GRANDMA'S RACE REPORT

Man, where to start? I can’t blame the weather. I’m guessing it was about 50 at the start, sunny (too sunny?) and a very slight cross-breeze off the lake. It probably got up to 60 during the race. I never really felt comfortable during the race. I felt bloated the first 4 miles before feeling halfway normal during the 5th mile. The whole time I was more concerned with my goal time than I was about “just” running. I had been checking my splits (6:39-6:46) for the first 5 miles. They were a little behind my 6:40-pace goal, but not much.

During the 6th mile I told myself to stop looking at my splits and just run. I felt more comfortable after that. From miles 8 to 13 I thought I was running pretty well. I’d hook up with a pack and really feel the energy. But then we’d go through a water stop and the pack would splinter. Looking back at my slits, I see I was not running as fast as I thought during this section, basically running 6:55 pace.

I went through the half in 1:29:13 and was thinking about negative splitting. Even though I pretty much knew 2:55 was out of the question I thought I might be able to still PR. Just after 13 I passed Jim (for the first time). Two miles after thinking about a PR, I was thinking about a DNF. I took a pit stop at 16 and it cost me a little over 2 minutes (first time I've done that in a marathon). Basically I was done after that. I thought if my parents were at 19, like they were in 2001, I'd just walk off the course. "Luckily" they weren't there. During 19 & 20 I started talking with a guy that I had been running with earlier. He was hurting and told me to go on.

Just before 22 I caught Jim (again) and ran with him up Lemon Drop Hill. I thought I dropped him, but 2 miles later he came by me again. Just before 25 I had a terrible side stitch and had to walk for 30 seconds. When I got to 25 I saw 3:00:30 on the clock and decided I wanted to break 3:10 (I was actually a little surprised by my time. I hadn’t seen a split since mile 16 and I thought I’d be lucky to break 3:15, given the way I’d been running). So after running a bunch of 7:40s and low 8s I dropped down to 7:15 for the last mile. I passed Jim (for the 3rd and final time) with about half a mile to go and finished in 3:09:06, “good enough” for 299th place overall out of 6,885 finishers.

Jim came in 17 seconds later, which was good for 2nd in the 60-64 age-group. Jenna did awesome, 9th overall woman (68th overall) in 2:47:09, which is a 3-minute PR. With Mary’s recent hip problems, she was still able to get a BQ with a 3:37:21. Chelle ran a terrific 6-minute PR with her 3:02:52. The winner of the 30k I ran a few weeks ago ran 2:35:27, while the guy who finished 3rd ran another negative split race 1:26:07/1:24:28 for 2:50:35. A college teammate of mine (D3 all-American) was the first American in 16th with a 2:23:20.

I ran my last 10K in 47:51, but I wasn’t alone. 40 of the 100 people directly in front of me finished with slower last 10Ks. I find that shocking. What the hell happened to everyone? I’m not sure what happened to me. I think I’m just a total head-case. Had I gone out in 1:27 and crashed, I wouldn’t feel so bad. But I didn’t even “go for it.” I'M such a wuss! How the hell can I run 1:25 in Feb, put in 4 solid months of training and then go through the half in 1:29 and be “tired” 3 miles later? My last mile shows I had more left. I just wasn't into it mentally - especially after I knew my goal was out of reach. That’s something I have to work on.