Intro:
The St. George Marathon Event for me had one weird event
after another. The night before the race
I never ate dinner until 9pm and I believe that caused one of my issues on race
day. Not doing my normal routine really
does have an affect going into race day.
Sasha, Jeff (his wife), my daughter and me stayed at Steve Hooper’s
vacant house which was very nice, but I didn’t sleep at all very much. When we got to the start Sasha, Jeff and I did
a warm-up mile and a bathroom stop in the woods. Weather:
Like everyone in their race report will mention there was a
nasty headwind along with a decent rain the whole race so in the beginning I
definitely threw out the strategy of a 2:30.
As miserable as the race conditions were at the start I just wanted to finish. I ran Boston’s 2007 marathon and I thought
this was worst than those conditions. Start:
The start for me was awful… when the horn blew to start one
of the runners behind me clipped my heel and knocked me to the asphalt. I scrapped my hand and knee and someone stepped
on my garmin and cracked it (but it works now if I keep it dry). After I got up I got knocked down again on
the asphalt on my right hip and right shoulder.
When I started getting up again I got knocked down again and landed on my
right hip and right shoulder again (KO 3 times). Finally, I was able to get up and start
going, but instantly I had a major pain in my right hip/buttocks area and it
bothered me the whole race especially when I picked up the pace.
First mile was 6:06 (awful) and I was bleeding all over my
hands, and knee and my hip wasn’t being pleasant. But I knew since I wasn’t going to PR because
of the weather I might as well just try and finish with a decent time. Mile two 6:05 I was trying to make my way
back up to Walter and Jon which was going to take a lot of effort since I was
clothes lined three times at the start.
Mile 3, 4, 5, I’ll I remember is the pain in my hip from preventing me
gong any faster (5:52, 5:51, 5:56). If I
dropped my pace it wasn’t as bad. Mile
6 (5:30) I finally caught Jon, and I told him that my hip and shoulder was
hurting and had discomfort and I was thinking about dropping out. He gave me some encouragement so I kept
going. Mile 7 (5:42) and Veyo hill Mile
8 (7:00). Going up the hill really
really hurt in the hip and buttocks area, in fact any hill I went up I had to
slow down or the pain was extreme.
Probably because the muscles I fell on were being used more. Miles 9, 10, 11 the wind and
rain seemed to pick up more and the pace really wasn’t good (6:51, 6:54, 6:51). After mile 11 my stomach was killing and I
needed to go deposit un-wanted goods (brown code). I took a honey stinger gel at mile 10, but I
think my meal preparations the night before caused issue because of eating so
late. I also vomited up yellow stuff 5
times. The bathroom break took over two
minutes and I was now way behind the FRB pack (Jon, Walter, Cody James etc). The bad part of the bathroom break left me
alone with no one to pace with and the wind to push alone with. I really didn’t feel bad in the race as far
as being fatigue or hitting a wall; my biggest problem was the hip/buttocks and shoulder not allowing me to really hit
the uphill’s good or anything else.
I decided the second half of the race (Miles 14, 15, 6:09,
5:45) that I needed to see if I could at least attempt a second half of good
luck, but events happened that caused me to lose more minutes. Miles 16, 17, 18
the wind just felt like you couldn’t push the downhill (5:40, 6:11, 6:06) and
the hip/buttocks was really starting to become more of a frustration than anything. Mile 19 (7:05) and Mile 20 was a disaster
first the wind blew my hat off so I had to run back and grab it. Then I had to stop and tie my shoe that came
undone. Mile 20 I dropped my sports bean
back that I was trying to open and take. I had to run back and grab the
packet. This really cost precious time
and was frustrating because my legs felt good other than the throbbing in my hip
buttocks and shoulder so I knew I could finish strong. Miles 20 thru 26
I was going to push with what the pain In my hip/buttocks and shoulder would allow (6:27,
6:13, 6:44 (had to tie my shoe), 6:ll, 6:02).
I was just glad to be done and see my daughter cheer me at the finish
line. I really didn’t care about the
time anymore, because I only came here to PR and anything higher than a 2:36
didn’t have any importance to me. Overall performance: I felt I could have done easily a 2:39 if I didn't have the brown code the weird knock start and all the miscues of tying my shoe, going back to drop my hat, dropping my sports beans. But almost is not good enough. What I really take out of this is I didn't feel fatigued I felt strong in the end with what the weather would allow. But the hip really hindered the time.
Good year. Not sure
what’s left for the year. It was nice to
see the bloggers get awards. When mother
nature decides to ruin a day there’s really not much you can do to alter and try
to get the same performance that you’ve trained so hard for. The best part of this trip was spending first of all time with my 12 year old daughter and also with Sasha, Jeff and his wife.
Mile 1: 6:06
Mile2 6:05
Mile 3: 5:52
Mile 4: 5:51
Mile 5: 5:56
Mile 6: 5:30
Mile 7: 5:42
Mile 8: 7:00
Mile 9: 6:51
Mile 10: 6:51
Mile: 11: 6:54
Mile 12: 6:25
Mile 13: 7:23
Mile 14: 6:09
Mile 15: 5:45
Mile 16: 5:40
Mile 17: 6:11
Mile 18: 6:06
Mile 19: 7:05
Mile 20: 6;27
Mile 21: 6:13
Mile 22: 6:44
Mile 23: 6:11
Mile 24: 6:08
Mile 25: 6:18
Mile 26: 6:02
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