PS: Has anyone had their Garmin register a different distance than the race? Mine and another near me at the 1 mile mark said only .80 of a mile. My HM "finish" was 12.80 miles on my Garmin. By my calculations, it only makes a difference of 2 seconds to my average pace time; so it doesn't concern me in terms of my performance. Still, it's over a quarter mile difference. What's up with that?
Don't make excuses for why you can't get it done.
Focus on all the reasons why you must make it happen.
PS2:
Dutchie - sorry to hear about your fall - OUCH! Glad you're taking it easy.
Brian - you did such a great job as a Pacer. It does sound like a hard task, but rewarding. Good for you!
Russ - so did you get the feeling of the Western States on your run? running part of the same trail as so many 100-milers? did you feel a connection to those prior runners? inquiring minds wanna know
Imminent Catastrophe
Happy, GPS typically measures short on hills that have loops, switchbacks, and/or hills. My marathon measured 25.08 miles on my Garmin. I trust the RD's to measure the course with a wheel, which is much more accurate.
It was so cool running that course, it shares some trail with WS100 and the American River 50-miler. But the best thing was the people--it seemed like everyone there was a WS100 (or "The States" as they call it) veteran. The volunteers are the same people who work Western States or run in it, and they were just so professional, so nice, and so encouraging, everyone was encouraging me to get a qualifier so I can apply for the lottery, it was amazing. There was not a trace of elitism or arrogance. And Julie Fingar is such a great RD and really, really nice.
BTW Mary Ann (DW) won her age group in the 12k!
Sunrise over Folsom Lake, mile 5
"Able to function despite imminent catastrophe"
"To obtain the air that angels breathe you must come to Tahoe"--Mark Twain
"The most common question from potential entrants is 'I do not know if I can do this' to which I usually answer, 'that's the whole point'.--Paul Charteris, Tarawera Ultramarathon RD.
√ Javelina Jundred Jalloween 2015
Cruel Jewel 50 mile May 2016
Western States 100 June 2016
Happy: Wonderful - you look, uh happy!
Off for my long run... A
Recalculating...
HappyFeat: great job! Way to intelligently deal with cramp. A less wise runner would have powered up that hill only to have the leg fall off halfway.
New Orleans Marathon - 2/24/2013 4:16:32
Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon - 4/27/2013 4:09:56 PR!
Honolulu Marathon - 12/8/2013
Just a dude.
Is there a camera on here somewhere?
-Kelly
Getting back in shape... Just need it to be a skinnier shape...
Kelly! made me laugh with that one!
Well I got that same cramp with the 10-miler the Saturday before - only then it felt like I tore something and I limped through the last mile.I thought it was brought about by increased speed since that day I averaged 10:48 and I've been keeping it to over 11 m/m for some time now.
So when the cramp hit during the race, I knew if I didn't take it easy, I'd be limping the next 3 miles and I really wanted a good finish. So that was my choice. I was already so pleased with my pace anyway and ended up averaging 10:23 m/m, so I couldn't be more pleased. I have to say though I felt like a snail - lotsa faster runners out there. I was in the tail end and often felt like going faster, but restrained myself. I kept telling myself I could speed up at the end - hah! Just wait til next year when I'm fully rehabbed! I'll be mid-pack then, you'll see
Happy - What a great race! You will definitely be a force to be reckoned with when you get those nagging injuries taken care of. It sounds like you paced it perfectly. Looking at the results you are already a solid mid-packer. Keep up the good work.
Brian - Nice pacing job. A little off at the end, but I'm sure the rest you gave them for mile 12 was enough to carry them through a quick mile 13. So how crowded was your group during the run?
So how crowded was your group during the run?
That was the one of the weirder things: it was really hard to tell who was in the group. There were 4 or 5 who stayed 10-20 feet ahead of me the whole way, but I couldn't say how many were behind me. There was one runner who I noticed off my right shoulder around mile 5 and when I looked over at mile 10 she was in the exact same place and the same place again at the finish. Never said a word. Was she running with me or not? Who knows. During the run there was a lot of chatter about doing a group picture at the finish, but once everybody went on their own push to the finish I never saw most of them again. There were 15-20 that were there through 10 or beyond.
The sad part was I couldn't tell you who got dropped, if anyone. People were there, then they weren't. Did they move ahead or move back? I had to concentrate so much on timing the intervals that it was very hard to find out who was running with me and things like what their goals were and what their training had been. Next time, if there is a next time, I'll make more of a point of learning more about the runners around me.
That would drive me nuts. I am just a little OCD and I would need to know how everybody finished. I would do something crazy like make them fill out forms with all their info so I could look them up later. Maybe if you pace again you could take a camera with you and take pictures of the people in your group so you could look up their bibs later.
The sad part was I couldn't tell you who got dropped, if anyone.
Then you're probably the type of person who would spend two hours going through the race results and, for each person between 2:55 and 3:01, typing in their last name and bib number on the MarathonFoto web site trying to see who you recognize so you'd know for sure how they finished. Not that I wold do that