PR by 3min 52sec. Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy.
Had a nice dinner Fri night with Steve, Nate, Walter, Paul, Dave, Clyde, Aaron and Hayden. Tried to get down early as I had to be up at 3am to get to the busses. Didnt work out so well but the lack of sleep didnt hurt too much I dont think.
The race was 15 minutes late getting started which wasnt to bad except that durring that wait it started to rain. Not bad at first but it picked up as the race progressed.
I tried a new strategy of trying to not look at the watch during the race and just run by feel. I did pretty well and only looked three times.
Got settled in after a mile or so and was feeling pretty good following within sight of the top 2 womens runners and pretty much by myself other than that. Started to get pretty cold by about mile 6 and was wondering if it was going to become an issue as I couldnt get the first GU out of my pocket around mile 7-8 because my hands wouldnt work right.
Once we got started down the canyon I was feeling good and just let it take me as fast as I could comfortably get my legs turning over. Passed the second place woman and a few other guys down through here. My quads and calves where getting pretty tight and I was nervous of a repeat of the last two marathons where I fell apart because of dead leg.
Once we got out of the canyon I was closing in on the 1st place woman and feeling really good. Probably the best I have ever felt the last 10k of a marathon. Dont get me wrong, my quads and calves where even more tight and tired but I knew I could ask more from them and they would respond. Once I got around her I could see another person in the distance so I just worked on getting him. Then another and another. I even got one of the Kenyans along this stretch. Coming up over the train tracks sucked the wind out of my sails but I was able to regain and checked my watch. I was already at 2:41 so breaking 2:40 was shot but I tried to keep picking up the pace and pushed through to the finish.
If I would have known 2:43 was so close I would have tried a bit harder but I dont know how much more I would have gotten. I pretty much used up everything I had going that hard. It felt really good and its nice to get another PR that felt like a PR.
1 - 6:01
2 - 6:01
3 - 6:02
4 - 6:22
5 - 6:16
6 - 6:19
7 - 6:32
8 - 6:30
9 - 6:03
10 - 6:10
11 - 6:22
12 - 6:08
13 - 5:57
14 - 6:32
15 - 6:27
16 - 6:03
17 - 6:00
18 - 6:08
19 - 6:06
20 - 6:12
21 - 6:11
22 - 6:19
23 - 6:31
24 - 6:20
25 - 6:20
26 - 6:27
.2 - 1:50 (6:11)
Its nice to see the final 10k splits down more where they should be as opposed to being 30 sec to 1+ minute slower like they have been the last two marathons.
Great run and Im excited to get some good training in for St George in the fall and Boston next spring. | 