Friday: Matt(Our Bishop, 35) Mike(my brother, 40) and
Mark(good friend,52) and I had a big buttermilk pancake breakfast in the morning, then
off to drive for 6 hours. Stopped for
lunch and everybody fueled up well. Mike and I shared a large pizza of which he
ate 4 monster pieces and I had only 2 and was called various names for not
pounding down more. Was glad I didn’t overeat as I have before other races.
Subway sandwich for dinner at 9:00
which was way too late as I couldn’t sleep very well afterwards. Got about 3-4
hours of sleep. Up at 5:00 to eat a
banana and then 5:15 for a powerbar
and water. That was it for fuel except for a few sips of accelerade and water.
Race Day: Sommer and Laura(the two girls that Mark and I
were going to try to keep up with) and the rest of us walked down to the
starting area. The girls took a bathroom break(long line) and we got in the
starting zone a little ways back. The girls must have finagled their way into
the front of the line as we only saw them in front of us after that. This race
was not chip timed so I started my garmin when we crossed the starting line.
Mark and I stayed together and started at a nice easy 8:00 pace which was our goal.
The first 4 miles or so go through some business areas and
residential streets with a little up and down but not bad. Then to the dock
area(lovely fish smell which reminded me of my mission in Concepcion,
Chile) and to the
waterfront. Beautiful place to run! The weather was just about as perfect as it
could be, around 50 degrees and partly cloudy. The sun came out for a bit but
then we were running with a hill blocking the sun so it was really nice. Mark
was getting antsy to get out ahead and run but I stayed on the 8:00 pace and he stayedwith me instead of bolting ahead like his
legs were telling him to.
There were 3 men around our age that kept passing us and
then they would stop and walk for a bit. Found out they were running 8 minutes
and then walking 20 seconds. They were trying to BQ. After a few more times we
lost them and I highly doubt if they got there BQ times. One of the guys was
really heavy on his feet. Clomp, clomp and clomp.
We thought several times that we might be making up some
distance on the girls but we never did and they came in at 3:30 and 3:31 which
was what they were shooting for.
As we ran along the waterfront we kept our same effort and
were losing a few seconds off our goal pace of 8:00
and I mentioned this to Mark who said “it is what it is”. I thought he might
want to kick it up a notch and get back on target pace but he was OK staying at
that effort level.
We hit every water station on the way. I had water only the
first 2 and then HEED and water after that. The HEED stuff was pretty much
tasteless but worked well for me. We picked up a gu and held it til the next
water break and had a heck of a time getting it opened up so we could drink it
with water.
We hit the turnaround about 15.4 miles and I was feeling
pretty good until I noticed that now we were going against the wind. It felt
good with the cool breeze but I also felt like we slowed down after that too.
We finally passed a guy who had been ahead of us for quite
some time and he said that we looked pretty fresh. He then said that he was
going to draft us and got right behind me. If he hadn’t said anything then I
probably wouldn’t have cared much about it. So I kicked it in gear and we lost
him in short order. It felt good to go a little faster as we had gotten a
little sluggish.
At the water station around 20 I ate 2 orange pieces and picked
up 2 bananas to carry with me to fuel up along the way which worked well for
me.
Mark had some of his magic electrolyte beans around that
area. At around mile 23 the wind disappeared and I had some extra energy so I
started going a little faster and Mark to my surprise wasn’t hanging with me.
He said later that if I had gotten much further ahead then he probably would
have just stayed back. Mr. wind showed back up along with a gentle sloping hill
and Mark caught and passed me with about 1.5 miles to go. He did great passing
multiple people on that last hill. I passed a few as well and this one woman in
a purple shirt that had been leapfrogging with. Then at the top of the hill I
heard her friends cheering her on like she was right behind me and I was ready
to roll down the hill ata pretty good
pace. Passed another guy down the hill and barely missed a couple at the finish
area.
That is one of the best feelings in world to finish a
marathon. More than 3 and a half hours later of pure solid effort.
Mike came in at 4:32.
It was his first marathon and he had been having hamstring issues and we were
praying that he would make it. He missed about a month of his training because
of hamstring problems.
Matt came in at 4:38
and announced that he was starving and wanted to eat all the way home, which he
did. He had only run 8 miles in the previous 2 weeks.
Mark finished about a half a minute ahead of me.
My official time is 3:38:31
which is about 10 seconds off the real time from my garmin due to the starting
area.
Next Marathon: Maybe one in Sacramento
in about a year. I can only do these so often but they can truly be life changing
as we challenge ourselves to do things we never thought we could do.
Ghost Miles: 26.20
Weight: 0.00
Calories: 3500.00
Comments
From nicole on Sun, May 31, 2009 at 02:01:34 from 72.57.57.27
wow!! look at that pr!! can't wait to read more, how did you like newport and the race?
From Carolyn in Colorado on Sun, May 31, 2009 at 09:30:48 from 71.229.164.25
Excellent job! I'm anxious to hear more detail about it. That's a huge PR for you! Not quite the 8:00 average pace you wanted, but 8:20 is nothing to sneeze at.
How did you feel after driving the day before the race? I drove from Denver to Moab the day before the Canyonlands Half and I felt like my legs were dead for the race.
