Wow! What a journey. I learned a lot. It was the hardest race I have run. My goal was to finally get my sub three....didn't happen. I was on pace until mile 23. I still had a about a minute and thirty second cushion, and then BAM, it hit a wall. I wasn't wearing a garmin, but I am sure I did like an 8, an two tens at the end. I just could not maintain. One reason is I my lack of miles in training. I was hoping to be hitting 60 miles a week before the race, but I only got up to 44. I gave myself shin splints after the Bryce Half because I thought I was suddenly a super runner after getting a 1:23. Here's some advice. Don't go do two 10 milers back to back two days after running your fastest race ever. The distance and speed increase gave me shin splints. That caused me to lay of running for 3 weeks and slowly build back up, which caused me to fall short of my mileage goal of 60. The other difficult thing was trying to get a cliff shot at the right time. I trained my body on my long runs to use a cliff shot after 50 minutes because I thought I had read that there would be shots at 7,11, and 18. Not the case. I was begging for one at mile seven just after Veyo, all I got were looks from people like, "What are you talking about?" I felt stupid for asking. Then as I passed the aid station, I caught glimpse of a bunch of boxes of blue packets. I am pretty confident those were cliff shots but I was not going to stop and go back. I pressed on up Veyo hill and up the 4 mile climb by Dameron Valley. There was a surprise cliff shot handed out at mile nine. Double Espresso with extra Caffeine! Heart attack anyone? I offered it up to anyone who wanted it, surprise...no one wanted it. So I chucked it hoping to get a better flavor at 11. No cliff shot at 11! They also looked at me like a was asking for a sports car or a free ride to the finish line. I pressed on, a bit concerned now that my body was going to move into burning it's own fuel since I didn't have anything to give it. 7 miles later, approaching mile 18 I was desperate now for some energy...NO CLIFF SHOT! Not until mile 19 I was told. So I tried to grab an orange out of a bowl, my hand hit the bowl but did not succeed at grabbing an orange, so on I went, hungry, frustrated and kind of sad that I haven't been able to find any food for the last two hours. Okay...mile 19! I see cliff shot!! I grab the purple on instead of the brown one (just in case the brown one was Espresso with caffeine, or Monster or Red Bull or something else that would spur on a heart attack) Eager for some nutrition and energy, I rip open the packet, got to squeeze it into my mouth and discover that I had ripped the whole side open, not just the top. Suddenly I get a blast of raspberry Cliff Shot on my hand, arm, face and shoulder and a tiny bit in my mouth. I spent the next half mile sucking on my fingers like a Cliff Shot lollipop. Quite defeated and feeling like a bit of a fool, I pray for help. "Lord, Please help my body find some strength from somewhere, I have failed to fuel it, it will have to fuel itself." At mile 23 I saw my father, who had a cold towel for me! Awesome! I needed that so badly. I had spent the last 4 miles running with a sticky, gooey hand. (Which, by the way, makes grabbing a cup at an aid station tricky. You have to peal the cup of your hand, you can't just throw it.) So I used the towel to clean up, and cool down. Hoping to miraculously make it the last three miles. Well, The last three miles were a harsh, slow, struggle. I walked for the first time in five marathons. I had nothing left. The last little kicker was when I was surprised at the last half mile when the 3:05 pacer came up on my tail. Scared me to death! What! I can not be that far off of 3! I somehow found some strength do sprint ahead because I at least had to beat him. Thanks to my turning 35 next January, I still at least qualified for Boston. Just a crazy crazy race. Glad I did it. I learned a lot. Wasn't my best race but it strengthened me as a runner.
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