Notes
Pocatello Marathon
Kind of a wild start to a Marathon. Colleen and I got to the airport and the ticket said Colleen Moore (instead of Sullivan) and all her ID's said Sullivan. Oops my bad. I forgot my wife's name. I'm new at this.
So we walk up to the counter and ask if she can change the name on the ticket and she tells me shes not sure but she thinks we are not going to be able to fly out because of this and that she can't help me and we have to call the hotline. Oh well this is a good start. After kind of arguing with her I finally got to speak to someone else who said TSA would probably just let us through if we had something with her name on it. Luckily Coll did not change her Credit Card. Nice work Coll. There were two TSA people this old guy who could care less about security and this lady who has run a ton of marathons. She cared more about my race than security as well. Nice Work Manchester. They let us through.
Okay so now that I made it through and I deserve a little rest calm the nerves before Saturday. So we stop in Atlanta and we have a 50 minute layover. We got there 10 minutes early which was great except they would not let us off the plane until 35 minutes passed. So colleen and I are sprinting through the Atlanta airport (it's gotta be one of the biggest airports). We were the last people on the plane. Another close call. At this point I knew this was going to be a far from relaxing 24 hours before the race.
We got upgraded to a convertible for our rental which I think colleen thought we hit the lottery. I kind of thought "great we just got downgraded from a mid sized car to a economy car with no roof." Other than transporting luggage the car was pretty fun. Good call Coll.
Last notable thing that happened pre-race was that the race did come with a bag of potatoes which I took but really had no intentions of taking home. Hey it was included. (it also came with a nice duffle bag and a shirt) I was thinking of chucking potatoes off the top of a mountain we road chair lifts up but they specifically told us not to throw stuff off the mountain. LAME.
There were a ton of 50 state maniacs at this race which I found really cool. I've never had ambitions to do that but those people are pretty diehard. I road the bus up with this lady who must of been in her 60s and she nonchalantly told me Pocatello would be her 80th marathon. My jaw hit the ground. Then she proceeded to tell me that she had not even run every state and it didn't seem like it was her goal. She just liked marathons. What was her favorite? Boston. Of course it was. I asked her if it ever gets easier? Does the last 6 miles ever not seem intimidating? does it ever get to a point where you are just racing and not draining your body of everything it has and then some? She said no. All 79 were very challenging. That sucks cuz I was hoping after my experience at Boston I could just race it like a 5k and be done. So much for that.
Then i met a kid who qualified last year Baystate! What are the chances? He told me If I 3:10'd i would not be able to register for Boston because I would have to do the last day. His exact words "I wouldnt take any chances if I were you I would go for a faster time" Oh okay thanks I was going to try and give everything I had and run a 3:10 but now because of that advice you gave me 3 minutes before the race starts maybe I'll drop the pace to 6:30 pace and go for a 2:50 so I can register in a few days. Thanks. I really believe that some people don't think before they talk. At some point most of us were taught to have filters and others were not. I love the ones that don't because you know exactly where they stand.
So we were sitting at the top of a mountain basically in the pitch black around 5:30 waiting for the race to start. This is where I found a new found desire to run a marathon in the dark. I thought I was done with marathons looks like I got one more in the tank. It was really cool being up there in the dark and thought it would be really fun if we started when it was still dark but people would of fell off the mountain. It eventually got a little lighter and we were off.
I started running with another kid who was going for 3:10 before he turned 35 and we decided to run together. it turned out his idea of 3:10 and mine were a little different because we were starting out at 6:50s. After playing that game for about 6 miles I started hearing Bash's voice "stupid sully" and Bui saying "bank the time why you got it". I decided to slow the pace down to 7s and shoot for 1:33 like my plan was.
I crossed the half marathon around 1:32 and felt great. Better than I would normally feel after one of my mid week half marathon runs. I had 3 minutes in the bank and felt very good. I was running with this guy and this girl and we got a little excitement as we passed the start for the half (which started at 1:45) and they cheered for us.
