A Perfect Day for Running!

It's hard to believe that just earlier this year I was still trying to break three hours in the marathon.  This has been a fantastic year for running for me, probably my best ever.  I've run a PR in everything and it has felt almost easy.  A lot of people were asking me what I thought I could run in St. George and I was hesitant to say it out loud but I really felt like if I ran a great race I could run under 2:50 and finish in the top five women.  But I knew it was going to take a perfect day, both weather and how I was feeling.  I knew I was in the best marathon shape I've ever been in, but there are so many uncontrollable factors that get in the way for marathon running.  I was keeping my fingers crossed that everything would go in my favor this year.

The week of the race I was frustrated to find out that I had been cut out of the elite division.  When I registered for the race in April I still hadn't run a marathon since I had Skyler, and predicted I would finish around 2:56.  I was told they set the cutoff this year at 2:55.  The race directors wouldn't listen to any amount of arguing that I had since run that fast and deserved to be in that group.  I spent a lot of the week angry with the race directors and frustrated that people had obviously exaggerated on their finishing times to get in that group.  I felt I was at a disadvantage not getting the perks of the elite aid stations that the runners I was racing against were getting.  It even started putting doubts in my mind that maybe I was overestimating what I could do.  After several days of all these negative thoughts I realized I needed to forget it and just get ready to race.

This was my third race on this course and the last two attempts were during record heat waves.  Heat has always been my worst enemy when it comes to racing.  The weather forecast was looking ideal: a cold front just in time for the marathon.  I was feeling terrific on marathon morning, although I didn't sleep much the night before thanks to my nerves.  I got on the shuttle at the hotel at 4:30 in the morning and got on a bus to the start line much quicker than I expected.  I met a new friend staying at our hotel and enjoyed the bus ride with her to the start.  We arrived at the start line around 5:15, way too early.  It was cold and I had an hour and a half until the start.  Luckily I had come well prepared with several layers of clothes and claimed a spot close to a fire.  The wind was blowing fairly hard but it was looking like it was going to be a tail wind.  I soon found some of my friends and training partners and we were warming up and getting ready to start the race.

At 6:45 the gun was off and we were running in the pitch dark.  I kept a warm-up shirt and gloves on for the beginning of the race and was excited with the perfect conditions for running.  It was cool and the wind was pushing us from behind.  I knew there would be a lot of runners that would go out fast.  I tried to follow my coach's advise: be patient and wait for the second half of the race.  I was trying to run my first half around 1:27 and planned to run the second half faster for a finish somewhere around 2:50.  I found a group of women that were running the same plan as me and the four of us worked through the first half together.  Jasmine Sessions and Missy Allred were super nice to share their bottles with me at the aid stations when they realized I didn't have any.  It was great to have a group to work with and it made the first miles pass so quickly.

At 10K I was at 40:35 averaging 6:32 mile pace.  That was right where I wanted to be since the first seven miles are some gradual downhill and the hills were coming up in the next seven miles.  I'm not sure what place we were in at that point but probably somewhere between 20 to 30 for the women.  At seven miles we reached the town of Veyo.  It was finally warm enough to ditch my warm-up shirt by the side of the road.  I was feeling good and ready to charge up the hill but stuck with the group I was with and kept reminding myself that I was saving it for the second half.  Veyo hill is the biggest, longest hill in the course.  It stretches for about a mile and we went up it in 7:20.  We were starting to pass a lot of people as the hills kept going through the next several miles. Jasmine and I started to pull away from the other girls we were running with at about 12 miles when it flattens out a bit.  I realized we had fallen off the pace I wanted to run a little but not so far we couldn't make it up later.  We crossed the half marathon in 1:27:56 averaging 6:42 miles.  It looked like we were in a good place to run low 2:50s.  Maybe if everything went perfect we still had a chance to go under 2:50.

