Last Saturday I ran the St. George marathon in St. George, Utah. It was quite the experience.
I have been training for the race since June, after laying low (sort of...) for a few weeks after Ironman Arizona. In January, I ran 4:30 at the Houston Marathon and had my sights set on bettering that time as soon as we signed up for St. George. I had several very fast (for me) races right after Houston last year and was super excited about taking another stab at a marathon. Unfortunately, I forgot that Fall marathons mean Summer training, which means you really have no idea what you are capable of because every run is done in 85+ degree temps and 85%+ humidity.
I showed up at the start line of St. George far more prepared than I had ever been for any other marathon. I had several 35-40 mile weeks which is more than I have done in the past. (yes, I know that is nothing for a lot of people, but 30 miles a week is the most I had ever averaged before this summer/fall). The more I ran, the more I let the swimming and biking go, which might have ultimately hurt me. I raced a half ironman at the beginning of August, but really did no biking or swimming for the two months between that race and this one. I had two 45 mile weeks originally scheduled, but Ike and illness had other ideas for me. Despite not getting the miles in those weeks, I still felt prepared. We ran a 12 story parking garage more times than I care to count, and did the best we could training here in Houston. We were supposed to do our last long run in Austin and I had mapped out one hell of a hilly route, but Ike changed that. Instead we ran 84 stories of parking garages as part of a 20 mile run in Houston the morning before the storm hit.
I had been relatively injury-free through this training as well. My IT band only flared up once, and only for 2-3 days. Despite that, I was still afraid to see what would happen when I ran a race that was mostly downhill. During my taper I never felt right. I know you aren't supposed to feel right, but my wrong feeling was not like I'd felt before - I never felt rested and never got the pep back in my step that usually comes the week of the race. Even two miles was hard just 5 days before the race. I still do not know why that is or what I will do differently in the future. I am also about 4 lbs more than I was when I ran Houston, and sadly, that difference in weight can make a difference in time...especially when running uphill. Other than all that, I was fairly confident heading into Saturday's race. The weather was looking like it was going to be hotter than we liked, but it was still forecast to be dry, and that helps more than anything. Something that I came across sometime during the week before the race was the reminder that P Diddy ran his marathon in 4:14, on a quest to beat Oprah. In the last mile or so of Houston last year I thought I'd try to be Oprah's time of 4:29, but that didn't happen. I decided she could have her minute and didn't think about it again. However, when I saw P Diddy's 4:14, my "sort-of" goal of 4:15 all of a sudden became a "must do" goal of beating his time. When I had 4:15 in my head, I told myself I wasn't sure if I could do that, but that I knew I was significantly faster than I was in Houston, and that even if it ended up around 4:20 or so, I'd still be happy with my improvement. Diddy changed that.
I used the Cougar calculator to make a pace band, and set my goal on the pace band to 4:15 (this calculator weights your mile splits based on the course - better than trying to run even splits because the course has such drastic up and downhill sections). Fast forward to race morning. We wake up and I look online to see it was 72 degrees in St. George...at 4am. Gross. What lovely marathon weather. The race starts 26 miles north of St. George, and 2600' higher, so it would be colder at the start, but still no where near the 28 degree start they had the year before, and no where near the wonderful temps the race is usually known for.
Then we walked outside. It was raining. What?!?!? Shouldn't be a surprise considering it had not rained on race day in 25 years. But, I showed up, so of course less-than-ideal weather had to come with me. We had to take a bus from the finish line to the start line and that took about 45 minutes. It rained the entire way. It was pitch black outside, so you could not see the rain unless you saw it in headlights or a spot light. We waited at the start line for what seemed like forever to get off the bus, but then again we weren't in a huge hurry to stand in the rain. When we did get off the bus it was raining even harder (not an all out pour, but there was certainly no way we were staying dry). The temps were definitely much cooler as well. Turns out the storm cooled off the entire area and that St. George was in the 50s the rest of the day.
After finding a spot behind the porta potties to go to the bathroom (porta potty lines were WAY too long), we all checked in our clothes bags and just waited in the rain. I was thankful I had gloves and just wondered what the day was going to be like. The race started at 6:45, still in complete darkness. I decided I did not like this, especially on a rainy day. Maybe on a clear day it would have been nice, but it was impossible to see your footing and people were throwing garbage bags everywhere. I also never want to run next to a blowing garbage bag again. Oh yeah - I forgot to mention the wind. Straight into our face the entire way, steady around 15-17mph at times and gusting over 20mph at other times. Now put someone in a garbage bag running next to you at the crowded first miles of a marathon - not ok. I almost ripped a few people's off when they go close to me and their freaking bag was blowing in my face. The noise also got a bit old too. Can you tell I was a bit agitated during the first few miles? I also apparently hit the lap button instead of the start button on my garmin at the start and did not realize until 2+ minutes in. Shellie was with me and I had to ask what her watch said so I could add the time to mine. After mile 2 we were actually right on pace, so I settled down a little bit, as the pace was not challenging at all, but I still wanted there to be light.
