Rhett

4 miles starting off nice and slow, then in the second mile I did 2 1-minuete mp strides but was otherwise slow, then did the 3rd mile downhill at mp, and finished up the last mile nice and easy. After the run I did a mini core session and rolled my legs. I 

1 mile nice and slow then alternating 1 minute at mp and 2 minutes slow for the next 3 miles for at total of 4 miles.  I followed that up with some light core work, stretching, and rolling my legs.

Same as Monday. 

1 mile slow then 1/2 mile at mp and another 1/2 easy for a total of 2 miles followed by very light core work and rolling my legs.

When I signed up for this race I was excited that it all was going to be downhill.  Well now I get the real scoope in an email from the race.  Here is there description of the first 4 miles:

"Starting at almost 7900 feet evelvation, the first 3 miles of the course are challenging.  From the very start, the first half-mile of the race gains about 100 feet elevation, which is nearly identical to the famous Heartbreak Hill in The Boston Marathon. Mile 2 loses roughly 250 feet of elevation and can be extremely fast, with an overall downhill grade of -4.7%.  Mile 3 and 4 are where you can expct to slow down the most.  Mile 3 gains over 290 feet of elevation, and that is at altitude of roughly 8000 feet.  Breathing will be difficult, and the climbing will be tough.  Mile 4 offers a little less of a challange, but it still has about 150 feet of gain."

I'll have to admit.  Those first 4 miles have me a bit intimedated especially since I live and train at 500 feet evelvation.  I figure I'll probably lose about 5 minutes off my goal pace in those first 4 miles.  That's a lot of time to make up over the next 22 miles, but they really are downhill so who knows.  I just plan on running by how I feel and not try to hit specific splits. Hopefully I will be able to run a smart race and finish strong.

This is the most bizarre thing. I slept in this morning, didn’t run, drove to Tucson, got my race packet, went to my hotel and felt great. Then when we went to dinner my left calf, which is not the one I recently injured completely knotted up and won’t loosen back up. I tried gentle stretching, massage, and I brought my stick so I tried that also. I sure hope it loosens up while I sleep or I won’t be running the marathon tomorrow. 

Mt. Lemon Marathon

It was a tough lead up to the race having nursed an injured right calf from about 5 weeks out.  I was able to semi train the last five weeks with a lot of supplemental elliptical work and about 10 days out it finally felt 100% so I was at least feeling healthy, although a little undertrained heading to Tucson on Friday.  My son, Chase went with me. We showed up around 3:00 at the race expo and did that stuff and then checked into our hotel and sat around for a couple hours watching football.  Then we headed out to dinner when I noticed my left calf, not the one that had been injured, hurt when I walked.  By the time we got to dinner, I could hardly walk on it.  There was a knott in the upper medial muscle that was so tender it really hurt to touch it.  After dinner we went back to the hotel and I tried everything to loosen it up and nothing worked, so I went to bed.  It kept me up durring the night, as every time my other leg touched it the pain woke me up.  When I got up in the morning it still hurt to walk so I went outside and tested it out running and hopping and surprisingly enough, it didn't hurt to run or hop on it, only to touch it or walk, so I decided to give it a go.  I was very nervous that I was not going to be able to finish the race though.

They bussed us up to the starting line in nice busses, good thing because it was over an hour on the bus.  When we got up there I was surprised to see there was a lodge up there that they allowed us to wait in. That was nice.  Some of the busses were late getting up to the start so they delayed the race about 15 minutes, but let us hang out inside until right before the race.  It was cold up there, just above freezing. 

Not being sure about my calf I decided to just run the race by feel and everynow and then it would remind me to slow down a bit.  Luckly the first 4 miles are the toughest, especially at 8000 feet so I had some time to warm up my calf and just ran what felt comfortable.  Here are my splits, remember I ran the whole thing by feel so my splits are all over the place.

1- 8:14 startig with a steep climb

2- 6:32

3- 8:50 almost 300 foot climb

4- 8:35 150 foot climb up to 8200 feet

5- 6:37

6- 6:26

7- 6:13 my fastest mile, must have been really steep downhill

8- 6:31

9- 6:26

10- 6:29

11- 6:46 there was a nice little climb at the beginning of this mile

12- 6:30

13- 6:17, my quads were screaming at my by the half

14- 6:37

15- 6:22

16- 6:57 anthor small climb

17- 6:57

18- 7:04 lack of traing catching up with me

19- 6:48

20- 7:01 starting the mental games

21- 6:52

22- 6:43

23- 6:41not sure how I'm still running fast

24- 7:13

25- 7:10 wheels are coming off

26- 9:28 hit the wall hard, walked for the first 2 minutes of the mile

26.2- finished last .2 running well.

Avg pace miles 1-4:  8:03

Avg pace miles 5-25:  6:42

Avg pace entire race: 7:13

Total time 3:09:15 for what I thought was a 15+ minute BQ, but did anyone else notice that on the Boston web page, starting in 2020 all times are 5 minutes faster so now I need 3:20 for my age.