marathons have led to some soreness but this is beyond the pale. Something feels different this time.
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