The St. George Marathon is now officially my favorite race ever so far!!! The entire experience, from the
expo, to the organization getting to the start line, to the course support, to
the views that make you appreciate life…the most enjoyable race I’ve ever run,
and I will definitely be back.
I trained myself for this race, and put together my own
training plan. My goal for this race was
to qualify for Boston, and that moment crossing the finish line knowing I had
reached my goal is a moment I NEVER want to forget. I set out to run a negative split (for those
that don’t know, that is when you run the second half of the race faster than
the first). I ran a negative split by 3
minutes, and actually felt good after finishing (I surprised myself with that
one). During training I practiced the negative
splits, so I know that helped a lot.
Race weekend started with the expo on Friday morning. Before that, I ran one last shakeout run
first thing in the morning in St. George.
My Garmin drained somewhere during our travels, so I made it about ¼ a
mile before it totally died on me. At
that point I decided to just run for a set time vs distance, and maybe it was
good that I couldn’t see my pace so I wouldn’t push harder than I should. This was a quick, easy run, and it felt
great. St. George is gorgeous, and I
wish I had more time to spend there!
We spent pretty much all day at the convention center for
the expo. Picked up my bib and shirt,
bought some souvenirs, tried some samples, had them re-tape my Achilles with KT
tape, and just explored. They had a few different clinics throughout
the day, and I went to all of them, so that I wasn’t on my feet all day, and
also because they were great and gave lots of good info.
Race day started off early, at 3 am. I planned on being in the hotel lobby at 4 am
to take the first shuttle over to the buses that bused us to the start. I was wide awake by 2:45, before my alarm
even went off. I always feel like I “half
sleep” the night before a race, like sleeping with one eye open. This race is a point to point race, and the
starting line was up in Pine Valley, a good 26.2 miles away J It was freezing and windy at the start, like
really really cold to this Arizona girl.
I had my throwaway clothes on, so pants and a jacket, and even with that
and the Mylar blankets they were giving out, it was really cold!! There were tons of fires to keep people warm,
but I didn’t want to deal with crowds yet, so I found my own spot. There were random cars parked off to one
side, so I found a spot behind one of them, along with lots of other
people. The cars blocked the wind and it
actually wasn’t too bad! My bus got up
there around 4:55 and the race didn’t start until 6:45, so it was a necessity
to figure out how to stay warm. The race
started around 7 am (15 minutes late) so it wasn’t dark for long at all once it
began.
The first few miles of the race flew by. Some rolling hills, but really pretty smooth,
and it warmed up quickly so I tossed my jacket at the very start. I held back A
LOT at the beginning of the race. When
you are tapered and your legs feel fresh, it’s hard to hold back and I was
REALLY itching to speed up. It felt too
easy. The first part of a race you are
supposed to run with your head, and my head knew that to succeed in this one, I
had to be smart and save my legs for what was ahead.
Around mile 7 is
where it started to get fun. The Veyo
hill- a LONG climb, with the steepest being the first mile of it. It was cool
to see the volcano though. I think that
was the first time I actually ever saw a volcano!! I ran these miles by effort rather than
pace. I tried to keep a steady effort,
similar to the previous miles, to save my legs.
I’m glad I did, because it played in my favor later on.
Around mile 11 or so, my left hamstring started really
hurting. I wasn’t sure if it was just
tight, or if something was wrong, so I maneuvered my stride a little to stretch
it out and it ended up being just fine.
The 15 mile marker came and I was amazed that 15 miles had
already gone by! From the start, aid
stations every 2 miles with Gatorade and water and fruit. There were 4 (I think
there were 4?) stations that offered Clif shots. I only brought one with me since I knew I
could get them on the course. I stuck
with what I had intended to do for my fueling, and my stomach cooperated the
whole time. Yaay!
The last few miles are all through St. George, and there are
people pretty much lining the sides the entire way through the city. It really makes such a difference to hear all
the cheering those last few miles. I was
actually feeling pretty okay (hurting a lot, but besides my quads/hamstrings, I
was feeling strong), and high fived lots of little kids over those last
miles. I finished in 3:33:01 and I can’t
say enough how much I loved loved loved this race!!
Thoughts on this race:
-Holding back at the beginning…SO important, even though my
legs wanted to take off. Don’t do
it. Your legs will thank you later.
-I never hit the wall, probably partly because I didn’t burn
myself out at the beginning. Also, I
tweaked my pre-race nutrition and race fueling this time and it worked out. I ran a big negative split and this race felt
strong-stronger than I expected.
-I have to say, I NAILED the water situation at aid stations
this time. I got plenty of water in my
mouth, and dumped the rest down my back.
They gave out big cups of water, so there was plenty to drink and dump
on you in each cup! Plus, the water was
cold!!! One station even had ice in the
water.
-The only really flat part of the course was through St.
George over the last couple of mile. Definitely
a big net decline for this race, but it was not a downhill course!!
Thank you St. George Marathon for a fantastic experience. I most definitely will be back!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment