I am totally pumped about how this race went today. It went so much better than expected. With cloud cover and cool temps, the conditions were almost perfect. The only negative thing was a slight head wind which seemed pretty bad at times. But lets start at the beginning.
Well things didn't start off really great on Friday night. Friday night at our house is always, without question, pasta night. So naturally Meg and I went looking for a pasta place. The Macaroni Grill we went to last time down here was closed, bummer. So instead of searching for another pasta joint we settled for Islands, which is also very good. I had a semi-healthy turkey burger on wheat with steamed veggies. Not quite the carb filled pasta I am used to but good all the same.
After dinner we made our way to our slightly flee baggy hotel and tried to crash and get a good nights sleep. I slept okay for a hotel bed and woke of feeling pretty good.
The plan in the morning was to NOT take the first bus to the top of the mountain because it can be a bit cold up there. As it turned out, they were running behind on the bussing and I ended up on the third bus up. I spent about an hour and a half at the top of the mountian freezing my hind end off. Met up with Rob and Mindy and one of their frinds and spent some time chatting with them before the race. Without Meg at my side it can be pretty lonely waiting around for the race to start. I'm sure glad I had the Waite's to hang with. Rob and I did a really easy warm up just before the race and then we got lined up. This is another time when I really miss Meg because she does a really good job of pushing her way up near the front of the starting line. I didn't do as good a job and therefore ended up starting about 15 rows back.
Well the race finally got started about 15 minutes late and we were on our way. I had already made up my mind before the race started that I was going to let it all hang out and go for the sub 1:30. So here are the splits:
Mile 1 6:35 - I wanted to run the first two miles at 6:30-6-45 pace and this first mile worked out well.
Mile 2 6:36 - Nothing like consistency!
Mile 3 6:39 - The next 5 miles I wanted to keep between 6:45 and 6:50, I guess I pushed a bit too hard.
Mile 4 6:47 - That's about right.
Mile 5 6:41 - Still feeling really good and not a lot of fatigue at this point.
Mile 6 6:40 - Time for a gel and some water. Not really sure I needed a gel but there it was in my pocket, so what the heck.
Mile 7 6:43 - This is the last of the real downhill section so I took pretty good advantage. Did a pretty good job of running the tangents all the way down the canyon.
Mile 8 6:40 - Not bad for getting back to the relative flat lands.
Mile 9 6:45 - Still hanging tough.
Mile 10 6:44 - Last water stop, time to stop messing around and suck it up for the last 5K. Made some comments to a couple of runners who had passed me in the last mile and who I was passing back, they had nothing to say......Losers. My only goal from this point on was to dust these two goons.
Mile 11 6:40 - Did well at concentrating during this mile and was really able to start my final push. Started doing calculations in my head to determine the slowest I could run and still go sub 1:30. I think I determined that I could run 7's the rest of the way but wasn't taking any chances.
Mile 12 6:49 - Starting to lose it a bit and I can really feel the fatigue starting to set in. One of the two goons passed me back during this mile and I just couldn't latch on.....oh well.
Mile 13 6:52 - Really starting to fade but I can see the balloons at the finish line so really dig down and push hard to get past that last chic in my sights.
Mile .17 1:05 - Pushed hard so I wouldn't get passed at the finish......didn't.
I was pretty much spent at the finish. Nothing like the fatigue of a full marathon but surely spent to the point of not being able to maintain that pace for very much longer.
Meg was at the finish line snaping pictures. She did a great job in the 5K and probably pushed the hardest since being injured. Her time was 24:43 with an average pace just under 8:00/mile.....SWEET!
Race was run really well except for the late start and as I have said before, I highly recommend this event to anyone who needs and nice weekend getaway to So Cal. | 