I Hate Cedar Snow!

Planned day off.  I am losing some of my hours at school next year, so i have picked up some more shifts at Lin's (grocery).  So my schedule right now is running 5:00-6:30 or so, school 7:30-3:00, practice 3:15-4:30, and Lin's 4:30-12:30.  So I am glad that it is taper time, or else I would be in trouble.  My miles from now until Boston will just come whenever I can.

P.M.  Ran at the track meet at Snow Canyon before and in between distance events.  My pace was easy with some barefoot strides.  My kids all did well.  I can no longer keep up with my top kids.  My top 3 now have 1600m PRs of 4:33, 4:34, and 4:44.  We also talked about what I could run in the races right now.  I think about 4:45 and 10:20 for 2 miles.  Ben asked if I thought Holt could stick with him for 9:51 3200m.  I said no, but you never know. It might be close.  I'm sure Holt would be modest and say no, but if you are reading this Dave, let me know your honest opinion.  In a racing situation, what could you hit for 1600m and 3200m?

A.M.  Easy on the treadmill

A.M.  Decided to go to the indoor track since it snowed last night.  Met Ben J. there.  I did 165 laps!  Overall 6:52 avg.  I threw in a couple of faster miles around 6:00 pace.  Good run.

P.M.  Ran 3.3 before practice.  My last 2 full miles were 6:20 and 6:00.  That felt really good.  Then I just ran laps while the team did 400s.  I ran a few of them with them.  My top 4 guys hit 10 of them between 1:02 and 1:08.  Pretty solid workout that I could never do.

A.M.  Got in a tempo in the middle of my run today.  I warmed up for 5 miles and only cooled down one.  My tempo splits were 6:00, 5:46, 5:50, 5:33.  It was not as fast as I wanted it to be, but I just was not "feeling it" today.  I'm not too concerned.  Now just a couple of more easy runs and and few MP miles and I will be ready.

A.M. We are on our 3-day spring break, so we ran in the morning. It was cold and windy, so many of us opted for the indoor track. I just ran easy between 7:30-8:00 pace the whole way. That is exactly what I needed.

Now maybe I will hit a little speed with the team tomorrow and then 5 MP miles on Sat. I will be about 50 miles this week.

A.M. Good workout with the team this morning. We did a 4 x 1200 at a good tempo pace. I decided on the pace by having everyone run at their mile pace plus 40 seconds. I knew that it would be a little anaerobic, but would mainly be building their aerobic capacity. It went really well. I did not go hard, but steadily picked up the pace. I started the first one at 4:10 (about 5:32 pace) and eventually made it down to 3:52 (5:09 pace) for the last one. I finished feeling like I could have done at least 3 more at that pace, so it was a good taper workout. I like it when I can make the team's workouts work for me too.

A.M.  Easy short trail run with some of the guys.  It was a little faster than planned with one with at 6:49, but the effort was easy.

A.M.  I am down in Vegas for the holiday.  I decided to get in 13 today with 5 at MP.  I will list all of my splits below.  My goal going in was to have all 5 miles in the 6:00-6:15 range.  I always figure that "race day magic" (I have to give credit to Paul for that phrase) will make a 6:15 training mile a 6:00 race mile.  I did not plan on having my other 8 miles be very fast, but some of them were pretty quick.  I ran this on a loop course.  3 mile WU, 5 mile MP, 5 mile CD.

1-7:07    2-6:49     3-6:52     4-6:09     5-6:05     6-5:55     7-5:53     8-5:35     9-7:06        

10-6:51      11-6:48       12-6:47       13-6:18       Total time-1:24:19

So I am now ready for Boston.  The plan right now is Monday 8 miles, Tuesday 8 miles, Wed. off,  Thurs.  6 with 3 at MP, Friday 5 with 2 at MP, Sat. off, Sun. 2 with a couple 100m strides, Mon. race.  If you ahve any thoughts on depletion runs and carbo loading let me know.  The plan was to do a depletion run on Thurs. and then carbo load from there.

P.M.  One mile warmup before practice.  Then I ran an 8 miler with the team right at 56 min.  The last 3 miles were under 7:00 and the last one was 6:10.  I felt good and strong.

P.M.  Indoor track today to avoid the cold, wind, and snow.  I ran 4 before practice at a 7:00 avg.  Then I ran 3 more with the first 2 at race pace.  I ran with Ben.  We ran 6:08 and 5:56.  It was easy even on the 146 meter sharp turn track dodging other runners and walkers.  Then I cooled down one.  Felt good again.  This has been a good taper that has left me feeling strong and ready.

P.M. I did my last speed before Boston. It wasn't much, but just enough to keep the legs ready. I warmed up a little, then ran 2 miles at MP with a short jog in between each. Then I cooled down a little. My miles were 6:06 and 5:51. I was running into a 20 mph headwind. Now I'm ready.

A.M.  Ran a little to get the legs loosened up this morning.  7:04 and 6:36.  Went to the Sox game last night.  It is the best place to see a game by far.  Ryan Hall threw out the first pitch so that was cool.

As you can see by the distance, i do not run tangents very well I guess.  I am now typing this for the second time.  I should really learn to use the save feature.  I decided to tell this how it was, raw and uncut.  So if i seem a little disappointed with the result, it was still a great experience.  First let me say how awesome Boston is.  They support their sports teams and this race in an unbelievable way.  I met Brian Sell at the expo.  I told him that if he needed anyone to pace him to a 2:09, that I was his man.

