Left for Logan yesterday around noon, took the kids out of
school early and headed up to look around, get checked into the Hampton Inn and
get some swimming in for the kids and hottubing for my wife and I. The Hampton Inn was a bit further away
from downtown than I thought but when I checked in they told me there was a
shuttle from the hotel first thing in the morning. It was actually a very nice hotel and we had the pool to
ourselves so it was really nice and relaxing. Swam for about an hour then took an hour nap before packet
pickup.
At 5:00 we went to the Packet pickup ran into a few friends,
Ryan called at that point and said he was going to dinner at Fire(something)
pizza and asked if we wanted to meet him, we invited our friends and he had
some other friends ended up having 17 people meet at the pizza place for
dinner, which was a bad mistake, we waited 2 hours for a table that big.
Got back to the hotel at 8:00, got the kids to bed and then
me. I fell asleep pretty easy but
around 10:30 some kids were running up and down the hallway and woke me up, I
never really did get back to good sleep after than. Got up at 4:00 am with no alarm, got ready and went
downstairs. The hotel had provided
a small breakfast for the marathoners starting at 4:15am which I thought was
really nice. I tried turning my
Garmin on to see what time it was and saw that it wasn’t turning on, dispite
charging it all night, this was really upsetting, Carina Heilner came down
around then I told her about my watch and she told me she had her old one if I
wanted to borrow it so I agreed.
Ryan had convinced his wife to drive him to the buses in
the morning instead of taking the hotel shuttle so I caught a ride with them,
rode the bus up with Ryan, he guessed that to win the masters category he would
need to run a 2:43. So at that
point 2:43 was our new goal, but we decided to follow Paul Petersons course
tool for a 2:40 finish giving us some wiggle room. Got on one of the earlier buses and went directly to the
portapotties then down to the warm tent.
At 6:30 we decided to hike back up to the portapotties one last time and
then warm up a little. The line
was pretty long giving us only about 10 minutes to warm up. My leg was bothering me a little so I
decided to wear my compression sleeve more as a mental aid than anything. Lined up at the front with Sasha, and
the Kenyans, introduced myself to Allie and told her good luck. The race started maybe 5 minutes late
but I’d consider it on time. The
guns went off right in my ear scaring me half to death and we were off.
I’m sure one of every rookie runners dreams is to be able to
run with the lead pack of a marathon for the first mile or so, well lucky for
me the Kenyans enabled this dream to happen, they took off surprisingly
slow, my first mile goal was 5:55 pace the lead pack was only going at about a
5:50 pace so I with about 11 -12 people in the lead stayed pretty much together
for the first mile, my leg was feeling decent I was afraid I would be limping
the whole 1st mile but it seemed to hold up.
Mile 1 = 5:53
Sasha and the 2 Kenyans started to break away a little bit,
I was happy we hit our first split pretty much as planned, I had printed out
the course tool to small to read while running but knew the second mile was
suppose to be right around 6:00 still feeling good and content to let the pack
naturally break up.
Mile 2 = 5:58 (right on track)
I counted, Ryan and I were in 10th and 11th
place, I looked behind and there was already a big gap between us and the next
person behind, I thought to myself this is perfect if I can just stay here for
another 24 miles I’ll be perfectly happy J (wishful thinking)
Mile 3 = 5:52 (11 seconds to fast)
The next couple of miles where just kind of pleasant, nice
cool breeze and little rollers mostly down hill. Even though I couldn’t read the planned splits I knew we
were for the most part on track.
Mile 4 = 5:57
Mile 5 = 6:07
Mile 6 = 6:06
Mile 7 = 6:08
Mile 8 = 6:03
First signs of trouble at this point, my right hip and right
thigh started acting up, I kept falling back from Ryan a few yards and then
would try to catch back up on the up hills, up hills felt better at this point
Mile 9 = 6:14
Ryan slowed down a little bit for me, I felt bad and tried
to get the pace back up,
Mile 10 = 6:08
I fell back about 5 yards or so, Ryan tuned and asked if I
was OK, I told him my leg wasn’t going to hold up and not to wait, he left me
at this point. He was looking very
strong and I was glad he left, I didn’t want to slow him down anymore. Some times a man just needs to be left to wallow in his own misery.
Mile 11 = 6:24
Mile 12 = 6:10
Coming out of the canyon a few things happened, first the
sun started hitting me, which I’ve mentioned before I don’t do good in the sun,
and second there were people on the side of the road cheering me on, I kind of don’t do well with the
cheering crowds it’s a little too emotional and I have a hard time
focusing. Got to the flat part and
could really feel myself coming apart.
Mile 13 = 6:16
Kept trying to hold on, Hit the ½ mark at right around
1:20:00, only 30 seconds or so behind the plan for a 2:40:00 finish but I knew
I wasn’t going to be able to run on the flats at the same pace. Around mile 14 the first person past
me, I knew at that point I must really be slowing cause last time I had checked
I couldn’t see anyone behind me.
Mile 14 = 6:10
My leg at this point was really bothering me, I knew I
wasn’t going to hit my goal and could feel another Ogden crash happening if I
tried to keep it up. I mentally told myself I needed to slow it down or I might
not finish, taking it down to
closer to a normal training run pace really seemed to help and the pain went
away. So I changed gears.
Mile 15 = 6:24
Mile 16 = 6:17
Mile 17 = 6:31
Another 2 guys past me, a little demoralizing but at that
point I didn’t care much about anything.
Thought OK, just 8 more to go.
I can run 8 miles in my sleep.
Mile 18 = 6:34
The uphill began, in a way it was a relief, the uphill
change of muscles actually felt good on the leg but slowed me down a lot.
Mile 19 = 6:49
More uphill, don’t like it as much anymore.
Mile 20 = 7:11
The long uphill really took it out of me, it forced my pace
to slow down a lot and I never really could get my legs moving again.
Mile 21 = 6:57
Mile 22 = 7:04
I started thinking my leg was going to cramp up, wanted to
stop and stretch it out but told myself stopping would be the end of me, tried
to take longer strides to stretch.
Mile 23 = 7:20
Started running up main street, all the cars and commotion
was mentally tough, Allie past me right at the 24 mile sign, I told her I was
going to cramp up, she told me not to think about it. I really wanted to catch up with her and use her a a pacer
but she was flying and I kept getting slower.
Mile 24 = 7:27
Mile 25 = 7:19
Really not having a good time at this point, but knowing it
was only 1 mile to go kept me focused and the thought of wanting my kids to see me
finish strong kept me alive.
Mile 26 = 7:18
Turned the corner and saw the finish line, what a relief,
very happy I didn’t ever let my mind totally take control and force me to
stop. A slower than hoped for
finish is way better than an all out crash.
Gave my kids and wife a high five crossed the finish line in
2:52:30 according to Garmin, can’t remember the official time.
I thought for sure I would cramp up as soon as I finished,
but I didn’t. Went and got a free
massage, which felt great. Talked
to Sasha a bit. He made me feel
better about myself by telling me it is way to hard to train for a marathon
while on a business trip and then expect to perform well. I really didn’t want to make excuses
for myself., Like work or my leg pain, but they definitely all play a part.
I’m a little disappointed that all the time and effort I put
into this didn’t pay off a little more, but there is always next year I
suppose. Going to take some time
off of running now and try and recover. Oh, forgot to mention. Ryan finished in 2:45:?? didn't quite get the masters win, lost it by 30 seconds. I hope I didn't keep him from the win, but looking at the splits he left me before we really got off track.
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