I think long-distance runner's are always looking and hoping for that perfect day. The kind of day when the weather is nice and cool, you're feeling strong, and the course is fast. It's rare when all of the variables line up at the same time. I've been fortunate enough to experience these kind of days a few times on the golf course, but never in a race until the St. George Marathon.
Sadie and I headed to St. George, UT on Thursday since the race was on Saturday. There are not many flights into St. George, so we flew into Las Vegas, rented a car (PT Cruiser convertible) and drove up. Sadie ran this race in 2005 with great success (PR'd and qualified for Boston) so we decided to repeat her pre-race preparations.
The first thing we did after arriving was drive the course. Here are a couple of pictures from the start area. The first one is me reading the rules of the race that they have posted at the start line. The second one is the porta-potties that are lined up on the side of the road.
It was really windy and fairly chilly, but that's to be expected at an elevation of 5,000 ft or so. The drive back into St. George showed me what Sadie's been talking about for 2 years. This is one downhill course. After our drive we ate dinner at a local restaurant called The Pasta Factory, and then went to bed early.
On Friday, we slept late and then went for a run on the last two miles of the course. After that we cleaned up, went to the Expo for packet pick-up, and met up with Bruce and Charles.
The Expo was pretty nice and had the usual running gear for sale. When I picked up my packet, I discovered that St. George had me classified as an "elite runner". When I signed up, I think I must have put 3:00 as a predicted finish time. Apparently that makes you elite here. We had a little fun joking about my new status.
After the expo, we all drove the course again and Sadie was able to provide us all with tips and strategies that she used for running the race. Then we went back to The Pasta Factory for lunch where we stuffed our faces with pasta and breadsticks. After lunch and a nap, we all met up for a movie and decided to go back to The Pasta Factory for dinner. (It's a good restaurant and they let you create your own pasta there, so we all felt like it was the best option). Bruce, Charles and I made plans to meet at the buses the next morning.
On Saturday morning I woke up at 4AM so that I could catch the shuttle buses to the start area at 5AM. Sadie dropped me off and said she would see me at the finish since there aren't any easily accessible viewing areas for spectators. The bus area was crowded and dark and I was a few minutes late, so I jumped on board the first bus I could. I figured I would find Charles and Bruce up at the start.
The bus ride was rather uneventful except for the fact that I started feeling nervous. I don't know what it was, but my stomach started feeling a little queasy. That's never happened to me before a race. I guess I knew that this was going to be my best chance to qualify for Boston before I turned 35 and aged into it. After failing in 4 prior attempts to qualify, I guess I wasn't 100% sure that I could do it. My calves had been bothering me all summer and I wasn't sure how they were going to withstand 26.2 miles of pounding downhill.
Once we reached the starting area everyone huddled around the bonfires that they put out to keep us warm. I brought my camera along to record everything.
About 15 minutes before the race, I left to turn in my clothing bag. That is when I noticed the Elite Runner area. We had our area fenced off with a starting corral, porta-potties and bonfires. Why hadn't I seen this before? After showing my number and being let into this area, I went over and stretched near one of our fire pits.
This is where I was standing when the starting gun went off. I was kind of startled by this because they had been counting down the minutes to the start. The gun seemed to go off about 30 seconds after the "1 minute to go" annoucement. I quickly shed the long-sleeve t-shirt I had on over my race shirt and took off down the highway. I was now running the St. George Marathon.
My plan was stay conservative for the first half of the race and then try to take advantage of the dowhills over the final 13 miles. The first 7 miles are mostly downhill until you get to Veyo. From there you enter a 5 mile section that goes uphill gradually. The biggest hill is the one coming up out of Veyo, but we had measured it to be only 1/2 mile long at the most. Starting at Mile 12 you descend all the way to the finish.
The first mile has little hill in the middle of it, but you don't really feel it since it is dark. The crowd wasn't too bad since I started near the front. Mile 1 was a pretty easy 7:14. This was a few seconds over 3:10 pace, but I felt okay. Mile 2 was 7:19. It's fairly flat and I knew the downhills were coming, so I wasn't worried.
The downhills got steeper at Mile 3 and I started to settle into a nice pace that felt easy. My paces through here were:
Mile 3 - 7:03
Mile 4 - 7:03
Mile 5 - 6:57
Mile 6 - 6:58
Mile 7 - 6:47
It felt good to see sub-7:00 on my watch. I was running easy and feeling good. As we reached Veyo at Mile 7, I was prepared to take it easy for the next few miles. These would be the only uphill miles of the race.
Mile 8 includes the steep hill out of Veyo that we studied on Friday. To my surprise, several people started walking here. I trudged along and passed a bunch of people even though I had slowed considerably. My split at Mile 8 was 7:40. The next two miles were at a 7:36 pace and didn't seem too hard since we were still climbing slightly. Miles 11 & 12 were the last of the hills. I average 7:19/mile but I knew the fun was coming.
I passed the halfway point and looked at my overall time for the 1st time. 1:34:55. I could hear the 3:10 group talking behind me, but they hadn't caught me. The best thing was that I knew I could run away from them anytime I wanted. And that is exactly what I did. I picked up the pace and started clicking off miles around 7 min or better. Every split was between 6:49 - 7:03. I was feeling good, but tried not to think about Boston. I just wanted to think about the next mile.
There is a hill around Mile 20 that is the last test before the finish. It was uphill and into the wind and the only place where I felt uncomfortable. There was a pretty big guy up ahead of me, so I caught up with him and tried to draft as much as possible. We hit the hill and I just stared at his shoes until we reached the top. From there it was all downhill to the finish. There is one section where you go around a big long curve and you feel like you're in the middle of nowhere. Sadie had pointed it out to us and told us how she had struggled a little bit there. I decided this was her part of the course. I ran through it feeling great.
At Mile 20, I looked at my overall time for the last time. I know that 2:25 was a 3:10 pace. I was at 2:23. Knowing I had a two minute cushion was big rush. Any mile under 7:16 would be adding to it. When I ran Mile 21 in 6:26, I started to know it was my day. That was followed by 7:08 and 6:49. At Mile 23 you hit the edge of St. George and spectators started lining the road.
The city limits had been a mental milestone for me, so when I reached it I just started smiling. I was going to do it. I was still a little nervous about picking up the pace since I have a history of cramping in the last few miles, but I knew I was going to qualify. I couldn't believe how good I felt the last 3 miles. A few people in the crowd even shouted out "Congratulations. You're going to Boston." I managed to say "Thanks", but I was thinking "You're damn right I'm going to Boston!"
I started looking for Sadie during the last mile. The crowd was getting thick as I made the final turn, but I spotted her right next to the Mile 26 marker. I started waving and pumping my fists until she saw me and screamed. From there I just ran all the way to the finish line celebrating. Finish time: 3:06:18. I just qualified for the Boston Marathon. Finally!
Charles and Bruce came in shortly after me. Both ran Boston-qualifying times. Rogue was 3 for 3 at St. George.
I think St. George was the perfect race on the perfect day. We had cool weather and a fast downhill course. I nailed my pre-race routine and was fully fueled and ready to go. I stuck to my plan during the race and stayed in the present. My mind rarely thought about anything negative. When I did, I quickly got it out of my head. I felt so good that it almost seemed easy. As easy as 26.2 miles can be.
