Ogden Marathon today. Overall, satisfied with effort and feel the result portends well for a decent year. Got up, drove from Riverton to the buses. Serendipidously met up with MattK at the bus loading site while waiting for one of the later buses. We sat next together and had a nice time. Our bus only got lost once, and as the bellwhether bus for our group, two other unsuspecting buses followed. Fortunately, after coming to a dead end, it was only a few minute detour. The staging area was nice. Call it karma, but the woman could not get the tape to hold the VIP sign on the special portapottie. Anyway, mine actually had hand sanitizer and they did have a little outside soap station. Nice touch, and as Matt pointed out, especially with the flu. Got near the front for the start and was able to say hello to a number of friendly bloggers. I did not want to get stuck behind the relay racers this year as we wanted to run decent tangents. Any way, ran with MattK through the half in 1:28, then he pulled away from me on the mile between 14 and 15. Here are my splits: | 1 | 6:23 | | | | 2 | 6:35 | 12:58 | | | 3 | 6:30 | 19:29 | | | 4 | 6:34 | 26:03 | | | 5 | 6:32 | 32:05 | | | 6 | 6:37 | 39:13 | | | 7 | 6:36 | 45:49 | Even though this was slightly a faster pace than originally planned through here, I felt great. MattK was awesome to run with. At this point we were hanging with the women leaders.
| | 8 | 6:43 | 52:32 | | | 9 | 6:50 | 59:23 | | | 10 | 6:49 | 1:06:13 | | | 11 | 6:59 | 1:13:12 | | | 12 | 6:51 | 1:20:03 | | | 13 | 6:58 | 1:27:02 | | | 14 | 7:01 | 1:34:04 | At this point MattK said, he didn't want to get chicked and left me on the uphill.
| | 15 | 7:29 | 1:41:33 | I gave up a bit of time here, trying to conserve, Allie leaped me.
| | 16 | 7:06 | 1:48:40 | Passed Allie, must have been just before her knee gave out.
| | 17 | 7:05 | 1:55:45 | | | 18 | 6:40 | 2:02:26 | | | 19 | 7:23 | 2:09:49 | Very disappointed here.
| | 20 | 7:22 | 2:17:12 | Perhaps could have pushed more, but I was behind 3:00 pace now.
| | 21 | 7:19 | 2:24:32 | Again, losing time.
| | 22 | 7:03 | 2:31:36 | Sasha helped around the water stop here, helping me to take down some Poweraide. It did help, but still too slow.
| | 23 | 7:16 | 2:38:52 | | | 24 | 7:58 | 2:46:50 | Decided to jog in.
| | 25 | 8:43 | 2:55:34 | | | 26 | 8:41 | 3:04:15 | | 26.2 (garmin .25)
| 1:30 | 3:05:45 | Final kick passing 2 guys who had passed me during the last little bit.
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So looking back, I was on pace longer than I thought during the race. Hitting only 7:23 at mile 19 really did me in mentally because I realized holding 7:00 pace would not quite get me sub 3:00. When I followed in up with a few 7:2xs I realized today was not the day and totally coasted in, except for the last straight away where I decided to kick it in to pass 2 men who had passed me. Some thoughts: even in my total hang on mode I was able to hold 7:20x which is a big improvement. Going in I wasn't quite in sub 3:00 shape but I gave it a go, which cost me a few minutes in the end. Hey, better to have tried I suppose. MattK kicked booty, negative splitting the second half and finishing 2:55:x. I'll take credit for holding him back. :)
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