Ogden Marathon May 15, 2010

One Minute Seven seconds.....so close!  I keep thinking, replaying in my mind what I could have done differently.  Five seconds there, another five somewhere else, I ran the best I could that day, I trained hard, I still got a PR, I enjoyed myself, so besides just missing my goal it was a great race.

Friday Night

My sister and I drove up to Ogden, we got stuck in horrible rush hour traffic.  How do people commute everyday in that?  Finally at about 5:30 we arrived in Ogden, and found the Union Station to pick up my race packet.  The expo wasn't too exciting, mostly local vendors, I did listen to Bart Yasso speak for about 15 minutes.  He was talking about the Badwater race, that is just plain insanity.   It was starting to get late, and I wanted to get some dinner.   We drove to the Hotel Ben Lomond, checked into our room.  I splurged a little bit on the hotel, but it was worth it  just for location.   The buses for the race loaded right in front of the hotel, and the finish line was just a block west.   This made pre and post race much easier.  After checking out our room, and going through my swag bag, we decided to walk down 25th street to search for dinner.   We decided on Bistro 354 (not sure if the number part is correct).  Dinner took a really long time to arrive but it was really good.  I had a salad, and then pasta primavera with shrimp.   It was almost 8:30 or so by the time dinner was done, so we just walked back to the hotel, and chilled out for the evening.  I went through my stuff layed out my clothes, my food, and my drop bag, check at least 2 more times, and then just relaxed in bed.   Turned out the lights, and tried to sleep. 

Pre-race morning

The alarm went off at 4:15.   I woke a few times in the night, but I think I slept pretty good for the night before a race.   Crawled out of bed, and made my way to the bathroom.   Dressed, ate my oatmeal I brought, and a left over apple filo roll from dinner.  Went through all my things one more time, and took the elevator down to the lobby.   They had some coffee downstairs, so I had half a cup, and grabbed an orange as well.  Went outside, and started to look around to meet Jonathan.  It was a little crowded, but managed to spot Jonathan,   The bus loading was fairly organized.  On the bus I ate my orange and a banana....realized this was a lot of fruit, worried a little, Jonathan had Imodium, so I took that just in case.  

Off the bus, grabbed some GU's, they had tons of them, so that was very convenient.   Then I headed for the port-o's for the first bathroom visit.   Jonathan and I then just relaxed and sat on the U-Haul for the drop bags.   Jonathan was more than pleased when a girl said she would be coming back to take off her clothes.  LOL!   20 minutes before start, back in line for the bathroom, them removed my layers, thew my bag in the truck, and lined up at our pace marker.   The last announcement I heard was 4 minutes to start, then the gun suddenly went off.   A countdown or something would have been nice.  

The first 13 miles were smooth.   Kept a really good pace and built in a few spare minutes for the second half.  I thought I was going to need to make a bathroom stop, but I think that was just nerves and the feeling faded.  The course was beautiful, and it was a little warmer than I thought, I could have worn shorts.   At one hour I took, my first endurolyte, and a GU at mile 9.   I downed another GU at 14 I think, but not sure.   Here I saw Trish from the Salt Lake Running club, she was looking out for me, and ran with me for the next two miles.  She knew the course well, and prepped me for the hills to come.  Thanks Trish!  Right after she left me, I started to have a painful side stitch.   It hurt with every step and breath.   I tried to keep it controlled, but had to slow down a bit.  At the next water station, I stopped to catch my breath, drink some water, and attempted to find my two endurolytes I needed to take.  I had them in the same pocket as my Ipod, and apparently they were crushed, just powder in my pocket.   Crap!  Started to run again, the side stitch faded.    Downed another GU just before 19 followed with water. At the next water stop I grabbed some Powerade.   At mile 20 I felt pretty good still, starting to get tired.  Jim was running towards me, and he turned around to run with me for a mile.  I couldn't really talk, so he just encouraged me.  Thanks Jim, it really helped!   Somewhere I had accidentally stopped my watch.   My time and mileage was off by about 5 minutes.   I knew I was close to my needed pace, I think I was still a little ahead at 21 miles.   This is when I started to feel the muscles twitch. I just kept pushing forward, step by step.  The last three miles on the paved path sucked.   It seemed to wind around forever.   I got to mile 23 downed  half of my last GU, and shuffled my feet along.   This mile seemed the longest.  I kept waiting to see mile 24 and it seemed forever.   I wanted to be finished, wanted to see the road and finish line.  Mile 24 1/2 the GU seemed to kick in a little or I just knew I was close and tried to pick up my pace.  I thought Jonathan might catch up again, and then we could pick up the last mile together.   Two girls ran past me, I so wanted to keep up with them but couldn't.  The last mile my legs were cramping and  my form was sloppy.  I did my best to keep the legs going, and when I could finally see the finish I picked it up to run in.  Passed a person or two the last quarter mile. 

My official time:   3:31:07

I was a little disappointed I didn't get my sub 3:30, but I loved the run. I could probably think of a million things I could have done differently, but I will just be happy with the result I got.   I highly recommend Ogden marathon to anyone.   Its a very well organized and supportive race, with great scenery.