Notes
Woke up at 4:15am and had Breakfast, Oatmeal with berries. took a shower and hung out at the hotel for the next hour and a half. felt great and enjoyed the morning with Michelle who was getting ready for her Half marathon. at about 5:45 took a Hammer gel and used the bathroom one last time. We went to the lobby to meet Michelle's friend Barb and catch the bus. In the lobby they had a huge plate of pastries, that looked so good. And I was so happy to know I was only 3 1/2 hours from being able to eat whatever I wanted. We got on the bus and I was starting to get excited. I drank my 1.5 packets of generation UCAN and took my endurolytes. We got to the start and met up with Joel. I did some drills and a few strides. then lined up at the start. Some jackass did a stride near the timing table and rip the laptop of the table causing the timing system to be rebooted, and the race started 11 minutes. It was could and I needed to go pee.
I could not leave the starting line so I just had to wait and hope that I could run, and not need to stop to use the bathroom.
The race started and I went out nice and slow just as my race plan called for. The firs few miles felt like they took forever but soon I found my self at mile 9 and on a roll and took my first hammer Gel. as I got to about mile ten I felt great and knew I was going to run well today. I could see a group of guys in matching outfits a ways a head of me, and I made it a goal to catch them. (I think I got all but one of them!)
Mile 13 I took the 2 endurolytes I had and passed the 13.1 mark at 1:18:45. I could no see the the first guy who had fallen off the group in the matching out fits. I caught him and passed a few other guys in the next three miles. At about the 16 mile mark I saw Joel, he asked me how I felt and I told him awesome, he told me it was time to go hard and start picking guys off. and that's what I did in the next 10 miles I passed about 15 people and ran as hard as I could. at mile 23.5 I started to feel the race, but was able to keep on track taking it a .25 mile at a time trying to keep my garmin at sub 5:55 pace.
When I finished I was so happy with my time I really did not feel that tired, and when I found out I was in 9th I was shocked because I thougt I was in 20th or so place. the first 6 miles I was in about 50th place so I really passed a lot of people in the last 20 miles. Michelle and I took the bus back to the Valley river inn, and met with Joel and helen for lunch. and then after lunch had beers with Rob.
After Michelle and I went to the Oregon Electric Station for dinner (the food sucked!) during Dinner news broke that osama bin laden laden had been killed! we went home and ordered deseret to eat in our room and I ate 2 big pieces of cake and within 10 minutes I was SICK! I guess a ton of junk food and 6 beers cake was too much! I went to bed wishing I could throw up and thought I was going to but it never happened. next thing I knew I woke up at 5:30am. and I was on a two week break from running, the 9th place finisher of the eugene marathon, feeling better and ready to eat more junk food! it was a great 24 hours.