We never got to see the sunrise that people have raved over for the past 25 years. It just gradually got lighter and lighter outside until we could finally see as clearly as we were going to see, maybe around 5 miles in. By this point though we were running still ahead of pace and I started to feel good. At mile 6 I surged ahead on a downhill and ended up ahead of Shellie. I knew hell was just around the corner and enjoyed the effortless feeling while it lasted. I smiled for the first, and one of the only times, during this mile. I had my MP3 player with me - thank goodness. I had kind of tried to put certain songs in certain places and it definitely helped out. Mile 6 was my fastest mile - under 9:00 pace. Then came the hill. Veyo is a volcano that you essentially have to run over. Mile 7 is a huge uphill, then it flattens out for about a mile and then you go up 3 more miles. I was still on track after mile 7, but then started losing a little of my lead at each mile. Everything I had read and everyone I talked to said things get better at mile 11. That was a total lie. Mile 11 to 12 was still straight uphill. So there is essentially 5 miles uphill without much of a break. Looking back, I think it was those 5 miles that broke me. I was still on pace at 13, but had lost it by 14. I steadily lost about a minute a mile after that. By the time we were going downhill again, my It bands were done with me and weren't interested in the downhill parts.
I still had my longsleeves and gloves on and was thankful I had them. Just when I would think the rain was letting up, a huge gust of wind and rain would come up to remind me it certainly had not gone anywhere. At times I looked to see if it was actually sleeting because the rain drops hurt so bad.
I did not talk to anyone after I left Shellie at mile 6. And even before that we did not talk much because I know she doesn't like to talk when she is racing. What a lonely race I had. The course is closed, so there are only spectators in a handful of places. You are usually supposed to get by in this race by soaking up the incredible scenery - we got by on Saturday by soaking up the rain in our shoes, clothes, hats, hair, and anything else that would hold water.
I knew there was another huge hill at 18 and I was not looking forward to it. At this point I knew 4:15 was completely out the door, but was still intent on a PR. I kept telling myself that I would pick it back up at mile 20, because I was able to do that in Houston. I told myself other people had said the course was almost like falling off a cliff after mile 20 and that I could just fly. Unfortunately, there were still a few hills after 20 and my legs weren't any more impressed with downhill than they were with uphill. Right at mile 21 (I think) I hear my name and just think "thank God." I knew Shellie was right behind me. I was so glad to see her. She kept me on a good pace through the next few miles. We got into town around mile 23 and finally started seeing a few spectators. She said she felt better at mile 23 in this race than she ever had in any other marathon. I, unfortunately, could not say the same. I held on as long as I could, but at mile 24.5 I had to let her go. The last 1.7 miles were pretty uneventful, but seemed to take forever. I just could not speed up. I had nothing left. At some point after 25, I stopped to walk and a woman next to me put her hand on my back and pushed me to start running again. I thanked her and picked the pace back up.
I finally crossed the finish line sometime around 4:28, but wasn't sure of my exact time because I never knew exactly how far off my garmin was. I had been dreading the finish line since about mile 15 when I realized how cold and miserable it was going to be. Our "warm ups" were going to be soaked and wouldn't do much good. How's that for a positive outlook? I'm not sure I've ever dreaded the finish line before. I also wasn't sure how we were supposed to get back to the hotel (a shuttle from the hotel dropped us off at the buses in the morning). We finished and found LaErica shortly after and found out she had had a great race. She was freezing as well and was having a hard time walking. We spent close to an hour trying to see if any of our group was still there and trying to get a hold of one of them to figure out where we were supposed to go. Thankfully Shellie had the hotel number and we were able to call them to get a ride back to the hotel. Getting in that van may have been the highlight of my day. It is like we were finally saved from the hell we'd been in for several hours. We met other racers in the van and all shared our stories. LaErica took a picture of my lovely blue lips to show how cold I was. We decided on the way back that the only way we'd get warm again was to go straight to the hot tub. The hotel guy was totally cool with that - I was very happy. We got out and got to the hot tub as fast as we could. The hot tub was full when we got there, but we didn't care. There were about 10 kids in it and I was about to have a conniption fit if I couldn't get in there because the little kids were playing. I just got in anyway - about on top of one of the kids. I think they finally got the idea and got in the pool. We certainly weren't the only runners in the hot tub and I was sooo happy to be there. A hot tub is about the worst place you can go after a marathon, but I figured we'd been in an ice bath for the previous 5-6 hours, so we were good. Shellie and I finally braved the outside-of-the-hottub-world and crawled back to our rooms and showered up for lunch.
