Well, today's race wasn't quite the adventure I expected, but it was definitely an adventure. I mentioned in my blog yesterday that the "Meet the Robinsons" motto "Keep moving forward" might cross my mind today. It turned out to be the theme for most of the race for me. I got on one of the last buses in one of the last seats. I ended up without any of my buddies, but had a nice conversation with the young woman I sat by. She and her two friends were running their first marathon. She was 22, and I was 22 when I ran my first marathon. I can't believe that was 26 years ago. It was nice being in the elite corral for the first time, especially the short toilet lines. Because I was on one of the last buses I didn't have to stay in the rain as long as many of the other runners, but I was still plenty wet before the race started. I saw a few members of the sub-3 group, but I made a last minute toilet stop and then couldn't find them again. Fortunately, Nathan found me and we ran the first 7 miles together as planned. The first few miles were really dark. We found James along the way and he joined us. Just before Veyo the arch support in my left foot started slipping around so I had to stop and fix it and tighten my shoe. Some spectators had an empty chair so with their permission I was able to sit down comfortably and fix it. After climbing Veyo I picked up some of the distance on Nathan and James and got within shouting distance, but I didn't shout. I knew I couldn't stay with them up the hills of Dammeron Valley so I just let them go. I ran the rest of the race alone. I kept thinking that once the rain stopped and the weather warmed up a little I could pick up the pace. The rain never stopped, it never got warmer, and the headwind seemed to only get stronger. If I'm honest, I have to say I didn't enjoy running this marathon very much. My wet shoes and clothes felt heavy, and my feet squished every step. I wear glasses so the dismal weather and wet course was all viewed through wet glasses. It seemed that each time I would get some hope of picking things up a bit the headwind would pick up as if to say, "Not so fast." What a lovely day!
To add to the fun, my right calf started feeling tight around mile 4 and never loosened up. A couple of times later in the race I was afraid it was going to cramp, but it never did. I stopped for a quick rub down at mile 17 and I think that helped. I did manage to keep moving forward (except for a couple of bathroom stops). I even managed to run mile 24 in 6:32, and the last 0.2 at 6:13/mi and passed a bunched of people in the last few blocks, but it took a lot of effort. I was surprised to see Tom and Terry just after I crossed the finish line. I hadn't seen them the whole race but it turns out they finished just ahead of me, Terry in 3:10 and Tom and I in 3:11. I actually feel like I ran the best I could under the conditions and I'm satisfied with my performance. I was impressed with the efforts of all the runners today under adverse conditions. I'm especially impressed with those who still managed to reach their goals and set PRs. I forgot to turn the auto-pause off on my watch, so when I stopped to fix my shoe and for the two bathroom stops my watch also stopped. Here are the splits without those stops: 1 - 7:10
2 - 7:00
3 - 6:40
4 - 6:44
5 - 6:48
6 - 6:24
7 - 6:38
8 - 7:58
9 - 7:44
10 - 7:59
11 - 7:55
12 - 7:37
13 - 7:05
14 - 7:37
15 - 7:04
16 - 6:57
17 - 7:13
18 - 7:19
19 - 8:06
20 - 7:25
21 - 6:51
22 - 7:36
23 - 7:21
24 - 6:32
25 - 7:09
26 - 7:16
26.2 - 1:27 (6:13/mi)
plus time for 3 stops
3:11:18 (7:18/mi) I just reviewed my
placing information from the official race results and thought I'd log
it for future reference. Here are my comparisons for 2007 / 2008: Finish time: 3:07:02 / 3:11:18
Overall: 319 / 262
Gender: 269 / 225
Chicked count: 50 / 37
Male 45-49: 34 / 27
Age grade: ? / 71.6% (Regional Class) Last
year's field was probably stronger because of the OTQ factor, but it's
still encouraging to see improvement in the "compared to others"
numbers. My goal isn't to be better than others, but it's another way
to measure improvement, especially when the weather conditions make
comparing times hard to do. | 