dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

6.1 miles in the morning

2 miles around the block at home

I will write more when I have time later, but the short version is that I am excited that I was finally able to run a full marathon without anything resembling a crash.  I felt really strong even during the final miles of the race, and I negative split the race by over 6:00 (1:14:02, 1:07:58).  I am happy with second place, but I wish that I would have gone a little faster the first half, because I think that it would have given me a better chance to catch Ian at the end of the race to win it.  I had 2:21:59 by my watch, and the announcer called out that time as I crossed the line, but the official time was 2:22:01.  Officially 58 seconds behind the winner.

Ok, so here is the rest of it.  I drove down on Friday evening before the race, and I slept just a little ways from the start line, courtesy of some friends of ours who offered us the use of their trailer.  I was woken up early Saturday morning by music, and the race announcer as the first busloads of people started arriving at the start (note to self: If I ever camp at the start of St. George again I need to camp a little farther away).  Anyhow, I warmed up, made wonderful use of the bushes, and went to line up at the start.

The race starts and Ian Hunter immediately races to the lead.  The rest of us sit back and relax as we go through the first few miles.  In hindsight, we probably went a little slow during the first 3 miles.  After about 2 miles Seth Wold took off to catch up to Ian, and I sped up just a little so that I wouldn't loose too much ground.  I went through 3 miles in 16:57.  At three miles I sped up a little more because I realized that I was going way too slow, and I hit the next 3 miles in 16:00 (32:57 for 6 miles).  During this period of the race I was running with Dave Holt, with a group of guys tailing off of us and drafting off of us.  It was somewhat windy, so no one else wanted to lead, but I did not want to go any slower than I already was because I didn't want to fall farther behind Seth and Ian.  I made it to the eight mile mark as I headed up Veyo hill in 44:21 (11:24 for the last 2 miles).  During the next few miles I lost sight of Ian and Seth, and the pace seemed to lag as well.  I know that my effort stayed the same, because I was checking my heart rate regularly during these miles and it was consistently in the low 170's but the pace seemed to slow.  I think that I might have hit a little more wind during this section of the race in addition to the rolling mini hills as you go through dammeron (I think that the wind may have slowed my finishing time by about a minute as I evaluate my effort in comparison to the speed I was going).  I took my first bottle at the 11 mile marker, took 2 miles to finish it off, and then hit the half-way mark in 1:14:02.

Since I had finished off my drink I decided to push the HR just a little higher than I had been keeping it in order to drop the guys drafting off of me.  The Same guys that were drafting off of me when I was running with Dave Holt were still on my tail.  I pushed my HR up to 173-174 for a couple minutes, and at the first indication that the pace was speeding up every one of my drafters fell back.  I then dropped my HR back down into the 170-171 range where I had kept it for most of the race up to this point (although it was a little lower during the first few miles).  I hit 14 miles in 1:18:36 and followed this up with miles splits of 5:09, 5:15, 5:11, and then 10:38 for 2 miles, (one of those two miles was uphill) and a 5:11 to make it through 20 miles in 1:50:00.

During the 14th and 15th miles I was trying to get a feel for how far back I was from Seth and Ian since I had lost sight of them just past Veyo.  I was getting responses ranging from 2-3 minutes depending upon who I asked.  Based on Some quotes from Ian I read in the newspaper it looks like Seth was the one pushing the pace during those middle miles, and they must have picked up the pace a fair amount, so they gapped me while I was content to keep my effort even.  However, despite what happened during those middle miles, both Seth and Ian eventually started to come back to me.  I first caught sight of Seth at about 17 miles.  I was gaining on him so slowly that at times I wondered if I would ever catch back up to him.  Mile after mile I watched as the gap got smaller and smaller.  By the time I hit 20 miles I was sure that I would catch him (I could not tell at this point that it was Seth I was catching up to, as both Ian and Seth were wearing similar jerseys).  I made it to the 22 mile marker in 2:00:21 (10:21 for 2 miles) and at this point I could almost smell blood.  I was trying to not get too excited, and I kept telling myself that I needed to wait until 23 miles to really push the pace.  By now I could tell that it was Seth I was gaining on, and despite my attempts to not push the pace I was speeding up ever so slowly.  Then, as I came down one of the hills I realized that I could not only see Seth, but I could see Ian as well.  At this point I lost it and I decided that there was no point in shooting for second place if I wasn't in it to win it.  I floored it around 22.5 miles, and I caught Seth and passed him right at the aid station at 23 miles.  I knew that I would need to hold that pace to the finish if I was going to have any shot at catching Ian.

