Race day began at 3:30 with my alarm going off at the Comfort Inn. I had achieved some good, yet short sleep for the night before the event. After the usual prerace preparatory rituals, Melissa and I headed over to get parked and then I boarded one of the busses. A runner from Oregon, named Mark sat down next to me. We conversed for the majority of our ride to the start. It made the time pass quickly as we swapped stories of our running pasts.
My strategy, if you’d call it one, was to enjoy the race and not get caught up in a concrete finishing time. I wanted to feel decent throughout the miles, especially in the last 10k. Most of all; I wanted to avoid a total crash as I had at the Ogden Marathon last month. I set out to run as even an effort as possible, without a central focus on splits.
I felt ok, but not stellar as we headed out on the course from our 6 a.m. start time. This wasn’t unusual, as it usually takes me a few miles to warm up and develop a rhythm. I chatted with a running friend named Layne off and on through mile 6 as our focus was directed upon spray painted obscenities throughout the roadway. It appeared that someone did not enjoy the runners taking over their sleepy farmland community for a couple hours. The cursing was comical at first, but grew old quickly as they became more profane as the initial miles went by. What a shame it was for an individual to take such offense to a group of people setting out in pursuit of achieving goals, while leaving no adverse impact on the miles gone by.
At the mile 7 aid station, I had to tuck in to a port-o-potty, as I had maintained more than adequate hydration. I lost about 30 seconds in doing so, but it left me feeling refreshed and I spotted Layne up ahead and latched on. The course began to have some rollers, so I held off the throttle on the inclines, and charged on the descents. The 3:10 pacer was nearby, and I could hear him encouraging runners not to worry about the slow climbs, and that the time would be made up later on. This followed my approach for the day, of maintaining an even effort. Running the course in an attempt at even splits would be inefficient.
I caught back up to Layne at the mile 9 aid station, and we leapfrogged each other through mile 12. On one of the climbs, I opted to take a 10 second walk break. A runner began to pass me, and asked if I was doing ok. My response was that the effort expended charging up hills early on can bring negative returns later in the race. I made a final pass at Layne and didn’t see him again until the finish. He told me later that I was in his sights through mile 17, but then he had an unfortunate 6 minute pit stop and therefore the gap widened.
I passed a runner named Ralph just beyond the half marathon start that has joined in with the Tuesday morning running group I take part in. He had driven runners to the marathon start, and then came back up the canyon in his own vehicle to jump in and run half the course unofficially. Although I don’t know him very well yet, he seems driven to achieve a Boston qualification sometime this year. Somewhere between miles 14 & 15, my Garmin momentarily lost its signal, assumedly because of interference of the canyon walls.
The course continues to roll until around mile 18, so I chose to ignore my watch as I made each climb, and kept tabs on the perceived effort. I then focused on shifting gears after each crest. My energy felt decent, and there was minimal mounting soreness in my legs.
The real test of how I ran the race was once I turned on to University Avenue between miles 20 and 21. I’ve had some real struggles keeping pace in some previous years from there to the finish. The canyon rollers and mounting mileage have typically taken their toll and that’s where the wheels have fallen off.
For the first time in the race, other than to observe my first half split, I became conscious of the elapsed time and started to calculate a potential finish time and the splits needed to achieve it. A sub 3:10 looked feasible, and from that point on, it was worth pushing with what I had conserved in the tank.
There were a couple runners I had leapfrogged with throughout the race, and their state of conditioning matched my own for the last few miles. I appreciated having the ability to latch on and it kept me going mentally. The finish line arch can be viewed from afar, and it really seemed to come slowly as I made my approach. My breathing was mildly labored, and some soreness in my quads began to set in. Crossing the finish was pleasant, and I felt validated that I had run a much better race than Ogden, as I didn’t have to resort to taking long walk breaks in the final 10k.
My Garmin Splits were:
1st. half: 1:33:13, 2nd. Half: 1:35:29
1. 6:47 14. 7:19
2. 6:36 15. 7:13
3. 6:42 16. 7:28
4. 6:52 17. 7:49
5. 6:52 18. 7:21
6. 7:06 19. 7:02
7. 6:55 20. 7:06
8. 7:55 21. 7:16
9. 7:13 22. 7:11
10. 7:07 23. 7:05
11. 7:01 24. 7:25
12. 7:18 25. 7:05
13. 7:04 26. 7:00
.41 2:54, 7:05/mi. (measured course long)
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