Friday, October 11, 2013

St. George Marathon 2013 Recap

I wasn’t even sure I was going to run the St. George marathon until 9 days before I ran it. Four months ago I was ecstatic about getting in. But then the summer came with temps rarely under 70 even when the sun was down, which meant I was mostly running on a treadmill. At the same time, work picked up occupying a handful of my Saturdays making scheduling long runs tricky. I also prioritized a social life making early morning runs hard as well as having several wonderful visitors that allowed me to procrastinate long runs even more. All the sudden 6 weeks out I was looking for excuses not to run and usually taking them.


Then two weeks before the race I decided I wasn’t going to run it. I had skipped my last two long runs and was barely running once or twice a week. I was tired and stressed and sad and an easy, expendable stressor from my life was the marathon. I didn’t think I could run it for fun or give up my goal and just enjoy my weekend. I went as far as to tell my work I wasn’t running it and could work that Saturday and Ben even rearranged his work schedule back to normal since I had decided not to go.

But then I read this article and several more on marathon training.  I thought long and hard about not being at the race I had paid for, trained (most of the way) for and planned a weekend getaway with my husband for. And even though it was a difficult process to arrange our travel plans back from where they were before I went from not running a marathon in two weeks to running a marathon in one week.


We arrived in St. George by 4pm Friday and settled in at our hotel. We headed to the expo, which is always a good time. At dinner, I asked Ben how fast I should run the next day and he reminded me that I had said I wanted to start with the four hour group and see how I felt. Then I told him I felt like I was underestimating myself and he laughed and told me I was absolutely underestimating myself and not giving myself enough credit and he was sure I could beat my last time if I tried.

I didn’t have that kind of confidence in myself, but I asked him if he thought I should try my hardest the next day or if I should take it easy and that I was afraid that if I tried hard and failed that I would be more upset than not trying. He told me that I should give it everything and that I would be able to do it.

So at dinner, 12 hours before I was about to start my marathon I changed my strategy completely and decided to see if I could push myself to a 3:35 finish time or at least to beat my last marathon time.

After dinner I tried on my gear for the next day (I stupidly didn’t bring a long sleeve shirt so I had to wear the race shirt given to me at the expo since the temps were going to be cold). I also got my pep talk from form from my nephews Johnny, Brandon and Thomas and my niece Maddie. 

 
They gave me one before my Utah Valley Marathon too so I’m hoping it becomes a tradition.  I was asleep by 9 with no nerves or problems just visualizing running as fast as I could.

The day of:

I was up by 4:15 and ready by 4:30. Not without first flooding the bathroom during my shower though. My running clothes were 1/4th of an inch away from being soaked. 

Early morning selfie!
The hotel had breakfast set up early for marathon runners and even had a shuttle to the buses. I had two pieces of toast with jelly and a mini blueberry muffin for breakfast. The shuttle took a little while, but I was at the buses by 5:15 and headed up the canyon to the start line.

I sat next to a nice older gentleman named Gale. This was his 8th or 9th St. George Marathon, but he ran 2-3 marathons a year. We talked about our past marathons, our family and our favorite running spots around Salt Lake. He gave me some tips about the course, pointed out different landmarks as we drove to the starting line and also gave me a pep talk. I gave him the short version of my training blips and told him my last time at Utah Valley and he told me I could do it and it reaffirmed that I was going to try my hardest.  He said he had seen miracle times come out of this course and he thought I could pull one out.

The starting line was freezing cold -- about 30 degrees. They had fires, but they were packed with people and it was hard to get a decent spot at one. 


By the time I found a decent spot I heard someone say it was 6:30, which meant I only had 15 freezing minutes left until we started and before I knew it we were lining up. I tried to get as close to the 3:35 pacer as possible, but it was pretty crowded.  We actually had to all shuffle to the starting line and only started running once we crossed the mat.

The first few miles were pitch black and crowded. 

Not an actual depiction but pretty close
I was doing a lot of bobbing and weaving and was having trouble picking up speed. I was glancing at my watch when I could but it was too dark to see and right when I felt like I was getting faster there would be a small hill to kept me from speeding up again. I knew I could be going faster but couldn’t quite break free.

Mile 1: 8:32
Mile 2: 8:31
Mile 3: 8:01

There was some light creeping up so I could finally see my watch and assure that I was speeding up. I felt good and was making up for the time I had lost at the beginning and was sort of shocked that I was keeping up the pace I was.  I told myself to keep my head on straight until I got to the hills from 7-14 and not get ahead of myself, but it was still hard to not have stars in my eyes at how fast I was going (even if it was downhill).

Mile 4: 7:53
Mile 5: 8:01

While running mile 7 – my fastest of the whole race – I had an intimidating view of Veyo hill waiting for me at mile 8.  After 7 miles of mostly downhill with some small rolling hills Veyo looked like bad news. I had done my research before the race and knew that it was about a mile long and at its steepest point was a 7% incline and you climed over 200 ft in one mile.  I also knew that Veyo was only the beginning of a series of rolling hills for the next seven miles. 

Mile 6: 7:47
Mile 7: 7:39

And bad news it was. I did not do enough hill training. I only made it up halfway before walking and it KILLED me. I was gasping for air by the time I stopped to walk. When I started up Veyo I was about a minute and a half over my 3:35 pace. I lost nearly all of that cushion in the one mile it took me to get up it. 