Around mile 16 my legs started feeling more tired than usual after 16 miles. We hit the first uphill and I was charging. the hill training paid off as I passed 3 or 4 people going up the hill. Between 17 and 18 i started to realize i was in trouble. There was a good amount of carnage on the side of the road. I was starting to pass people you never want to pass during a race. The people who are in so much pain they are walk/running after they had run sub 7s for the first couple hours. Guys stopping to stretch their hammys, quads, calves. One guy was hugging a tree and he looked quite defeated. I plugged on. My thought was if I could bank some time in the beginning then I could average 7:25 for the second half and I had just done that with ease the week before.
Around 18 and 19 I could tell I was loosing my top end gear. I was running 7:20-7:30's but i couldn't get my body to go faster. My quads felt fine but my calves felt like they were going to explode Especially my right leg. The only way I can describe it is the moment before you get a charlie horse and you know its coming thats what my legs felt like for the final 8 miles of the race.In the 20 miler i had done 3 weeks prior i still had plenty of top end speed when I finished. I was finishing that run in the low 7s and felt great. At 20 my muscle felt really tired. Breathing wise I was completely fine.
Somewhere around 21 miles my pace creeped above 7:15 for the average. There was a pretty good uphill at this point. I Was averaging mid 8s on the mile but couldnt get it to go faster. I knew this wasn't my day or the course for 3:10 but under no circumstance was the 3:20 pace group passing me. I didnt care if I had to pull a Rosie and call a cab I was finishing before them.
After the hill around 23 it was pretty much flat or downhill from there on out. The only complaint with the race I would have is that they had a 5k which started before I passed mile 23 so for the first time in the race it was heavily congested with potatoheads walking their 5k race. Running in the 8:30s I looked like I was sprinting when I was going by these people. You would think they would try hard to get out of the way as I had been running for 23 and they had been walking for a mile. a little ridiculus . they walked 4 people wide talking about Martha Stewart and which type of potatoes they should eat tonight. I lowered my shoulders like Corey Dillon and plowed my way to the finish. The fastest time on the 5k was 18:40 damnit i ran the wrong race.
My first goal was 3:10. oops My second goal was to place for my age (it would have taken 3:10:39) I was 5th. oops. I got chicked by the next Puala Ratcliffe running in a bathing suit (really? it was in the 40s to start) at mile 21. I almost got her back (she got me by 8 seconds) I got chicked at the finish with a tenth to go by two chicks. Thats my least favorite part of the day. I tried to sprint the finish i dropped it down to 7:30s and couldnt hold it. Turns out one of them just ran the last tenth with her friend to give her motivation. So I had to run around coaches and 5kers. nice.
34th Overall out of 488.
What I learned from Pocatello:
1) Just because I don't need water for a 20 mile trainining run doesn't mean in marathon I don't need water. I took Bui's advice water/gatorade switched off every 2 miles. Worked like a charm.
2) Regardless of how gross Gu tastes when you feel like hell it works. You gotta use it. I took EJ's advice (i think) 7, 14, 21 I skipped out on the one right before the finish. At 7 I felt like it was ridiculus but later on it was definitely worth it. No wall. I did not bonk like I did in Boston. My pace went up but not due to lack of energy.
3) Sunscreen is not optional when its 60. I got lit up like a lobster in the summer after boston. Lesson learned. I'm Irish I get it.
4) Hill training works. If I didn't run the volume of hills I did while I trained this course would have been a disaster. See carnage paragraph above.
5) Marathons suck but for a reason. They are ultimate running event. however they do get better regardless of what lady 80 says. I felt like hell after this but much better then after Boston. That night we went to a concert. I went hiking with Colleen the day after and although difficult (colleen almost had to carry me towards the end of the day) I was on bedrest after boston. I still dont know how the goodtimes kids raced the 5k the day after boston. insane.
6) GLRR singlet caused some major chafing but the style of shirt I do my long runs in does not. This could be a coincidence but I was trying to lower the pain I had from April as much as possible. it worked.
see you next year pocatello.