Not a bad day. I can't complain about a PR, although I wonder what I could have done if the weather were cool. Maybe that's a trade off between placing well in a race vs your own personal time. If the weather were cool, my time would have been a little faster, but my overall placement would likely have been lower. I came into the race knowing that I was in better shape this year, especially in terms of my leg strength (quads) due to the cycling I've incorporated this summer. I figured that would help on the downhill, and it did. I've also been wearing compression socks this year, which some may consider a gimmick, but I feel they make a big difference for someone like me with chronic lower calf and achilles issues. I met the Runamoks group at 4:45 and we made our way to the start. Jeremy, Mark and I got warmed up and lined up together with the plan of working together for a 1:23 half, and an overall goal of breaking 2:45. With the heat in question, I figured we needed to take advantage of the first half when it was cool, while not running too fast to where we were blowing up in the second half. I would normally recommend an aggressive negative split at St George, but this year was going to be a little different with the heat in play. The first 7 miles were, as usual, relaxed and easy. Jeremy and I don't wear watches, so we relied on Mark for the splits. He was advising us to back off a little bit and run 6:30 splits, but we were pushing it and running something closer to 6:00. The hill at Veyo was, as expected, Jeremy's strength and he pulled ahead of us. I knew he would back off at the boat ramp (miles 9 - 12), which he did. I picked it up a bit after the hill to make up the 1/4 mile and eventually caught him before mile 10, while Mark kept us in his sights. Unfortunately, Mark didn't make up the distance, and we didn't see him again. Jeremy and I worked together through the half. Miles 10-13 got increasingly easier for me, and by 13.1 I was feeling fully recovered and strong again. We came through at 1:23:25, which I was ok with. There was part of me that was a little scared because I felt we pushed the first half well, but we didn't have a great time to show for it. I was also starting to feel some rumblings in the stomach due to the stress and/or heat. The downhill started at mile 14, and Jeremy told me to run ahead. I told him it was too early and he should use the downhill for recovery, which he did. We flew down to mile 16, at which point I couldn't take the stomach issues anymore and stopped for a 1-minute break at the porta potty. I told Jeremy to push ahead, hoping I would use him to pull me and eventually catch up again. Fortunately, I came out of the toilet feeling better, and things started to click. I caught up to him again by 17, and we worked together again until the bottom of the Ledges hill at 18. I knew he was good at hills, so I told him to drive uphill again and I would follow, but he didn't have it in him at this point. I guess I couldn't blame him because he had just run the Berlin Marathon 6 days earlier. So at this point I was on my own, and I used the hill as a mental exercise rather than a physical hurdle. By the top of the hill at 19, I was feeling like I could actually hold the pace and finish at my goal time, which gave me a boost. The shower was nice, too. I started working with a guy from Runner's Corner, and we started picking off guys left and right that were falling to the heat. Turns out his goal was also breaking 2:45, and we knew we were on track. I came through mile 20 at 2:06, knowing that mile 10 was 1:03 and the big hills were over. That helped. A 6:30 pace would secure 2:45, which seemed attainable. The next few miles were easy, and I flew through mile 23 feeling great like I usually do. I knew that diagonal would be tough, because that's where the course flattens out and it kills me every year. I did my best to focus on the next landmark (usually the turn in the course), and came through mile 25 still feeling ok. At that point, I pulled my left calf and start running with a limp. Fortunately, the rest of my legs felt ok, so I was able to run a 7:00 pace the last mile on a limp and came through just over 2:44. I showered and watched runners come in for the next 10 minutes, with Jeremy eventually coming in at 2:54. Mark came through at 3:03, mainly due to the cramping with the heat. I couldn't believe how many runners I saw that lost the use of their legs at the finish. Rough day.
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