I was pretty confident coming into what was my seventh full marathon. I felt like I was in pretty good shape relative to UVM in June. I put on a couple of lbs. during the taper but I was still 5-6 lbs lighter and put in some really good mileage in July and August. Met Court at the starting line (my bus was the last to arrive so most everyone was already lined up). Weather was darn near perfect for running. Ran strong and easy w/ enough energy to chat w/ Court as we made our way down the free fall that is the 1st half of the Pocatello Marathon. As we got to the halfway point I gave a thumbs up and said hey to Jeff Shadley as he was warming up for the start of the Half Marathon. It was shaping up to be a memorable day.
Well it didn't pan out. Suffered from the same GI issues that have plagued me in the past but much worse this time. Felt it coming on around 14 or 15 but tried to ignore it as it came and went in waves. I won't get too graphic but just say that it was a horrible experience from miles 19 on. And by "on" I mean a couple of hours after the race was over.
That said, had I not been suffering from stomach cramping I still wouldn't have BQ'ed. I went out way too fast. The standard disclaimer for this course is to hold something back for the second half when it flattens out. I felt like I did. Ran the first half w/ Court and I never felt like we were pushing it too hard. It didn't feel super easy but it didn't feel like we were racing either. I ended up running a 1:33 first half on about a 75% effort. The problem obviously is that my current half PR is 1:34. As strange as it sounds, I didn't worry about that fact because I reasoned that I was lighter and faster than I was when I ran that 1:34 and the course made the effort required to run a 1:33 much less than what I needed to run a 1:34 in May. In hindsight, I was soooooo wrong.
Not sure where I go from here. I have to figure some things out regarding my pre-race and intra-race fueling. I may have to come up w/ some viable alternative to gels during the race. I may have to avoid taking in any food after 4pm the day before a race. I've got to come up w/ something b/c these stomach issues are taking away from the enjoyment of the race. The marathon distance is grueling enough w/o having to deal with this.
I'd list my mile splits but the 1:33 1st half v. 1:57 2nd half pretty much tells the whole story. | 