Mile 8: 9:28
Races love to put photographers after a long hill. I think I faked the smile pretty well though.
When I looked at the St. George elevation map I saw a lot of down hill. I saw little tiny blips up every once and a while and thought “those are so tiny! Those must me the tinest hills.” What I didn’t pay attention to is that the measurement on the graph is in the thousands and not hundreds of feet and that one of those little blips could still be a 100 foot or more climb. Well that is what I learned from mile 9-12.

Mile 9:  8:41
Mile10: 8:44

I grabbed a cliff bar from an aide station around mile 9, but it was almost frozen solid and I could barely breathe let alone eat so I had to manage small bites. I was also guzzling water at each aide station usually taking two cups in addition to my own water bottle of Gatorade I was carrying.

Mile 11: 9:10
Mile 12: 8:57

In the zone trying to manage those hills oblivious to the camera
Miles 9-12 really showed the cracks in my training. Sure I could run my paces when I was going downhill or even over minor hills, but I didn’t run bigger hills at that pace during training. In fact I rarely ran hills and that was evident here. However, I knew the hills reign of terror would come to an end somewhere between mile 13 and 14.  The hills on mile thirteen were very minor and by mile 14 we were cruising downhill.

Mile 13: 8:25
Mile 14: 8:24
Mile 15: 8:08
Mile 16: 7:55

As I saw my mile times getting faster I still had hope I could make up for lost time. I knew there was another bigger hill between mile 18-19 and my legs were starting to feel all the wear and tear. While my quads took the brunt of the abuse during Utah Valley this time my whole leg was in pain. My calfs were in aching and my ankles were as well. I felt like one wrong step and they’d just snap. I was just very tired. Usually during marathon I think about what I want to eat after, but all I wanted in that minute was a big bottle of cold water, ice for my legs and a nap. 

Mile 17: 8:02
Mile 18: 8:12
Mile 19: 8:44
With the last big hill behind me I took a look at how much time had passed and reevaluate my goals. Unless I managed sub 8 minute miles the rest of the race I wasn't going to get a 3:35. It made me just a little sad, but I was still proud of how hard I was pushing myself in this race. I briefly thought about giving up. Walking for a while -- maybe even just not finishing. But just because I couldn't get a 3:35 didn't mean I couldn't still get a PR. So I turned my music on and kept pushing even though I was hurting.

Mile 20: 8:18
Mile 21: 8:13
Mile 22: 8:19
Mile 23: 8:23

We headed out of Snow Canyon between mile 22 and 23. The crowd support was nice, but I couldn't muster the smile and waves the spectators deserved. I was just trying to convince myself to not walk and doing mental math in my head to figure out how fast I had to go.

Mile 24: 8:09
Mile 25: 8:25

I must give a shout out to Beyonce, Robin Thicke and the one and only Britney for getting me through these 2 miles. I was actually struggling to lift my legs all the way off the ground at this point. I almost tripped a few times when they just sort of… stopped working. I thought about taking a walking break, but realized I was dangerously close to not coming in under 3:40 so despite my body's best interest... I tried to run faster.
Looking for Ben/pushing really hard
What I remember of my thoughts during the last mile: Don’t throw up. Don’t pass out. Don’t slow down. Don’t cry. You don’t need your legs again anyways.  Don’t trip.  Try waving to spectators. Nope, just run. Run faster.
Mile 26: 8:27

Sprint Lizz. Run as fast as you can. You have 2 minutes to finish. Try to smile at the camera.  Don’t pass out. Look for Ben. Do. Not. Pass. Out. Keep trying to smile. 

Mile 26.2
fin.
I couldn't have been happier to be finished. I didn't know my official time, but I was pretty confident I came in under 3:40. I went through some amazing water misters and stopped for my finshers photo and put on my best "I'm not in pain" face. 


Then I wandered around sort of aimlessly. Someone handed me a lemon scented rag to wipe my face down with and that was magical. Someone else handed me water and chocolate milk. Another person was walking around with ice cream sandwiches and I took one, but didn't open in. Eventually I found my way out of the maze of the finish line and tried to find where to meet Ben. But still being semi-delirious and accidentally walking up a small hill I wasn't sure how to physically get back down with my legs in their current state. Oh man they hurt. I know I've said it, but just one more time -- my legs really hurt. 

So basically I just stood at the top of this small hill I didn't know if I could walk down without falling hoping Ben would find me. And he did! 


I was so happy to see him. I wanted to get a picture of us together (even though I was a sweaty mess) so I made another asked another finisher to take one for us and we chatted for a bit. Then we walked what was probably another mile back to the car (okay it was only 5 blocks).

The rest of the day was pretty perfect. We went to lunch at a Mexican place we like in St. George, and then went for a drive. 


Next we layed next to the pool went to dinner, got junk food from the grocery store, went to see Gravity and basked in my new personal record! 

This marathon was such a whirlwind. I am still processing it all a week later. I felt like this most of the week: 



I could barely walk for three days after, but I am happy to say that I'm feeling a lot better. Out of my four marathons this was by far my hardest. I don't remember zoning out for even one second while I was running. It was three and a half hours of making myself move forward and it was exhausting. It was the first time I have ever sworn off running while doing a marathon or promised I would never put my body through that again. I expressed more than one four letter word while trudging up those hills and am pretty convinced my nightmares will now consist of running down a hill only to see it is immediately followed by a steep incline.

But I am so happy I did it. I can't wait to run St. George again some day with better training.

I don't have any races on the horizon until June though. I'm planning to try Utah Valley for a third time and finally nab my sub-3:35 and qualify for Boston!   

Thanks to the friends and family who told me I could run this race when I really just wanted to sit at home and feel sorry for myself. And especially Ben who told me to run fast.