However, it was not to be.  I made it from 22-24 miles in 9:52 (2:10:13 total time) but by the end of the 24th mile I was already gassed.  I felt like I had nothing left in me.  My HR had averaged 180+ bpm after I sped up, but I could not maintain the intensity any longer, and I slowed down to about a 177 average.  Once I slowed down, I soon found that I felt strong again.  I did not feel like I was crashing, and the pace still felt solid.  I knew that I could not catch Ian, but I also knew that I was going to have no challengers for second place.  All that was left was seeing if I could pr in the half-marathon during the last half of a full marathon.  I needed to cross the line in 1:21:55 if I wanted to equal the pr that I set at the Provo River Half in August.  I made it through the 25th mile in 5:20 hitting that mark in 2:15:33 and I averaged about 5:18 pace from there to the finish, crossing the finish line with a time that by my watch changed from 2:21:59 to 2:22:00 right as I crossed the line, giving me a 1:07:58 second half to the race, missing out on my pr in the half by 5 seconds, but still posting a negative split of 6:04.  During the final miles of the race I was able to time the gap between Ian and myself at one of the turns, and although I don't remember exactly I believe the gap was about 1:20 with about a mile and a half left in the race.  The final margin was 58 seconds from him to me.  During the last mile I also had a slight mishap, as I started to get disoriented, and for some strange reason I thought that I needed to make a right turn when I needed to turn left.  I drifted over to the right side of the road and almost turned into the big orange barrels blocking the road.  The police officer that was shadowing me turned left and gave me a funny look as I realized that I was about to go the wrong way, and I turned back to the left and continued onward.  This probably cost me about 2 seconds on my final time.  I will need to make sure that I do not overthink things in the future as a mishap like this could mean the difference between running a trials qualifier and going home with nothing but a good time if I am right on the bubble.

Thinking back on the race, if I were to change just one thing I would have gone out a little faster.  I feel that I went out at too slow of a pace the first 3 miles because I was afraid of being too aggressive and going with Ian due to my tendency to crash in past marathons.  If I would have stayed with Ian during those opening miles I do not think that it would have hurt me during the later portions of the race, and even if I still maintained an even effort during the middle miles and was gapped when Seth started pushing the pace harder, I would have had a better chance to make up the gap on Ian when I began my charge later on in the race as I would have never gotten as far behind.  Anyhow, I am excited to have finally put a real solid marathon under my belt, and I am excited to have placed so high in a marathon of this size against some solid competition that included the 3rd place finisher from St. George a year ago, Ian, Seth (who won both the Ogden and Utah Valley Marathons), the winner of the Ikijawa marathon in Japan, and a couple more strong runners.  I feel like this is a great point to build upon as I keep working towards qualifying for the Olympic Trials.

First workout after the marathon, if you can really call it a workout.  Just a short run to work the legs out.

Another really short and easy run.  I am taking the recovery a little easier this time around since I have no more key races this year.

From a muscular standpoint I feel like I am recovering from this marathon much quicker than in the past.  On Saturday I was running around at the store when I picked up the new shoes I won, on Sunday I felt like I had been hit by a truck, and now I am feeling pretty good.

Still recovering and taking it pretty easy.  Very little soreness now

No soreness now, but I do feel a little tightness in my hamstrings.  I have also realized that despite my plans to take my recovery slower after this marathon, I have felt good enough that my overall mileage is similar to what it has been the week after past marathons.

I ran easy with Sasha this morning.  My left ankle is a little sore (it has actually been a little sore since the week before St. George) but not too bad.  I think it should get better as I just run slow and easy over the next while.

Kimia needed the car today, so I ran 8.1 miles this morning with Sasha, and then ran home from work in the afternoon to finish with a total of 11 miles.

It was a good run this morning, but I got home a little late so I had to hurry off to work.  We have been running a lot slower lately.

I have been feeling really tired lately (running a marathon does that to me for up to 2 weeks after) so I slept in and ran alone in the evening.  I ran quicker than I have been and finished the run in just over 1:14:00.

I slept in again, and then ran shorter in the evening because my ankle is still bugging me (although I ran a little quicker than normal, 42:07 for 6 miles).  It is weird, as I barely notice any discomfort in the ankle while running, but it kind of bugs me off and on while walking around the house or at work.  It feels like there has been no improvement, yet it has not gotten worse either.

At the end of today's run 2 people walk up to Sasha and myself as we were chatting after finishing our run.  They were in complete awe over how fast we could run.  I thought that it was funny, since we finished 10 miles in just 1:17:41, and only got going faster than 7:00 pace for just a few laps at the end.

Taught the lesson in Elder's quorum today, then got a bunch of free food after church from people who had too much growing in their gardens to eat by themselves, and they brought the extras to give away.

Sasha and I took it pretty slow again today.  I finished my run in about 1:21:00 when adding in running to the park and back home.  My ankle is still sore, but seems to be getting no worse than before and may or may not be getting better.

