Consistency Equals Success (Page 3)

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realrellim

2014-05-22 2:35 AM

in reply to: 0

Member

131

Colorado

Subject: RE: Consistency Equals Success

Adding in Monday and Wednesday with 30 minutes on the trainer.

Mark 18 20:52:00
Joe 18 17:20:09
Jackie 14 18:57:01
Jim 14 12:15:08
Bruno 13 17:10:00
Mitch 11 12:33:37
Lisa 10 12:20:32
Dennis 14 16:15:45
Drew 15 18:07:32
Gabe 8 11:40:45

Race report? Mile 17: still running, mile 19: still running, mile 20: still running.... LOL I'll give highlights.

The race starts at 6 am and there's no parking for this one because it's in the middle of Denver. I was up at 3:30 and parked by 4:40. Did pre-race stuff, got in the corral and waved to a parent of a child in my class in the same corral. She was also running the marathon; we're pretty closely matched pace-wise. And we were off. My plan was to stick with the 4:00 pace group because that had worked well for my 4:00:42 finish last year. About 3 miles in, I ditched that plan, in part because I didn't trust the pacer (his pacing was too erratic for my tastes) and in part because I had just spotted a friend who was out cheering the runners and that gave my feet wings. Also, I needed to pee and I wanted some space between myself and the pace group. Found unoccupied portapotties around mile 6, jumped in and took care of business, and then spent the next couple of miles chasing the pace group. Those were uphill miles too, out of the valley Denver occupies. We hit Sloan's Lake and I worked to put enough space between them and me so that I wouldn't hear the crowd cheering for the 4-hour group. After that is more uphill (we're running toward the mountains the whole way out) and winding our way around some neighborhoods in a nearby suburb. They'd included a dogleg around mile 15 or so, and the other parent from my daughter's class waved to me. The 4:00 pace group wasn't too far back--maybe a minute--and we were now headed downhill (oh blissful downhill) back to Denver around mile 17. This part is a long downhill stretch back to the stadium (the one where the Broncos play), which is good except for the number of 10-mile racers and relay people who are going slow or walking. There was a lot of people-dodging involved.

The stadium was mile 20 and because running messes with my ability to do math well, I freaked out a little bit when I saw my watch turn over to the 3-hour mark two seconds after the 20-mile marker. I was thinking "oh no, I only have an hour to finish 6.2 miles! I have to pick up the pace!!" before it dawned on me that (a) I can easily run a 10K in under and hour, and (b) I was holding a 9-ish minute pace, not a 10-minute one. Aha! Still, this was the point where I was feeling super-miserable last year so I wasn't taking anything for granted. I focused on finishing strong, not least because after we wind our way around Denver we run through downtown and up this stupid, pointless and steep hill before the hills are done. The top of the hill as at the mile 24 marker--it's just cruel. After that, it was a matter of keeping one foot in front of the other. By then I knew I had some room to relax my pace a little, so I did and then just kept going. The husband of the other mother running the marathon was out taking pictures and he caught a couple of me there. The other two make it clear that I'm hurting and tired, but this one isn't bad (I'm in the blue skirt):
https://www.flickr.com/photos/realrellim/14032490338/

And finally we were near the finish line and I managed a strong finish (or at least not a zombie slog) across the finish line, hooray! Best sign seen along the final stretch? "People smell better than reindeer...all except YOU!" (I enjoyed all the Frozen references, thoroughly!) The other parent running came in about 40 seconds behind me and I was beyond thrilled that we both had scored sub-4 times that we'd both been chasing for a couple of years. (Sidenote: there were four mothers from my child's third grade class that were running--2 of us in the marathon and 2 others in the relay. Not bad out of a class of 24 kids!) And then there was the usual slow hobbling to get food and all that. Also, because it was my parents 45th anniversary, I came home and cleaned the house because they were coming over for a little family party.

The weather was good (50s, mostly overcast, chilly enough that my hands stayed cold for the first half of the race 'cause I hadn't brought gloves), and I managed fueling better than in the past. Being nauseated in the second half of a marathon has often been a nemesis, but this time there was only a vague sense of nausea if at all.

In other good news, I felt pretty good today. There's a couple of places that aren't fully restored yet, but everything else feels good--which is important since I'm running the Bolder Boulder 10K in less than a week. (Not racing, but sub-55 preferably.)

Edited by realrellim 2014-05-22 2:46 AM

Consistency Equals Success (Page 3)

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