St. George Marathon. It wasn't the race I wanted to have or expected to have, but it was a really interesting race and overall a good experience. The lesson: it all comes down to the day. It was raining on the bus ride up to Central for the start. When we arrived, all the flags were blowing northward, that is to say, in the wrong direction. It was clear we would have a headwind, the question was for how long? The answer, it turned out, was "the entire race." The air temperature was not cold, so the rain was not too much of a factor other than waterlogging some shoes, but the wind was relentless in its persistence. I started with the lead pack through the first mile. Then I heard Clyde say the pace was too slow and most everyone took off. Josh and I didn't go with them, but hung together through mile 9 when Josh had to pick it up as I was not holding the pace we needed. It was clear he was planning to run a super time no matter what. I was struggling a bit from the bottom of Veyo all the way through Dammeron Valley and my splits reflected that. I hit the half in 1:18:42 and it was clear that I would have to have a phenomenal second half to get a PR, let alone run anything near 2:30. After Josh took off, I ran the entire race by myself except for a couple of guys I passed in the last mile. So it was a long solitary race for me. While cruising through the rain I had lots of ups and downs, mostly mental, but worked through the tough patches pretty effectively. I had a side stitch at mile 18, but that was the only notable physical problem. I had no calf cramps, which is significant for me. Most of the struggle was in dealing with the wind as it was sucking my energy and my splits were not reflecting the effort I felt like I was putting into the race. When I hit 20 miles in 1:59, it was evident that my effort was not yielding dividends sufficient to reach my primary goals. What I was left to do was try to run a strong, competent final 10k, make sure I didn't get passed, and try to track down whomever happened to be within sight. I passed a couple of guys in the final two miles, fought off a surge in the last half mile from Bernie Boettcher, and finished feeling all right in 2:36:53. Talking to other runners after the race, it was clear that I was not the only one that had a hard time fighting the wind. Seems like it took its toll across the board. Amazingly, after leaving me at mile 9, Josh pushed through the wind and ran his way to 4th in 2:30:05. Really impressive. Overall, I think that without the wind, I could have run 2:32 something today. I don't think that I would have run sub-2:30. Maybe. Who knows? I do know I was in better shape for this race than I was last year. Like I said, though, it all comes down to the day. Here are my splits (from the Garmin, which were almost dead on with the mile markers): 1-6:01 2-5:52 3-5:33 4-5:40 5- 5:42 6-5:23 7-5:31 8-6:37 (Veyo) 9-6:20 10-6:17 11-6:37 12- 6:18 13-5:58 14- 6:02 15- 5:43 16- 5:39 17- 5:54 18- 5:50 19- 6:20 20- 6:08 21- 5:52 22-6:06 23-6:00 24-5:57 25- 5:59 26-6:12 So, there you have it. It all comes down to the day. | 