From Sean Sundwall on Sun, May 31, 2009 at 11:36:37 from 24.16.6.48
Great race Jeff. I know you worked hard for this and you deserve the big PR. Can't wait to hear more.
From Smooth on Sun, May 31, 2009 at 11:37:17 from 71.32.237.170
CONGRATS on the huge PR. Can't wait to read about your race. Driving 6 hrs day before then driving home after sounds brutal. Good news is that your legs don't feel hammered. You must be in tip top shape. Have a restful Sunday. :)
From Bonnie on Sun, May 31, 2009 at 14:47:31 from 75.164.106.34
Congratulations Jeffery, I can't wait to read the full report!
From snoqualmie on Sun, May 31, 2009 at 15:28:58 from 67.171.56.164
YAY!! Oh, I'm so happy for you! Awesome running, neighbor! Tell us more when you can! :D
From Teena on Sun, May 31, 2009 at 15:34:09 from 67.177.20.13
Jefferey,
You're so stinkin' cool!!! Can't wait to get the full account.
:)
From jun on Mon, Jun 01, 2009 at 10:48:46 from 66.239.250.209
Way to go man. That is a huge accomplishment and well deserved. You have really worked hard for it.
As for the not saving bit on the race report . . . . On long posts, once I'm finished, I always highlight everything and copy it over to a word doc. I then try and save. If it doesn't work I just copy it back over and it always works the next time. I learned that after losing a long report three times in a row. Very frustrating.
From Carolyn in Colorado on Mon, Jun 01, 2009 at 11:10:31 from 71.229.164.25
Sorry to hear you lost your race report. That really stinks. I second jun's recommendation, but I'll add my practice of Saving as Draft periodically when writing a long post.
From Teena on Mon, Jun 01, 2009 at 11:17:11 from 67.177.20.13
So you typed a detailed race report and it disappeared? That totally stinks!! Okay, I will continue to wait patiently!! :)
From Teena on Mon, Jun 01, 2009 at 11:45:34 from 67.177.20.13
Jefferey,
LOVED THE RACE REPORT!!! That sounds like a rather tough marathon to get such a great time. Didn't sound like there were many downhills were you can shave off some minutes.
You did absolutely INCREDIBLE!!! Nice solid effort and great company. What more could you ask for?
Congratulations on a fantastic race!!! Enjoy the euphoria!!! :)
You are awesome!!!
From Carolyn in Colorado on Mon, Jun 01, 2009 at 12:17:51 from 198.241.217.15
Thank you for having the patience to go back and repost your race report. You had a great race and paced yourself very well. Congratulations!
It's interesting that the race wasn't chip timed. How crowded was it at the start area? I suppose if it's not a huge race with big crowds at the start line, then chip timing is not as much of an issue.
From jun on Mon, Jun 01, 2009 at 12:22:14 from 66.239.250.209
Great race report. I love the detail regarding other people. Question: how do you move to another paragraph without the double-space? I can't figure it out.
From jefferey on Mon, Jun 01, 2009 at 13:26:08 from 67.171.56.220
Thanks everybody! My legs are doing pretty well. Quads are sore but that's it. Have a softball doubleheader tonight(Monday). Going to be interesting if I can bend my legs enough to play.
Jun - I typed this up on Word and then copied/pasted.
Teena - Not a lot of downhill but also not a lot of uphill either:)
From snoqualmie on Mon, Jun 01, 2009 at 17:11:14 from 67.171.56.164
Awesome race report, Jeff! You are such a great athlete! Who has "extra energy" at mile 23?? Excellent race! Thanks for all the details. It was worth the wait. Enjoy your recovery!!
From jefferey on Mon, Jun 01, 2009 at 20:00:43 from 67.171.56.220
Sno,
Thanks for the compliment- I wish my write up could be as eloquent as yours always are!
From jona on Tue, Jun 02, 2009 at 12:34:18 from 67.214.249.195
Sorry I'm just getting to this report.
CONGRATULATIONS! PR!!!!!!!! I'm so happy for you. What an effort. You had a great race.
YEAH, Good job!
From Lucia on Tue, Jun 02, 2009 at 14:45:26 from 74.9.147.114
Eres un REY indeed, JeffeREY! :)
Congratulations on a great race! Interesting that the McMillan calculator was a little off - I wonder how much better you would've done without so much wind?
I hear the Sacramento International Marathon is a great course to PR... If I don't get my BQ during Marine Corps, I'll probably try that one...
I hope your knees are doing well today!
From Burt on Thu, Jun 04, 2009 at 18:55:34 from 68.76.197.194
Thanks Burtumus Maximus and to all who have been so kind to comment on my race!
From montelepsy on Fri, Jun 05, 2009 at 16:32:58 from 206.248.193.234
Sweet! Congrats on a great race, Jefferey! And I applied for a job in Sacramento. If I'm working there and you're running there, I'll cheer you on.
Add Your Comment.
Keep it family-safe. No vulgar or profane language.
To discourage anonymous comments of cowardly nature, your IP
address will be logged and posted next to your comment.
Do not respond to another person's comment out of context. If
he made the original comment on another page/blog entry,
go to that entry and
respond there.
If all you want to do is contact the blogger and your comment
is not connected with this entry and has no relevance to others,
send a private message instead.
