Ahhh, the beauty of Pocatello and pacing! It was a great expo and chat with all the pacers Friday and a nice drive up. I got out of town late and so I skimped on my expo shift, but still recruited one person to run with me!
Up early and out the door with the pacers to the bus and start line. The drive up was a LOT shorter than I expected. We kind of went the back way to the start and had to take the long way home. POP lines were short and I got through once, luckily that was all I needed. I even remembered sunscreen so that Lowell couldn't say I wasn't protected from the sun when I would whine about how hot it got :) Lined up, met my crew that was going to run with me and before I knew it we were off.
It was still pretty dark at 6:15, but the dawn brightened quickly. The group and I had a great time chatting away and I even told them some good brain teasers. They all agreed that I should re-tell them around mile 24 to see how well their brains were working :) With only a couple POPs at each aid station I would kind of lose a couple at each place due to waiting in line. A few of them would catch back up, but some got lost for good. I really enjoyed the converstaion and banter and some of the people had even checked out my profile and were asking me questions from it. That was a little weird. Especially since I wasn't quite sure I remembered what was ON my profile! But, I just went with it. I really got attached to some of the people in my group and I'd love to go find them and train with them. All good people!
Mile 13.1 I clocked in 50 seconds ahead of time. Perfect for my plan. I wanted about 60 seconds banked by the half, because the 2nd half is rolling hills...and the heat was coming. We slowed on the rollers, but that cushion I gave us allowed for good equal effort pacing on them. I lost one guy who said "Rachel?!? My heart rate is 199...should I stop and walk?!?" What am I supposed to say to that?!? Umm...yes! But, then I feel bad, because I can't stop with them. When they've worked for 17 miles to get through the race with me I hate to leave them :( I told him to take a 20 second walk and then use the downhill (we were just approaching the top of a roller) to recover more and power up the next one. I never saw him at the finish, but I missed a bunch of people I was looking for!
I saw Terry at mile 20 as he was perusing his options of gu (he was running the half with some family) Oh, and at the out and back (7-8?) Lowell ran with the group for a minute and sang for us. Gotta love that guy!! After mile 20 is the last big hill. DJ and the cousins had still stuck with me. We powered up that thing and I got them to the top! But, the girls slowly drifted back after that. DJ was the last one left with me. Luckily, we picked up Scott and Kathy around mile 21. Gave some variation to the converstaion.
I was struggling myself and just wanted the thing over with. You know, it doesn't matter how fast or slow you run a marathon. It is still a marathon! That last 10K just kind of sucks rocks. So, I kept being the cheerleader outloud for myself. I would say the things I needed to hear. People would say "how are you?!?" I'd respond "fabulous! Excellent! We are having the time of our loves and lovin' every minute!" I wanted to sit down :) But, as a pacer we have to save face and pretend that it is the most wonderful moments of our lives, right? I would sing "we are fast. we are strong. we can run, all day long" to the beat of our foot falls 4-5X over to get it rolling through their heads (and mine). I'd tell them "we are amazing and can do anything! Think it, believe it, feel it, own it, DO IT!" one time a got a "yes ma'am! I own it!" out of someone. I liked that :) Kathy would start getting some shallow breathing so I would remind her to breathe from the bottom of her lungs and exaggerate my breathing to help her. She just chugged right along. It was her 56th marathon, but the first time in 3 years she had run a sub 4:00. She was more than determined! Scott was at his first full and finishing in good style. The last 1/3-1/2 mile I sent them off ahead. Telling them they'd done it. Go leave it all on the road and enjoy the moment that YOU alone earned with your own two feet. They both finished 20-30 seconds ahead of me.
My garmin was beeping at me with low batteries from mile 16 for low batteries. I was SO worried it was going to die on me. What then? Cross my fingers and hope the legs keep pace? Well, I crossed the finish line, stopped the time, looked down and the screen shut off while I was looking at it. Literally 5 feet over the line it died. Wow. Tender mercies! I was SO grateful I had it those last few miles, because I'd given up our 50 second bank by mile 21 and was actually 10-15 seconds slow that I had to push a little to overcome. Whew. My garmin does love me :)
I waited at the finish line for some of my other groupies. Cheered DJ in just a couple minutes after me and the cousins as well. I saw Josh later, but missed everyone else. Shoot. I did get to see Lowell and give him a congrats. I also saw Terry and his 13 year old granddaughter that had just finished her first half!! Poor Blaine was sick as a dog :( and had to drop off pace just to finish, but he did finish. I got to chat and talk to lots of people and just had a great time chilling after the race. Great post race refueling there too!!
Headed back to the hotel, said good-bye to Eliza (another tall female runner!) and showered then lingered and stretched in the quiet for a while. I've been alone for 2 weeks at home with the kids. Craig is now a traveling man, so I rationalized an extra 30 minutes of peace to myself :) Then had a pleasant drive home. It was nice to finally be HOME with Craig and the family. All back in one place. Then we went to Paul's reception and got to talk more running and fun. It was beautiful and Tiffany is amazing!! Her cooking and gardening skills and artistic ability is unparallelled! Congrats you two!
TT: 3:59:25 splits: 8:56, 8:47, 9:00, 9:05, 8:46, 8:58, 9:02, 8:58, 9:01, 8:57, 8:53, 8:45, 9:25, 8:57, 9:19, 9:34, 9:32, 9:04, 9:09, 9:18, 9:01, 9:32, 9:05, 8:53, 9:01, 9:03, 9:07 (last bit recorded).
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