At the beginning of the week I said to my husband and kids, "We have 6 soccer games, 4 baseball games and a marathon this week." Oh, and 5 practices. So I didn't think much about the race until Thursday night as I was going to bed, and I wish I wouldn't have because I was a ball of nerves. I couldn't go to sleep, then I woke up every hour or so and struggled again. I have sleeping problems.
Thursday, on our way to one of the games, my 6 year old daughter says, "I'm going to run a marathon. I know how to get ready." One of my sons asks her how and she says, "You get a massage, and takes some naps in the afternoon, and then you run some miles on the treadmill." The way she said it focused more on the massage and naps and my 10 year old son said, "You have to do more running than that!"
Brent drove Melanie, Kim and Jane to the starting line and we got there about 6:30 a.m. We found Emily and visited for a few minutes. They were all doing the half so they went to warm-up. I didn't want to run more than 26.2 miles and opted out of the warm-up. My plan was to run 6:40 pace the first half and try to do 6:50's the second half. I knew 6:40's would feel easy coming down the canyon and that 6:50's on flat and the slight uphill would be hard.
I stuck to the plan the first half and felt good, running miles 2-10 with Scott and his friend Calvin from New York who was shooting to break three hours. Around mile 10 Calvin fell back a little and Scott went back to help him.
I think I was right on a 6:40 pace average at the half. Right after I passed all the people cheering for the half finish I threw purple Gatorade in my right eye and by the time I could see again realized I was outside the cones and in the road where the cars were coming from behind. Purple Gatorade in the right eye at mile 14 is just as painful as yellow Gatorade in the left eye at mile 17.
The second half was definately harder than the first. The wind was really blowing out by the lake and I was worried if I really pushed it to do 6:50's in the teens that I would loose it in the 20's and do over 7's. So I kept an even effort type pace and just ran comfortably.
At mile 22 or so Scott came running up to me from behind. Calvin was way off the 3 hr mark so he came up to help me. I really appreciated that. My husband also drove by in the car with my daughter around mile 23. As we approached University Ave I could see Melanie, Kim and Jane cheering and said, "I think those are my friends!"
The hill over the train tracks on University Ave was harder than I anticipated. I slowed considerably going up it and thought I was about to "hit the wall." But going down the other side I felt better and never got to the point where I really felt horrible. I saw Marie, Rebecca, and Josse's sister there at the end which was fun. My husband was also there with my daughter. My boys were both playing soccer tournament games so they missed it. I finished 2:59:24 avg 6:51 pace.
My splits were: 6:33, 6:38, 6:49, 6:35, 6:43, 6:37, 6:39, 6:40, 6:46, 6:41, 6:54, 6:39, 6:44, (half) 6:48, 6:50, 7:00, 7:04, 6:56, 6:59, 7:03, 7:00, 7:05, 6:48, 6:58, 6:54, 7:11, last .2 6:50 pace.
Before the race I told myself if I ran under 3 hours I would be happy no matter what my place. After all I can't do anything about whether some really fast person shows up who's just plain better than me. On the flip side, I figured if I won I would be happy no matter what my time. So I guess I was double happy.
This wasn't a PR, I ran St. George 1 min faster, but it feels like it. I think St. George is more than a minute faster of a course than this one. I'm pleased I was able to run what I thought was a consistant effort and amazingly still feel good at the end. As I approached the finish line I thought of something I heard Bart Yasso say in a seminar he gave before the Boston Marathon several years ago. "Never take a finish line for granted," and I don't. I love to run. | 