St. George Marathon 2008. I had two hopes coming into this marathon, no rain and no headwinds. So much for those hopes. Anyway, got on the bus -- AndyB sat behind me. Initially I was worried it was going to be warm, but the rain intensified as we got nearer the start. At the staging area I think we learned that it is very difficult to find people. I had been hoping to meet a number of bloggers, but the dark, the rain, the number of people, etc., somehow it didn't materialize like we had hoped. Did manage to get together with bloggers AndyB and James W (Coolrunnings), Joe (fastr-thn-yr-avg-joe) [and Rhett who has now joined] and (Mattk during the race.)
Anyway race started, cold, windy, dark and wet. Very difficult in the beginning to not trip or be tripped. 1. 6:57 2. 7:06 14:03 3. 6:41 20:44 4. 6:30 27:15 5. 6:38 33:54 6. 6:20 40:15 7. 6:23 46:38 8. 7:52 54:30 Around here Andy, Joe, [Rhett] and MattK caught me and we ran together for quite a while (Andy, Rhett and MattKuntil 25)
9. 7:17 1:01:48 10. 7:05 1:08:53 11. 7:27 1:16:20 12. 7:00 1:23:21 13. 6:43 1:30:04 half 1:31:07 right on pace 14. 6:51 1:36:55 15. 6:21 1:43:17 16. 6:19 1:49:37 Joe (fastr-thn-yr-avg-joe) took off from here, he was smoking.
17. 6:45 1:56:22 18. 6:54 2:03:17 19. 7:22 2:10:40 20. 6:51 2:17:31 21. 6:22 2:23:53 22. 6:38 2:30:32 23. 6:26 2:36:58 24. 6:25 2:43:24 25. 7:41 2:51:06 Left calf cramped up and my sub 3:00 slipped away. Matt, Rhett and Andy pulled away during this mile.
26. 8:09 2:59:15 couldn't go faster
26.2 2:58 3:01:00 Still, in hind sight, it was still a pr and a great race. More later. 
So, I'm glad I upped my mileage, which helped my aerobic base and helped me get my weight down a bit (still could do better here). Only after Top of Utah (despite not being able to hold pace) did I realize I could run faster and snuck in a couple of marathon pace runs. I would like to do some cross training to build back some strength. I think my mileage will drop during this off season, but I would like to make my runs more "quality" runs, as I need to improve my speed. This year's result gives me confidence that I can improve.
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