We found out that everyone in our group had done awesome. Everyone had a PR of some sort and I actually had the smallest one of two minutes. I was happy that I had finished, but disappointed that I didn't come near my goal. It is upsetting to realize you just aren't as fast as you thought you were, or as fast as you had hoped to be. I have no excuses for not running faster, and unfortunately do not think I really have any lessons learned, other than some days just aren't going to be good running days. My IT bands did bother me, but I do not think they were responsible for being 13 minutes off my goal. The rain and cold bothered me as well, but at least I wasn't complaining about being hot. It just plain didn't come together on Saturday. I do realize it could have been much worse and I could have blown up. I still ran a faster marathon than I ever have before, but it just wasn't what I wanted. The St. George newpaper did say that the weather slowed runners anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes, so, uh, ya, I really ran a 4:08, right?
One thing I did do was beat Oprah this time around. P Diddy is going down though - I'm just not sure when. Hopefully it will be in Houston 2009, but if not, I am still confident it will happen sometime in the near future. This way I have just left more room for improvement. Just because it didn't happen this time around doesn't mean it can't ultimately happen. Had I run a 4:15 at St. George, I was going to set my sights on going under 4:00 in Houston, but clearly my goal for Houston has changed now. Also my best friend of 26 years will be running her first marathon in Houston and I may run with her - although it is highly possible she might be able to run faster than me by that point. I do this to have fun, and I'm never going to win, so I am ok if the bite out of my PR isn't as big as I wanted it to be. It was still a bite and I will still still live to run another race.
Photos are here. The look on my face in some of them shows just how excited I was to be there.
I have been training for the race since June, after laying low (sort of...) for a few weeks after Ironman Arizona. In January, I ran 4:30 at the Houston Marathon and had my sights set on bettering that time as soon as we signed up for St. George. I had several very fast (for me) races right after Houston last year and was super excited about taking another stab at a marathon. Unfortunately, I forgot that Fall marathons mean Summer training, which means you really have no idea what you are capable of because every run is done in 85+ degree temps and 85%+ humidity.
I showed up at the start line of St. George far more prepared than I had ever been for any other marathon. I had several 35-40 mile weeks which is more than I have done in the past. (yes, I know that is nothing for a lot of people, but 30 miles a week is the most I had ever averaged before this summer/fall). The more I ran, the more I let the swimming and biking go, which might have ultimately hurt me. I raced a half ironman at the beginning of August, but really did no biking or swimming for the two months between that race and this one. I had two 45 mile weeks originally scheduled, but Ike and illness had other ideas for me. Despite not getting the miles in those weeks, I still felt prepared. We ran a 12 story parking garage more times than I care to count, and did the best we could training here in Houston. We were supposed to do our last long run in Austin and I had mapped out one hell of a hilly route, but Ike changed that. Instead we ran 84 stories of parking garages as part of a 20 mile run in Houston the morning before the storm hit.
I had been relatively injury-free through this training as well. My IT band only flared up once, and only for 2-3 days. Despite that, I was still afraid to see what would happen when I ran a race that was mostly downhill. During my taper I never felt right. I know you aren't supposed to feel right, but my wrong feeling was not like I'd felt before - I never felt rested and never got the pep back in my step that usually comes the week of the race. Even two miles was hard just 5 days before the race. I still do not know why that is or what I will do differently in the future. I am also about 4 lbs more than I was when I ran Houston, and sadly, that difference in weight can make a difference in time...especially when running uphill. Other than all that, I was fairly confident heading into Saturday's race. The weather was looking like it was going to be hotter than we liked, but it was still forecast to be dry, and that helps more than anything. Something that I came across sometime during the week before the race was the reminder that P Diddy ran his marathon in 4:14, on a quest to beat Oprah. In the last mile or so of Houston last year I thought I'd try to be Oprah's time of 4:29, but that didn't happen. I decided she could have her minute and didn't think about it again. However, when I saw P Diddy's 4:14, my "sort-of" goal of 4:15 all of a sudden became a "must do" goal of beating his time. When I had 4:15 in my head, I told myself I wasn't sure if I could do that, but that I knew I was significantly faster than I was in Houston, and that even if it ended up around 4:20 or so, I'd still be happy with my improvement. Diddy changed that.