I have noticed the last few days that my legs seem to feel kind of bogged down and the beginning of my run.  I feel slow and lethargic, and then after a short period of time they just wake up and I take off without really trying to go faster.  Once I meet up with Sasha at the park I end up slowing down quite a bit, and then I speed up again on the way home.  Part of it seems to be because of the ankle as it is more comfortable for me to go a little faster than normal, or really slowly, but the in-between speeds don't feel so nice.  Total time for the run today 1:18:42.

I ran 10 miles easy in 1:17:49.

10 miles easy again at the park in 1:17:36

Again, 10 easy miles at the park, and picking up the car from Kimia's work in 1:17:19.  My ankle is starting to feel better now, as it seems to take less time in the morning before it stops bugging me, and it bothers me less in the afternoon when I am at work and after I come home.  Hopefully it will not be long before I am able to say that it is 100% better.

Today I ran my first tempo run since the St. George Marathon, with the goal to see how things felt and keep the pace around 6:00/mile.  Sasha and I ran a little under 3.5 miles for our warm-up, running 2 miles with Benjamin, and then over to the start of the 5 mile tempo.  The tempo went as follows: 

5:48, 5:48, 5:40, 5:44, 5:32 (total time of 28:32). 

We started off a little bit too quick, as I have gotten used to running slow a lot over the last few weeks and my sense of pace is gone, after which we slowed down.  After that the pace per quarter was anything but consistent ranging from 1:22-1:29 per quarter until the very end when I ran a 1:16 last quarter, running the last 100 in about 16 seconds.  The whole tempo felt weird.  I felt like I was working harder than I should normally work, but the pace didn't really feel any harder at 1:22/quarter pace than it did at 1:27/quarter.  Any slower than that and I felt like I was crawling.  I am assuming that this all comes from just having stale legs, and everything will be back to normal here in a couple weeks when I really get going in my training again.

Total time for 12 miles was 1:24:49.

I ran 10 miles mostly on the grass this morning, and finished in 1:19:31.

I ran 10 miles easy this morning with Sasha at the park.

PM:  Kimia needed the car this morning, so I ran home from work and got in 3 more miles

I ran 10 miles with Sasha this morning.  Same drill as usual.  I kept the pace a little faster than normal this morning because I woke up late.  1:14:06 for 10 miles.

I ran in the afternoon with Sasha today.  I ran the 5 mile tempo, and Sasha joined me for 2 miles of it.  The goal was to keep my heart rate as close to 173 as I could get it for 4 miles, and to then push the pace as hard as I could for the last mile.  It was rather windy, so I didn't really know what to expect as far as pace went, but I was hoping to be at least around 5:20 pace for the first 4 miles.  I took off at the beginning of the tempo and pushed the pace hard from the beginning, because I wanted to get my heart rate up to 173 as quickly as possible.  That first quarter ended up a little quick because I was pushing the pace more, but once I settled into my goal heart rate the splits slowed down.  Splits are as follows:

1:16, 1:20, 1:19, 1:20 (5:15), 1:20, 1:20, 1:23, 1:21 (5:24, 10:39 at 2 miles), 1:21, 1:22, 1:20, 1:20 (5:23, 16:02 at 3 miles), 1:21, 1:21, 1:22, 1:21 (5:25, 21:27 at 4 miles), 1:14, 1:14, 1:13, 1:13 (4:54, 26:21 for 5 miles).

The wind was fairly consistent during the course of the tempo, gusting and swirling around fairly consistently, so I can't really say that some of the splits were hindered more by the wind, or that any were aided at all (the exception being the split from 2.25-2.5 and the split from 2.5-2.75 when I had headwind followed by tailwind after the turn-around).  At times my HR lagged a little, and those splits were a little slower, and at times the HR got a little too high.  On average the HR was more along the lines of 174-175, but by the time I got to 4 miles my average for the tempo was still only 173 due to slower HR at the beginning of the tempo.  At 4 miles I took off.  The pace felt fairly comfortable, but I could not seem to go much faster.  HR peaked at 185 during the last mile.  I tried going faster during the last quarter, but I couldn't seem to do it, however I did feel like I could have held 1:13-1:14 pace for another mile or so before slowing.  I ended up setting my pr for the course, running 26:21, compared to the 26:23 I ran a couple months ago.

I was tired this morning, so I kept the pace slower.  About 1:21 for 10 miles.

I ran a little church race this morning.  I am not really sure how long it was, but I ran a 15:47 (official time of 15:48 but I don't trust their timing, because they seemed to have messed it up a little).  I really just ran it for fun, but I did not feel so hot.  A couple hundred meters in I already felt tired.  I also was coughing up a bunch of flem, which is odd for me.  Second place finished almost 3 minutes behind me.  Afterward, I went home and then ran 10 more miles in 1:09:38 to get 16 miles for the day.

On a side note, Kimia and I found out a few days ago that we are having a girl!  We are excited to be adding a little one to the family in a few months.