Well, TOU is over. Overall, I would rate this marathon an A on organization. Seriously, it was very good.
We woke up at 4:15am. Ate a bit. Made it to the bus by 5:15am. Bus ride took forever, made it to start line at 5:50am. Quick porta potty stop, then went into the heated tent, nice idea, as it was a bit chilly at the start. at 6:25am, went back to porta potties, holy smokes, the lines were slow as molasses, geez......got back to the start line at 6:58am. No problem, as i really wasn't stressed at all. My training has been terrible, only one long run of 20 miles, and one semi long run of 16 miles all summer long. I wasn't expecting much, so wasn't stressed. Start happened about 7:03am.
First 6 miles - The start went down the canyon, it took me 20 secs to get to the start line after the gun, so i had many runners ahead of me. A bit of congestion at first, so i felt like i was race walking at times. I decided to not look at my watch until mile 6. It felt so easy, i guessed 7:15 pace, so my prediction after 6 was 43.30. The time was 43.34, so about what i thought.
Miles 6 to10 - Just kept the easy pace through the canyon, around mile 10, my stomach started twisting around, uh oh, not good.....slowed down a bit. Went through 10 in 1hr 12m 25 secs, so my overall pace is still 7:15 per mile.
Halfway is now here at 1:34:50, 7:14 pace. I am running with 3 other guys, Devin, 20yrs old going to BYU, running first marathon, trying to qualify for Boston. Matt, 33 yrs old, trying to qualify for Boston, he is from Fresno, covering the Fresno St. football team for the school newspaper, they are in town to play Utah State, and Mike, a 22 yr old from Laramie WY, running 3rd marathon, also trying to qualify for Boston. So they are shooting for a 3:10, seems reasonable to me.
We come out of the canyon at 14, and then it seems flat until mile 18. I kind of take the lead from the 3 guys around 16, and break it up a bit, we hit 18 in 2:09:01, so we are now averaging 7:10 per mile. The course starts to hit some hills, and I start to struggle around mile 20. ugh. I didn't want a death march. I hit mile 20 in 2:24:07, mile 21 is 7:19, and mile 22 is 7:31, so not bad, only four miles, but i am in serious pain. Miles 23 and 24 are bad, time of 8.39 and 8.40. I try to rally in 25, and run 8.14, and then realize only a mile left, and run mile 26 in 7.37, and last 0.2 in 1.29. I didn't finish too well, but still probably passed 8-10 runners in last two miles. I was 86th overall out of 1,836 finishers.
Matt and Mike qualified for Boston. Devin missed it by 20 secs or so. I guess I qualified also, as my age category qualification is 3:20.
I really enjoyed TOU. Course was great. Support was great. Weather was perfect. Finish line area was top notch. Erica surprised me by being the 23rd female in a time of 3:19. Stacy was 3:21.
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