I remember telling myself all summer that just because I, in theory, could, break 2:30 here, that 2:35 would not be a disaster.
Well let me tell you 2:35 was a disaster, at least it felt like a disaster, and I couldn't believe I salvaged the time that I did.
First off, I should say that I really need money at the moment so I was hoping that I could at least bag the $500 for 2nd place. Allie dropped me off at the buses and I immediately ran into Steve Andersen, who told me that John Kotter was running. Ha! Oh well. I found John at the starting line to tell him how much of a jerk I thought he was, which was tough because it turns out he is a very pleasant, humble guy. I told him to not go too crazy at the start which I suppose he didn't, he really is just a lot faster than me.
Anyway, I'm going to do this race report Paul/Sasha style because I think it warrants it.
Mile 1 (5:02.58): Yes that's very fast, but for those that don't know this is very fast, downhill mile. I was in 5th after the first mile and was probably much closer to 6th and 7th than the 4th place runner. My pacing sheet for Des News said that this mile was 20 seconds too fast so I decided to try to slow it down.
Mile 2 (5:16,10:18): This was right on the pace that I wanted to hit. I remember feeling a little bit of a twinge in my shin in this mile and also really wishing that the downhill would stop.
Mile 3 (5:16,15:35): I really tried to slow it down this mile and I did (relatively speaking) as this should have been faster. My legs were already suffering from the pace and I didn't really know what to do about it. Also I really needed to pee! I do a time check during this mile and I see that I'm 1 minute behind John, Fritz and Rossy. The 4th place guy is still extending his lead.
Mile 4 (5:27,21:02): I still need to pee. I also am kind of feeling the water sloshing around in my stomach. On the plus side, I am still hitting the splits that I want. Effort wise, the pace feels fine, but my legs feel very tired.
Mile 5 (5:40,26:43): First sign of trouble here as I can't find a good rhythm on this flat section. 4th place runner is now coming back to me very fast losing maybe 20 seconds to me in this mile.
Mile 6 (6:01,32:45): The first of three miles of uphill here. I pick up a little bit of time here as I surge to catch the 4th place runner and then push hard on the uphill. I can now see the road up little mountain and I watch for the figures of fritz and John climbing. There are almost 3 minutes ahead. (Note Fritz was 2:34 ahead of me at mile 6).
Mile 7 (6:34,39:18): Relative to the performance chart, my strongest mile of the race. I wanted to see faster than this or for it to feel easier. This is the a major worry for me as I have now slowed to tempo run pace with the same effort. The altitude is causing me problems.
Mile 8 (6:11, 45:30): I clearly slowed down quite dramatically here as this mile should have been faster. However I was trying to get my breath back and get into a groove so it makes sense. It was still right on pace.
Mile 9 (5:26, 50:56): Pretty relaxed downhill mile and I started to feel very good. I caught Rossy in this mile and we ran together until Burr's lane. This was the 8th mile in a row for which I had hit the split that I would have considered "ideal" with 5 or 10 seconds. I was now needing to pee though. Also, this was the mile when I was supposed to take my first Gu but I didn't feel like putting anything in my stomach.
Mile 10 (5:42,56:38): I got a boost in this mile as I saw Fritz and John at the turnaround. They still looked good but their lead did not seem insurmountable. I knew that they must be on a killer pace and I still had a shot. I was 3:38 back at this point.
Mile 11 (5:29,1:02:07): Did not feel comfortable in this mile at all. I'm not sure how much this mile cost me, but I definitely surged on this mile which was a mistake. I had planned to wait until mile 13 to surge, but I didn't want their lead to get insurmountably large.
Mile 12 (5:35,1:07:42): I was still on my goal pace (almost exactly) but I was having to push pretty hard to do it. My legs felt empty in this mile and I felt like I was slapping the ground rather than the smooth, silent turnover that I can normally achieve. I have 14 miles left! I also not enjoying the downhill as I'm beginning to feel nauseous.
Mile 13 (5:41,1:13:24 Half 1:14:00):Exactly where I want to be at the half but all systems not functional. I remember how I felt at halfway in my last two marathons and it was not like this. I take a Gu out of my pocket and take one suck before throwing it down in disgust. This would turn out to be a wise decision.
Mile 14 (5:45,1:19:04): Somehow I'm still holding it together pace-wise, even as my stomach starts to churn and my legs begin to falter.
Mile 15 (5:43,1:24:52): The plan on miles 14-18 was to attack every uphill and I'm still doing that here, but it is merely delaying the inevitable. I'm still on pace for a 2:30 at this point, somewhat miraculously.
