Well I decided to post a race report even though I have not blogged at all this year. I have been lurking though, so I have stayed up to date with the blog and its members. I also wanted to put in a positive race report on a day when so many had bad experiences. Here it goes. First off, I have been around running awhile now so not too many things impress to the point where I have to shake my head and say "Wow!" One of them definitely is reading Paul's blog entries, esp. his weekly big workouts. I am in awe every week Paul. Another one came today with Garrett. Like he said in his blog, he has a little man crush on me. It was a little weird at first, but I have grown comfortable with it. J/k Anyways, this is one of the most impressive debuts I have ever seen. Like he said, I always believed he was quite capable of breaking 2:40, but the marathon is tough to tame on your first shot. It always seems like it takes a second one for everything to click. I didn't start training until June this year and I only have run 10 weeks of 45-58 miles this year. But it was Garrett that kind of got me going again. I wanted to see what I could do after a limited amount of training. Garrett has been in better shape than me all year and it showed today. He was really nervous so I tried to handle everything for him such as splits and elite stations. Right from the first or second mile, I felt flat and knew it would be a tough race. It was one of those days. I knew that I was in good enough shape to run 2:32-2:33 though, so I thought I could gut out a 2:35 still. Garrett stayed right with me and we were very close on our splits. I won't post them here since he already did. We hit the half in a little under an hour. The half was at 1:19 exactly, which was our goal. I was glad the hills were over, but I was already hurting. After my Power Gel at mile 7, I could not take any more sugars the rest of the race. Every time I tried to drink Gatorade my stomach would hurt, so I stuck with water. I started dry heaving and throwing up in my mouth at about mile 17. I was close to survival mode, but just tried to stay relaxed. On mile 18 or 19 we hit 6:11. I knew that our goal splits were faster. I had told Garrett to take off a couple times already, so I told him again. He finally listened because I think he could tell I was hurting. So he took off on his own and I just tried to put one foot in front of the other. I hit mile 20 in just under two hours. I kept trying to lean forward and let gravity pull me on the downhills. Miles 21 and 22 were big mental checks for me in the twist. All I could think of was how I had lectured my varsity guys the day before for not being tough enough mentally in their race. I told myself that I would be a big joke of a coach if I could not practice what I preached to them. If I relaxed now, I would either start walking or jogging 8 minute miles. So I kept pushing. My miles were all above 6:00 now despite the downhill. On diagonal, I looked forward to counting down each turn I had left until the finish. I knew that I could still break 2:40. I could also still see Garrett up ahead 1/4 mile or so. I just kept thinking how impressive it was that he gutted it out in the heat and on his first try. My slowest mile was 6:35, so not too bad. Garrett hit a 6:00 avg, which is amazing especially after the struggles that other people had. I came in at 2:38:50 and was never so glad to see the finish line. I was happy with the time on a year that was less than ideal conditions, my training was horrible (but a much needed break), and I felt like crap the whole race. I think I might be a glutton for punishment, but I actually want to go run tomorrow. I need to let my body heal so I will rest a week, but I'm not too sore and want to start hitting the miles again. I have decided to start blogging again and to go for the sub 2:30 next year. So anyone who wants to make that goal, let's plan on it. Garrett, Walter, James, etc. I'm talking to you guys. I hate running tons of miles, but I'm actually looking forward to it this time. 80 miles a week, flirting with injury. I can't wait! I think my main motivation besides the sub 2:30 is my desire to be in the best shape of my life for one last time. So I look forward to this next year. It was great seeing all of you yesterday. Good job to all of those that gutted it out. |