dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

St George Marathon

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Location:

Alpine,UT,USA

Member Since:

Jan 01, 2008

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Olympic Trials Qualifier

Running Accomplishments:

3K: 8:58 Pocatello, ID 2003 (indoors at Idaho State)

5K: 14:55 Salt Lake City, UT 2010 (Law Day 5k)

10K: 29:33 Salt Lake City, UT 2010 (Des News 10k)

1/2 marathon: 1:06:59 Provo, UT 2010 (Utah Valley Half)

marathon: 2:21:59 St. George, UT 2009 (St. George Marathon)

Short-Term Running Goals:

To get running higher mileage more consistently without getting injured

Sub 2:19:00 marathon

Personal:

I used to run competitively, and maybe I will do so again someday.  Right now I am primarily running to try and get in better shape, and to maintain both physical and emotional health, but also for the simple joy that comes when I run.

I am also the proud daddy of five little ones.  I love the opportunity that I have to be a daddy, and my challenge is to balance my family responsibilities with work and running.

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Asics Speedstar Lifetime Miles: 2020.05
Asics Gel Ohana Racer Lifetime Miles: 2332.20
Adidas Adizero Lifetime Miles: 1375.45
Barefoot Lifetime Miles: 183.10
Nike Free 5.0 Lifetime Miles: 2221.85
Saucony Kinvara Lifetime Miles: 795.92
Puma Faas 200 Lifetime Miles: 381.50
Puma Faas 250 Lifetime Miles: 466.10
Altra Adam Lifetime Miles: 1836.85
Baretrek Lifetime Miles: 290.15
Hoka Conquest Lifetime Miles: 41.00
Race: St George Marathon (26.219 Miles) 02:22:01, Place overall: 2
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
1.3026.200.000.0027.50

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.

Adidas Adizero Miles: 27.50
Comments
From LuzyLew on Sun, Oct 04, 2009 at 01:48:21 from 69.169.167.157

Astonishing! You should be so proud of your second place/no crash/stellar marathon performance! Congratulations!! I was really excited to see your time and your place-- awesome job.

From Snoqualmie on Sun, Oct 04, 2009 at 10:05:06 from 24.18.192.33

Congratulations! You are awesome!

From allie on Sun, Oct 04, 2009 at 10:07:50 from 67.177.43.41

congratulations. nice job on such a strong second half. well done!

From Kelli on Sun, Oct 04, 2009 at 10:31:43 from 75.162.136.134

YOU ARE AMAZING! What more can be said?

From jtshad on Sun, Oct 04, 2009 at 11:47:54 from 69.20.183.178

Congrats on a strong race, awesome time and 2nd place finish. You are a very strong runner and it definitely showed today!

From Holt on Sun, Oct 04, 2009 at 11:48:44 from 75.169.74.94

Jeff, great job! It seemed like you finally had the experience and training to let one roll... and you did. Sorry I couldn't push you to at least a stronger first half, but you did an awesome job by yourself. You were relaxed and confident and it paid off. Keep it up!

From Dustin on Sun, Oct 04, 2009 at 11:51:56 from 209.33.192.10

Great job, your hard work and dedication is really paying off.

From Burt on Sun, Oct 04, 2009 at 14:55:28 from 98.167.151.26

All right! The race report I've been waiting for! ...and it's not ready. Okay, I'll come back later. Until then, great job!

From Christi on Sun, Oct 04, 2009 at 15:22:26 from 174.98.97.173

Amazing finish!! Congrats on this great accomplishment!

From JD on Sun, Oct 04, 2009 at 15:37:01 from 166.216.128.75

Congratulations! Way to represent FRB in style!

From Paul on Sun, Oct 04, 2009 at 17:09:01 from 174.23.93.194

Great job Jeff. I was happy to see you place so high in the results, as this has been a long time coming for you. I hope it's just the tip of the iceberg, but enjoy the feeling of a job well done. Also, enjoy your spa prize. It's pretty nice.

From Merri on Sun, Oct 04, 2009 at 19:29:57 from 67.199.179.247

Nice Job Jeff, that's an awesome time! You're speedy!

From josse on Sun, Oct 04, 2009 at 21:28:27 from 70.193.77.242

I am so happy you had a great race and captured 2nd place. A real break through race for you:)

From Bec on Sun, Oct 04, 2009 at 21:46:34 from 67.177.35.60

EXTREMELY impressive time. Congrats on the second place finish. Pure amazing!

From Burt on Mon, Oct 05, 2009 at 10:56:47 from 98.167.151.26

Hey Jeff, I found a picture of you on-line: http://burt-mccumber.fastrunningblog.com/blog--Congratulations-to-all-participant/10-04-2009.html

Enjoy!

From c h a d on Mon, Oct 05, 2009 at 12:10:46 from 67.42.252.25

Terrific race, Jeff. It is great to see all of your hard work and dedication pay off with such an awesome result.

From Jon on Mon, Oct 05, 2009 at 13:09:21 from 138.64.2.76

Awesome, awesome job, Jeff. Congrats and enjoy the fruits of your labor. Well deserved.

From Lindsey Dunkley on Mon, Oct 05, 2009 at 17:22:21 from 68.164.105.32

Amazing...so deserved!!

From MichelleL on Mon, Oct 05, 2009 at 23:38:28 from 71.213.97.46

Wow, Jeff, nice to see you run so fast, nice negative split, at least with second place you get to choose where to travel with your voucher. Congratulations!

From jeffmc on Tue, Oct 06, 2009 at 00:40:19 from 67.213.7.11

Thanks to you all for the comments and congratulations despite the fact that I did not have a race report posted. It is all here now, although it is rather long. As I am not as entertaining with my writing style as some of the other bloggers are, I will not be too disappointed if you don't all jump at the chance to read it. Thanks again!

From Jon on Thu, Oct 08, 2009 at 11:42:02 from 138.64.2.76

We read it, and we enjoyed it.

From Sasha Pachev on Thu, Oct 08, 2009 at 18:39:09 from 192.168.1.1

Even though it is St. George, it is still nice to experience sub-5:00 average for two miles way into "the zone".

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