After the half Jasmine and I really started to race.  We started to look for runners, especially the women ahead of us and pick them off one at a time.  We dropped into the low six minutes for our mile splits when we hit the downhill and were catching a lot of runners.  When we reached Snow Canyon at mile 15 we had passed a few more women and one of the spectators told us we were in 9th place.  We had broken into the top 10 but I was sure there were still others up ahead we could catch.  Jasmine was great to run with but a couple miles later she said the pace was starting to feel a little too fast for her and she started to drop back.   My quads were starting to burn from the fast downhill running.  I was a little worried by this but at this point I could ignore the pain and it wasn't slowing me down.  I just hoped it didn't get worse.  I crossed the 30K(18.6 miles) split in 2:01:30.  My average pace had dropped back down to 6:31 thanks to some fast downhill miles.  I started to calculate in my head what I could do.  Could I run another 12K in less than 48 minutes? I could see a couple more women up ahead and I picked up the pace working on catching them.  I felt great other than the fact that my quads felt like they were on fire.  With every step I felt a shooting pain in my quads but instead of slowing down I just kept getting faster.

Around mile 18 I hit the last uphill in the course.  While it's not as long and steep as the others, it's late in the race.  I easily passed some runners though and on the next steep downhill mile ran a 5:29!  I was flying past people and had moved into 5th place for the women.  Every mile split I glanced at the clock and tried to figure out how fast I had to keep running.  I soon realized I would be well under 2:50 as long as I didn't slow down.  Maybe a 2:48, or even a 2:47... My quads were screaming at me.  I was on my own now.  There were a few men to pass but it was getting pretty spread out and I couldn't see the 4th place woman ahead of me.  I knew I had a good lead on 6th place and it was so tempting to just coast in those last few miles to town.  Maybe my legs wouldn't hurt so bad if I slowed down a bit.  But I knew I would regret it later if I did.  I knew that I may never get this perfect of conditions again and I would always wonder what I could have done if I'd pushed it a little harder.

The last two miles flatten out a bit as they wind through town.  Jason and my kids were waiting to cheer for me there.  It was so great to see them and get that extra bit of encouragement.  I could really do this!  I was still keeping a 5:50 pace.  I could do anything for just two more miles.  The mile markers that had come so quickly in the beginning were feeling like an eternity now.  With about a mile to go I caught up with a guy who stayed with me and raced me to the finish.  It was just what I needed to keep my pace up and ignore the pain in my legs.  I remembered three years ago coming around that corner and realizing I had fallen just short of my goal.  This year I had made it and with time to spare.  It was a great feeling to come across the finish line in 2:46:13.  They put my 5th place finisher tag  and finisher's medal around my neck.  I was so excited it was hard to even notice how tired I was! I found my friend Rosy Lee who had won the women's race in 2:37.  Jasmine finished in 2:49 in 8th place, her first time under 2:50 and Missy ran a PR 2:53 in 13th and 2nd for masters.  It was an extremely fast year with the top ten all under 2:52.  We were aided by the wind and temperature but there were also some very talented runners there that I felt privileged to be a part of.  I won my age division and my biggest cash prize ever.  My average pace was 6:20.  This means I averaged under 6 minute miles for the second half.  I realized after I finished that I had run my second half of the race in 1:18:17, a full minute faster than my PR in the half marathon.

Women's Top 10 Awards

Age group awards.  Zak James next to me was a teammate of ours at SUU.

In some ways I think I may never be able to run that fast again.  Everything really was perfect on Saturday.  And if I never do run faster I think I will always be really happy with this race.  It was a day to remember.  Yet, I'm also already scheming as to how to get faster.  I negative split (ran the second half faster) by 10 minutes!  While that is amazing, I think if I had it to do over again I would run the first half faster.  Maybe I could have shaved another minute or two off my time.  Of course there is no going back to do things again but I'm already looking forward to the next race and many more to come.  Next up, Boston 2014.  It's going to be a great year!

And I had to include this one last picture where Jared sneaked up on the podium behind me to get in the picture with Skyler.  My family deserves this victory as much as I do it.  They've been right there with me the whole year cheering me on and supporting me.  It takes sacrifice on everyone's part to get where I am and I couldn't do it without my fabulous family!

So Close, Again

If the marathon were 26 miles even I would already have broken the three hour marathon.  If the marathon were 27 miles I would still need another 5 minutes and I'd probably figure it wasn't within reach.  A tidbit of information you may not care to know is that the marathon hasn't always been the same distance.  The Olympic distance used to be 24.8 miles.  (This would make me about a 2:50 marathoner)  but thanks to King Edward VII and Queen Alexandria who wanted the 1908 Olympic marathon to start at Windsor Castle and end at the Olympic Stadium so they could view the race in the comfort of their palace, the distance of 26 miles and 385 yards became the official distance of the marathon.  So thanks to them, I have become obsessed about breaking a three hour marathon.  Does it really matter?  Is 2:59:59 really any faster than 3:00:00?  No, but for some reason it sounds a whole lot faster and I won't be completely satisfied until my marathon time starts with a 2!