I used the Cougar calculator to make a pace band, and set my goal on the pace band to 4:15 (this calculator weights your mile splits based on the course - better than trying to run even splits because the course has such drastic up and downhill sections). Fast forward to race morning. We wake up and I look online to see it was 72 degrees in St. George...at 4am. Gross. What lovely marathon weather. The race starts 26 miles north of St. George, and 2600' higher, so it would be colder at the start, but still no where near the 28 degree start they had the year before, and no where near the wonderful temps the race is usually known for.
Then we walked outside. It was raining. What?!?!? Shouldn't be a surprise considering it had not rained on race day in 25 years. But, I showed up, so of course less-than-ideal weather had to come with me. We had to take a bus from the finish line to the start line and that took about 45 minutes. It rained the entire way. It was pitch black outside, so you could not see the rain unless you saw it in headlights or a spot light. We waited at the start line for what seemed like forever to get off the bus, but then again we weren't in a huge hurry to stand in the rain. When we did get off the bus it was raining even harder (not an all out pour, but there was certainly no way we were staying dry). The temps were definitely much cooler as well. Turns out the storm cooled off the entire area and that St. George was in the 50s the rest of the day.
After finding a spot behind the porta potties to go to the bathroom (porta potty lines were WAY too long), we all checked in our clothes bags and just waited in the rain. I was thankful I had gloves and just wondered what the day was going to be like. The race started at 6:45, still in complete darkness. I decided I did not like this, especially on a rainy day. Maybe on a clear day it would have been nice, but it was impossible to see your footing and people were throwing garbage bags everywhere. I also never want to run next to a blowing garbage bag again. Oh yeah - I forgot to mention the wind. Straight into our face the entire way, steady around 15-17mph at times and gusting over 20mph at other times. Now put someone in a garbage bag running next to you at the crowded first miles of a marathon - not ok. I almost ripped a few people's off when they go close to me and their freaking bag was blowing in my face. The noise also got a bit old too. Can you tell I was a bit agitated during the first few miles? I also apparently hit the lap button instead of the start button on my garmin at the start and did not realize until 2+ minutes in. Shellie was with me and I had to ask what her watch said so I could add the time to mine. After mile 2 we were actually right on pace, so I settled down a little bit, as the pace was not challenging at all, but I still wanted there to be light.
We never got to see the sunrise that people have raved over for the past 25 years. It just gradually got lighter and lighter outside until we could finally see as clearly as we were going to see, maybe around 5 miles in. By this point though we were running still ahead of pace and I started to feel good. At mile 6 I surged ahead on a downhill and ended up ahead of Shellie. I knew hell was just around the corner and enjoyed the effortless feeling while it lasted. I smiled for the first, and one of the only times, during this mile. I had my MP3 player with me - thank goodness. I had kind of tried to put certain songs in certain places and it definitely helped out. Mile 6 was my fastest mile - under 9:00 pace. Then came the hill. Veyo is a volcano that you essentially have to run over. Mile 7 is a huge uphill, then it flattens out for about a mile and then you go up 3 more miles. I was still on track after mile 7, but then started losing a little of my lead at each mile. Everything I had read and everyone I talked to said things get better at mile 11. That was a total lie. Mile 11 to 12 was still straight uphill. So there is essentially 5 miles uphill without much of a break. Looking back, I think it was those 5 miles that broke me. I was still on pace at 13, but had lost it by 14. I steadily lost about a minute a mile after that. By the time we were going downhill again, my It bands were done with me and weren't interested in the downhill parts.
I still had my longsleeves and gloves on and was thankful I had them. Just when I would think the rain was letting up, a huge gust of wind and rain would come up to remind me it certainly had not gone anywhere. At times I looked to see if it was actually sleeting because the rain drops hurt so bad.
I did not talk to anyone after I left Shellie at mile 6. And even before that we did not talk much because I know she doesn't like to talk when she is racing. What a lonely race I had. The course is closed, so there are only spectators in a handful of places. You are usually supposed to get by in this race by soaking up the incredible scenery - we got by on Saturday by soaking up the rain in our shoes, clothes, hats, hair, and anything else that would hold water.
