Great race day for both Seujan and me today...she qualified for Boston (see her blog for her race resport)!! We were up at crazy o'clock to get to our shuttle busses and out to the start lines...of course, I was uber-early and we were both on the very first bus...I even was the first user of a porto-potty. My start line was basically in the middle of the road way out of town and the holding area was a freezing cold dusty vacant lot. Fortunately, there were propane heaters and porto-potties there for the race, although the lines for the porto's got so ridiculously long that I opted for tumbleweeds twice instead, as did several of my fellow runners...finally, after way too long of a wait in the dark, the race and daylight started at 7:00 a.m. and the mountains were in view the rest of the day. Gorgeous one way course into Tucson.
The idea of a "fast downhill and flat course," was something we had worried a little about (i.e. the potential for quads becoming hamburger), but actually, the course format saved my bacon. My goal time today was 10 minutes faster than 2 weeks ago on the hilly Seattle course and I definitely worked harder to hit it, but the course certainly helped. The first 4 - 5 miles were downhill (contrary to SJ's perceptions of her miles 13-17, they really were downhill) and I decided in that first chunk to simply accept the gifts of the course as much as possible today...I let gravity push me along and I worked a little harder to maintain a good pace on the flats. I had my own water and Clif Shots and ate 2 shots, starting at mile 8, and that was fine. My stomach was a little "off" here and there, and at the mile 10 marker, I got a freaking sideache...I was ahead of schedule, so I backed off a little (but refused to walk) and fought it off in less than a mile. By the end, I was definitely ready to be done and found myself wondering how the hell I'm going to do a full marathon in a few months, but I re-focused on what I had in front of me today and stayed pretty strong to the end. I worked hard today and it took a few hours to recover, especially my upset stomach...but I feel great now! We went to Canyon Ranch for spa and massage treatments, had a great dinner with Jill & May and life is GOOD!! Seujan thinks we should come back next year for me to do the full marathon and try to qualify for Boston '08, but I think she's a nutcase. We'll see...for now, I'm quite happy with this!
My splits from today's race:
Mile 1: 9:26
Mile 2: 8:38
Mile 3: 8:44
Mile 4: 8:30
Mile 5: 8:35
Mile 6: 8:44
Mile 7: 7:51
Mile 8: 8:20
Mile 9: 9:00
Mile 10: 8:22 (big downhill in this mile)
Mile 11: 9:03 (Side ache mile)
Mile 12: 8:35
Mile 13: 8:56 (the only uphill of the course, thanks for saving it till the end)
Last .1 mile: :50
Total time: 1:53:38
Goal was 1:55...NAILED IT! :) Whoo-Hoo!!
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