Saturday I ran the Utah Valley Marathon and I had one goal.  Break a 3 hour marathon.  I knew I had to have a perfect race.  This early in the year my fitness level isn't quite what it is in the fall but I felt like I picked a good course with fast runners to push me and I could do it.  My last attempt was foiled by a heat wave and this year the weather was looking almost perfect.  Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling perfect.  For two weeks before the marathon I struggled with some health issues.  It was enough to make me feel drained of energy by the time race day came.  I slept restlessly Thursday night and woke up Friday morning feeling extremely nervous.  Nerves are a normal part of racing for me and I feel like I don't race well if I'm not a little bit nervous but this was beyond the normal pre-race jitters.  I drove to Provo in the afternoon to pick up my packet and spent the evening reading and trying to calm myself down.  We spent the night at my mother-in-law's so that I wouldn't have such a long drive to catch the bus at 3:30 a.m.  I knew it was going to be a short night's sleep anyway but when I climbed into bed I tossed and turned and couldn't fall asleep.  The last time I looked at the clock was midnight and the alarm went off at 3 a.m.  Needless to say, I was exhausted when I boarded the bus to the marathon start!

Even though I've run several marathons it's still unnerving to me to ride the bus to the starting line.  It took a full hour to drive there. (The bus was taking the canyon pretty slow.  A few times we thought we might have to get out and push on the uphill!)  But even at a slow pace it is a long way to drive and just puts into perspective how far I really have to run!  The starting area was great with music and fires.  I found my brother-in-law who was also running and it was nice to have someone to chat with for a few minutes.  Just before dropping off my clothing bag I reached in to grab my GU and realized I had forgotten it.  One more little thing to throw me off my regular routine.  I tried not to worry about it and hoped I could grab some at an aid station.

Finally at 6 a.m. we were off and it felt so good to finally just be running and forget about everything else.  About a mile into the race I noticed a woman that had been running close to me the whole time.  I asked her what she was going for since we seemed to be running the same pace.  She told me she was trying to break 3 hours and her PR was a 3:01.  I was excited and told her I was doing the same and we should work together.  Her name was Julie and she was great to run with.  We didn't talk much since we were both working pretty hard but it was a huge help to have her there to help pace me.  The race started in Wallsburg and wound through some beautiful countryside with a gradual downhill towards Deer Creek Reservoir.  With the wet spring everything is a brilliant green and with the mountains still snow capped it was absolutely breathtaking.  At mile 7 I finally found some GU, four miles later than I was planning on taking it, but I was still feeling good and right on pace.  That's when we got to Deer Creek and the hills started.  The hills caught me a little by surprise but Julie helped pace me up them and when I crested the final hill at 10 miles I felt like I got a second wind and picked up my pace dropping into the canyon.  Unfortunately at that point Julie wasn't feeling so well and dropped back.  I hit the 10 mile mark at 1:08 which was right on pace to finish at 3 hours.  I was in 5th place at that point and hoping to hold on to my spot since they were giving prize money to the top five.  4th place was within sight and I passed her when she stopped at an aid station about mile 13.  At the half marathon I was at 1:30.  I was still on pace but I knew it was going to be close again.  If only I could just keep up the pace the second half and have a little bit of a kick left at the end I would have it.  At mile 14 Jason was waiting for me and ran the rest of the way with me.  I was so glad to have someone with me again.  He was even nice enough to carry a bottle of Poweraid for me!  Provo Canyon was gorgeous but I wasn't noticing the scenery much anymore unless Jason pointed it out.  At mile 18 I crested the final hill and my total time was 2:03.  I needed the last 8.2 miles in under 57 minutes.  It was still possible but I was starting to feel fatigue setting in after 2 hours of hard running and feeling like 8 miles was still a long way to go.  The course came out of the canyon at mile 21 and I had 5 straight flat miles to go.  Five miles is nothing.  It's not long at all, but it felt like an eternity.  I could see the tall buildings in downtown Provo where we finished but they didn't seem to be getting any closer.  I was trying so hard not to count down the miles but all I could think about is how much I had left.  With four miles left to go I hit the wall.  If you've never run a marathon you really don't know what that feels like.  I really wanted to just lay down on the side of the road and quit.  I really didn't care anymore.  Jason was trying to push me as my pace started to slow but all I could do is make myself keep putting one foot in front of the other.  One of my strengths in marathon running is that I usually pass a lot of people the last few miles when everyone else is starting to slow down.  That wasn't the case Saturday.  I was the one getting passed.  Every time I heard someone approaching I would just hope that it was a man and I wouldn't lose my fourth place.  I could see the finish line from more than a mile away but it looked like it was still so far.  I had to keep concentrating on the stop lights.  I kept telling myself I could at least make it to the next stoplight.  Somehow I finished and hung on to my place.  My finishing time was 3:02:14.  I gave it everything I had.   When I crossed the finish line one of the volunteers had to grab me to keep me from collapsing.  Honestly, it's nothing to be disappointed in.  It's my second fastest marathon by a long ways. My average mile time was 6:57.  What I needed was 6:52.  I also won the biggest cash prize I have ever won at a race.