I knew there was another huge hill at 18 and I was not looking forward to it. At this point I knew 4:15 was completely out the door, but was still intent on a PR. I kept telling myself that I would pick it back up at mile 20, because I was able to do that in Houston. I told myself other people had said the course was almost like falling off a cliff after mile 20 and that I could just fly. Unfortunately, there were still a few hills after 20 and my legs weren't any more impressed with downhill than they were with uphill. Right at mile 21 (I think) I hear my name and just think "thank God." I knew Shellie was right behind me. I was so glad to see her. She kept me on a good pace through the next few miles. We got into town around mile 23 and finally started seeing a few spectators. She said she felt better at mile 23 in this race than she ever had in any other marathon. I, unfortunately, could not say the same. I held on as long as I could, but at mile 24.5 I had to let her go. The last 1.7 miles were pretty uneventful, but seemed to take forever. I just could not speed up. I had nothing left. At some point after 25, I stopped to walk and a woman next to me put her hand on my back and pushed me to start running again. I thanked her and picked the pace back up.
I finally crossed the finish line sometime around 4:28, but wasn't sure of my exact time because I never knew exactly how far off my garmin was. I had been dreading the finish line since about mile 15 when I realized how cold and miserable it was going to be. Our "warm ups" were going to be soaked and wouldn't do much good. How's that for a positive outlook? I'm not sure I've ever dreaded the finish line before. I also wasn't sure how we were supposed to get back to the hotel (a shuttle from the hotel dropped us off at the buses in the morning). We finished and found LaErica shortly after and found out she had had a great race. She was freezing as well and was having a hard time walking. We spent close to an hour trying to see if any of our group was still there and trying to get a hold of one of them to figure out where we were supposed to go. Thankfully Shellie had the hotel number and we were able to call them to get a ride back to the hotel. Getting in that van may have been the highlight of my day. It is like we were finally saved from the hell we'd been in for several hours. We met other racers in the van and all shared our stories. LaErica took a picture of my lovely blue lips to show how cold I was. We decided on the way back that the only way we'd get warm again was to go straight to the hot tub. The hotel guy was totally cool with that - I was very happy. We got out and got to the hot tub as fast as we could. The hot tub was full when we got there, but we didn't care. There were about 10 kids in it and I was about to have a conniption fit if I couldn't get in there because the little kids were playing. I just got in anyway - about on top of one of the kids. I think they finally got the idea and got in the pool. We certainly weren't the only runners in the hot tub and I was sooo happy to be there. A hot tub is about the worst place you can go after a marathon, but I figured we'd been in an ice bath for the previous 5-6 hours, so we were good. Shellie and I finally braved the outside-of-the-hottub-world and crawled back to our rooms and showered up for lunch.
We found out that everyone in our group had done awesome. Everyone had a PR of some sort and I actually had the smallest one of two minutes. I was happy that I had finished, but disappointed that I didn't come near my goal. It is upsetting to realize you just aren't as fast as you thought you were, or as fast as you had hoped to be. I have no excuses for not running faster, and unfortunately do not think I really have any lessons learned, other than some days just aren't going to be good running days. My IT bands did bother me, but I do not think they were responsible for being 13 minutes off my goal. The rain and cold bothered me as well, but at least I wasn't complaining about being hot. It just plain didn't come together on Saturday. I do realize it could have been much worse and I could have blown up. I still ran a faster marathon than I ever have before, but it just wasn't what I wanted. The St. George newpaper did say that the weather slowed runners anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes, so, uh, ya, I really ran a 4:08, right?
One thing I did do was beat Oprah this time around. P Diddy is going down though - I'm just not sure when. Hopefully it will be in Houston 2009, but if not, I am still confident it will happen sometime in the near future. This way I have just left more room for improvement. Just because it didn't happen this time around doesn't mean it can't ultimately happen. Had I run a 4:15 at St. George, I was going to set my sights on going under 4:00 in Houston, but clearly my goal for Houston has changed now. Also my best friend of 26 years will be running her first marathon in Houston and I may run with her - although it is highly possible she might be able to run faster than me by that point. I do this to have fun, and I'm never going to win, so I am ok if the bite out of my PR isn't as big as I wanted it to be. It was still a bite and I will still still live to run another race.
Photos are here. The look on my face in some of them shows just how excited I was to be there.
Comments
hope to see you soon!
My St. George experience here.
AmyA
FWIW, St. George killed me too and I ran it in much better weather. I finished more than 20 minutes over my goal time. Some days are like that. I've since beat my St. George time by 27 minutes. You will run faster in the future too.
You may want to consider doing Tucson, where the course is consistently downhill but more gradual than St. George. The Colorado Marathon is similar to Tucson, but even less elevation loss and only one very small hill on the entire course.
Be proud of your accomplishment. You ran a PR on a crappy day when you weren't feeling your best.
You still beat Oprah and my marathon PR!!!
Elaine
Sounds like miserable conditions for the race, not sure I could have handled it.