Let me start by saying I was very proud of my race today. I didn't quite reach my goal of 2:25 and I might not have ran as smart as I could have, but I know that I could not have ran any gutsier.
Before heading up I had a bowl of cereal. Once I got on the bus I had a banana, and at about 6:00 I had a snickers marathon bar. I also had 32 oz of water before starting the race. during the race I tried to get water at every aid station and power aid at a couple. I had a cliff gel at about mile 7 which didn't settle well, but as I was running very low on energy at about 16 and 20 I had a couple more cliff gels.
Good to see lots of friends before, during, and after the race.
My mile splits are based off of the course markers. First mile was measured short with the second mile being long but together they were right on. Fritz took the lead from the get go. Bryant and Jason started to go with him but ended up dropping back with me and Jace. First mile was 5:20 second mile read 5:53. So we were a little slow those first two miles but that was alright with me. We then started getting in the groove I wanted to be in running the next miles in 5:28, 5:24, 5:29. Somewhere in there Bryant and Jason started breaking off from Jace and I.
In hind sight I probably ran the next several miles too fast. I passed Jason and pulled up to Bryant. The next several miles were 5:22, 10:47 (for two miles I missed a split). That ended the downhill miles.
The next 5 miles they were rolling and flat mile. I really wish I would have ran them slower. I think it would have helped me overall. Bryant started gapping me a little over the next 5 but not by much. They were 5:32, 5:23, 5:40, 5:33, and 5:34. I hit the 1/2 marathon mark in 1:11:52.
The next couple of miles were quite slow as they had the big hill in them. Bryant started gapping big time at that point. Those next tow miles were in 11:38 I missed hitting the split at 14. Just before mile 15 I started to get cramps in my right calf and I thought I was in real trouble. I said a little prayer to myself that they would go away for at least a while and I was able to make it about 3 miles before had more cramps. The next three miles were in 5:34, 5:35, and 5:25. The 5:25 mile had the big downhill coming down off the spillway and that's why I was able to run a little faster. So at mile 18 I was a little ahead of where I was hoping to be and still on pace for sub 2:25.
Then things started getting real rough I started hurting bad and was just trying to run 6:00 minute pace. I thought I would be able to run around 5:30 on the canyon miles as they were downhill but they next 4 canyon miles ended up being 5:45, 5:52, 5:49, and 5:31. At about mile 22 a half marathoner said to me to keep going because 2nd place wasn't that far ahead of me. I thought they were crazy because it had been about 6 miles since I had last seen Bryant. But, just before coming out of the canyon I finally saw Bryant clear out ahead of me and that gave me a little bit of life.
With about 3 miles left I was getting some really bad cramps in both calfs and up into my hamstrings they felt terrible. I even started crying a little bit at about mile 23 or 24. I was in a lot of hurt. But I noticed that Bryant was slowly coming back to me so I kept pushing through. The last 4 miles were in 5:32, 6:18, 6:02, and 5:51 with the last .2 in 1:23. I think I passed Bryant with about 1.5 miles to go at about that same time I started feeling dazed and confused. In the last 200 meters I had a real difficult time staying concious.
As soon as I finished they put me in a wheel chair and took me to the med tents. I had a temp of 103 and was very dehydrated. The pumped two large bags of fluids into me using an i.v. I was in bad shape. I was stinking proud of the race I had just run though. Anytime you beat Bryant it's a good day even if he isn't 100% which he wasn't. There were many other really good runners in the race as well like Fritz and Jace and Justin. So I was absoluletly thrilled with 2nd place.
Congrats to the many others that had great performances today in both the full and the half!
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