Someday everything will be perfect and everything will fall into place the way I want it to. Sometimes working towards a goal is more important than actually achieving it.  After all, what would I have to keep trying for if I had already accomplished it?  And maybe this will just make me appreciate it even more when it actually happens.

18 seconds!

Seconds don't mean anything in a marathon. When people ask me my marathon time I don't even tell them seconds; it's either a 3:11 or a 3:08. A little over a year ago I was at a family reunion and my uncle asked me if I thought I would ever be able to run under three hours in a marathon. I had recently run the Ogden Marathon and tied my PR (personal record) of 3:11. I told him no, 12 minutes was too much time to take off of a marathon but I thought a sub 3:10 was within reach.

It has always been a dream of mine to run the Boston Marathon so last fall after Jason and I had both run qualifying marathons I signed us up for the 2010 Boston Marathon. I had met several runners in the area who were being coached by Paul Pilkington, the Weber State coach and elite distance runner in the '90s, and decided if I wanted to do my best I'd try working with him for a while. I trained harder than I had in years, doing track workouts, tempo runs, and 3 hour distance runs through the cold winter months and it paid off with a PR and top 200 finish on a difficult Boston course. This was enough of an accomplishment but I realized at that point that on the right course in perfect conditions I would have a chance at running a sub 3 hour marathon.

I knew that the St. George Marathon was my chance but was disappointed when Jason and I didn't get picked in the lottery. I trained hard all summer and through persistence I was able to earn a spot in the elite division. I was frequently asked what my goal was and was always careful to respond that I wasn't set on breaking 3 hours, just running my best race.

As race day approached the weather forecast seemed to be working against me with record high temperatures in Southern Utah. At the starting line it was announced that it was the warmest start in the history of the marathon. I ran a conservative first half knowing I would get a lot of steep downhill in the second half. I came through the halfway point at 1:32 and started to think maybe I wouldn't have a shot at under three hours. After several steep downhill miles in the 6:20s I realized that it was still within reach. I was passing a lot of people and getting closer with every mile. With two miles left glycogen depletion and the heat caught up with me as temperatures climbed into the 80s. I turned the corner to the last stretch, looked at my watch and realized it wasn't going to happen. I finished in 3:00:17.

I can't say I'm disappointed even though I missed a sub 3 hr marathon by only 18 seconds and a top 10 finish by 30 seconds. My goal all along was to run the best race I could. I've taken 11 1/2 minutes off my marathon time in the last year and come so close to something I never thought was possible. I have sacrificed a lot to do this: time with my family and friends, countless hours out on the road early in the morning when I would rather be in bed, and a significant amount of money paying my coach, registering for races and buying running gear. My husband and kids have been so supportive of all of this and I could never do it without them. I had the best cheering section in the world (with cowbells and signs) when I was hurting so bad with two miles to go! I've learned a lot the last year but most importantly not to doubt myself. Hard work goes a long way and after all, I'll give it another shot and next time I'll answer yes, I can do it!