Mile 16 (5:48, 1:30:41): I really cannot believe that I'm still hitting sub 6 at this point. I've decided at this point that I'm stopping at the next bathroom. I'm not sure it will help, but it seems worth a try. As I turn off the canyon road I'm told that the leaders are 5:29 ahead. (Fritz was 5:57 ahead at mile 16).
Mile 17/18 (12:11.1:42:52): I missed the split at 17 because the aid station was right next to it. There was no one there to give me water even though I was yelling to get there attention. There was just a "sorry, 2 more miles." Not what I needed. I'm pretty sure that 17 was still sub 6. In the 18th mile there is a hill that I have run many times this summer and attacked with a vengeance each time. There was no attack this time. My breathing was getting a little ragged at it was clear that my strength was leaving me.
Mile 19 (6:00, 1:48:52): I had given up on sub 2:30 at this point. As I knew that trying to gut it out would be a disaster. I knew that unless I had another dramatic drop off that I might still salvage 2:33-2:34. By the way I'm still looking for a bathroom.
Mile 20 (6:12, 1:55:04): I'm just trying to hold it together here. I keep stumbling and tripping.
Mile 21 (6:47, 2:01:51): I cease holding it together here. In hindsight this mile is not so bad but I feel pretty terrible and I could really afford to slow down anymore. This mile is uphill but it should only have been 20 seconds slower than mile 20 not 35 seconds. And also mile 20 was pretty bad too.
Mile 22 (5:51, 2:07:42): Ok, where is there going to be a bathroom, this is getting ridiculous. Downhill mile but I'm clearly still surviving.
Mile 23 (7:03, 2:14:45): This mile included a 44 second bathroom break so the running part only took my 6:19. I'm still holding it together. The fact that I took a stop this close to the end tell you just how bad I was feeling. Felt much happier after this.
Mile 24 (6:14, 2:2059): Out of the frying pan, into the fire. In this mile I felt half the skin rip off of my right heel forcing me to limp for a bit until the pain numbed. It's unclear how I ran a 6:14 here as I felt like I was walking down south temple (in my tempo run this mile was sub 6 pretty easily).
Mile 25 (6:24,2:27:23): A sub 2:35 slipped away during this mile but in my defense the other half of the skin ripped off of my heel at this point. I was now counting down the block.
Mile 26.2 (7:59,2:35:22): This mile is a little harder so I held it together about as well here. I almost burst into tears at the end of this race, it was quite an ordeal.
Immediately saw Allie and Allie's grandparents which was nice. I was then interviewed by the paper which was exciting. I held back my tears during the interview.
I wasn't sad about the race, or even angry. The race was a disaster, but a 2:35 is NOT a disaster for me. I know my body and I know my training and I know that it was reasonable for me to run 2:30-2:32 today. I anticipate a speedier recovery than previous marathons to back up this assertion. So why did I run 2:35?
First my legs felt bad from the beginning, around mile 2. This often happens in races, but clearly I do not handle the sustained downhill very well. I'm good at using downhill it short bursts but it is becoming clear from my racing history that downhill makes me suffer.
See (ROTL 2009/11, Striders 2009, Boston 2010, Des News 2010, Freedom Half 2011)
Also let's look at some of my best performances:(RNR 2009 (hilly), Seattle Half 08/09 (Hilly), Striders 10 mile 2009 (very hilly), MI half 2010 (Hilly), ROTL 2009 (downhill, but 5k), Draper Days 2011(hilly), Classic 10k 2010(hilly))
It's clear that I am not a proficient downhill runner, which is unfortunate given that I live in Utah.
2nd, I felt nauseous. I ate very little before or during the race but I think that this might be the problem. I normally eat quite a bit before a marathon (bagels. chips, rice crackers) but this is normally about 4 hours before. Having my stomach contain only Gu and gatorade was probably not a good idea.
3rd, the skin ripped off of my feet...Well, you know what, that's just the Des News Marathon.
Positives:
-I did hit my pace for about 16 miles. Sasha often says that the training gets you the first 16 miles and the rest is a matter of the day. Clearly I'm doing something right in traning.
-Oh right also I didn't run in Jan, Feb, March because of a knee injury. I had a bit of a knee scare this week but it was actually fine during the race.
-As I mentioned earlier, I am hoping to recover faster from this race as I didn't run on pace the last few miles (famous last words).
-After the race I lay down on my couch feeling ill. Allie came over, brought me some smoothies and gave me a massage until I fell asleep.
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