Part 1: Pre-race and miles 0-10.  I met Jeff S.  before the race.  He asked if i wanted to join him and his elite pacers, but I knew that i could not hang with them.  So i declined.  He went on to have a good race.  Then i met up with a guy from the RW forum.  This was only his 2nd marathon, but he has tons of potential.  The plan was to run together, but he wanted to go out slower than goal pace.  So I ditched him after mile one.  He passed me at 19 and put 7 min. on me.  Check out his splits.  His name is Jay Thompson.  It was the most even paced marathon I have ever seen.  Ok, back to the race.  I went out at a 6:05.  I  don't have all of my splits because my Garmin lost reception.  There was a big pack of 25 or so that formed.  We hit miles 2 and 3 in about 5:50 each.  I knew that this was a little fast for my fitness.  So I looked back to see if there was another pack to drop back to.  Nope, just small groups.  I realized that with the wind picking up that 5:50 miles in this pack was going to be as easy and 6:00 miles on my own.  So i hung in there.  It was not too hard, but i knew that it would take its toll.  Then i thought, this is Boston, I may never do this again.  I am just going to go for it.  So the pack kept rolling along.  We hit mile 10 in 59 and change.

Part 2: Miles 10-18  At mile 10, the club runners that were leading the pack decided to bump it up to 5:40 pace.  I knew that I would be dead by 15 if i went with them.  So I held pace.  However, the rest of the pack quickly dispersed.  I tried to form little groups, but it did not work well.  I was still feeling good though.  We went through Wellesley.  That was cool.  No kisses, just high 5's for me.  One girl tried to jump out and grab me.  I saw some girls that I would guess did not get any kisses despite their best efforts.  I hit the half in just under 1:18.  I knew that a reasonable positive split would give me 2:39-2:41.  So I just kept rolling along.  The hills started at 17.  The first one was not too bad.  However, the cold wind was really whipping around by now.  I had ditched my long sleeve shirt, gloves, and beanie by mile 5.  

Part 3: Miles 18-26.4   Now the hills started to take their toll.  By Heartbreak, the wind was bad.  I was running by myself.  I could not latch on to the continuous small groups that was pass every minute or so.  I dropped to about 7:00 pace.  I knew that running 7:00 at mile 20 is not a good sign.  That would mean 8:00 pace by the end.  So I decided that would not happen today.  It is probably the toughest that I have been tested mentally and physically.  The hills ended, and at least I had some downhill to keep me moving.  I also had my name written on my jersey, so the crowd kept me going.  I started get light-headed and dry-heaved from time to time.  As i got closer to the finish line, I was counting down the minutes of pain left.  We finally made the turn onto Bolyston.  A couple of more groups passed me.  The crowds were great.  However, by that point, and for the last few miles, I had been getting light-headed and had blurry vision.  I had been getting a lot of GU, water, and Gatorade, so I'm not sure why this happened.  So i started to swerve and stagger as I came down the home stretch.  With less than 100m left, the announcer said, "Here comes Greg Harris in a tight race down the stretch!"  I looked to my left.  There was a guy that I shall name Mr. Lurpy.  I did not have a lot of will power left, but I knew one thing.  Mr Lurpy would not beat me today.  (Looking back on it, Mr. Lurpy probably beat me in net time.)  However, it was all about the race to the line.  After I looked over, Mr. Lurpy started kicking with his long lanky legs.  I responded and barely got him at the line.  Then I fell to my knees and stayed there for a minute.  My final 10K was 43-44 min.  Better than it could have gotten i guess.

Part 4: Post-race "fun."  After i got up, my world was spinning.  I staggered around as many volunteers asked if i was OK.  I said sure i have been "here" before.  Cramped legs, cold clammy skin, and nausea.  Sure, no problem.  I was getting really cold by this time.  The coldness started at about mile 15 and just got worse and worse.  As i walked now, i heard spectators talking about how cold the wind was.  I knew that my dad would not be done for 45 min.  so I looked for a place to get warm.  I saw the big med tent. I staggered in there and asked if i could sit down.  They were concerned because i was pale and wobbly.  So I sat down and closed my eyes.  They kept trying to force broth down me.  They took my temp and i was 92 degrees.  They wanted to call my wife, lay me down, and maybe give my an IV.  I declined and said I would be fine.  They did not believe me and said that no one with a 92 degree temp. was fine.  So I just sat there wrapped in 2 blankets for 45 min. At that time, I announced that I was leaving.  They said no, your temp. is still only 94.  I said, yes I am leaving.  I have to meet my dad.  I will never find him if i dont leave now.  So the doctor agreed to sign it as she shook her head.  I found my dad about 5 min. later, so I was glad that I had insisted on leaving.  After another hour of riding on the subway and sitting in the hot tub (oh yeah! No ice bath for me!) I was good to go. 

Now that I have had a day to reflect on the race, I am not as disappointed.  I have learned that bad weather is just lame and it is what it is.  My last 3 marathons have had lame weather.  The thing that bugged me is that 2:39 would have gotten me 160th place.  Add 7 minutes for my 2:46 and I got 322nd place.  That sucks.  But I am confident that I did the best I could have.  I have no regrets.  This is one of my only half or full marathons where I can honestly say that I could not have gone harder at any point in the race.  That is satisfying to know.  Now it is time to rest up and make one last BIG push at St. George.