Well it was a lot of fun and I did better than I thought. I guess I was in slightly better shape than I thought in my post racing stupor.
I had decided to run 8 min. pace, then Doug stated he was running with the 3:20 group -- shucks I said..let me run it and see what happens.. We met outside of bike gallery on sw10th and Salmon.. then we headed towards the river and that is when I noticed the streets were filled with people at 6:30 in the morning, ton's of cops and officials every where! Not like the NYC Marathon, but not like a tiny local Triathlon either. ENERGY was everywhere!
I was freezing by the time we got to the 3:20 line-up. Then I noticed it was about 5 degrees warmer in the crowd (just like with the penguins I guess). The gun went off and slowly we all got over the start line and started. Even our pace guy went a bit fast at first. I felt wide awake and it was all pretty exciting!
We chatted and had a great time (a group of 4-5 people) and the 3:20 pace-setter was pretty good. At around mile 15 Doug started to pull away, Trevor was already gone, and Steve decided to go after Doug. I looked down at my heart rate and was sure I should stay with the 3:20 group. I was already at about 176bpm. This eventually went up to about 185 where I spent a good deal of the last part of the marathon above my lactic threshold. I think taking some aspirin helped greatly around mile 15. The cool weather didn't hurt either.
Any heat at all and I would have been a goner. I had two bottles of nutrition that I sipped the whole way. Little tiny sips and then water at every aid station. I think I had about 300 calories stuffed in those two bottles with salt and all the rest. I should have not sipped the last 3 miles when I pick-up the pace though. Other than that I was happy with how I kept my body from bonking by keeping the high quality malto-dextrin flowing down my throat (or yard mulch as Kacy calls it) -- and the front of my shirt.
Steve sent me this great link (if you click on the course map you can see the splits if you hover the mouse over certain sections) http://www.runpix.biz/por08/42/finord.php?LastName=6955&lan=&aset=0 which shows I actually ran the last 5 miles at 7:30 pace. I think I ran a good tactical race for the shape I was. The last 3 miles felt hard but everything before that didn't feel half as bad as the last 7 miles in the 70.3 IronMan I did earlier in June (in Boise). I think part of the trick was staying positive, smiling, drafting in the group and staying focused..
With around 2 miles to go Steve #2 from Con-way left the 3:20 pace group, so I dropped behind him and gave it all I got. I guess they were actually a little over the 3:20 pace -- as even with the increase in speed I barely broke 3:20. Oh well! They pace-setters from Red Lizard did a great job for the most part.
At about 25.5 miles I saw that Steve had paid for it dearly by trying to stick with Doug. We ended up having a mad dash to the finish line and finishing around the same time. By the time I crossed the line I was about ready to throw-up and thought I would..but kept it down with some help from a guy who walked me over to the side.. Definitely should have stopped drinking the malto about 10 minutes prior to going hard at the end... Oh..and my left leg started locking up as I did my 100 yrd dash to cross the line and try to overtake my running friends.. chuckle :)
The course is great, you get to run over two bridges.. the music was great & the Iron Heads came out and cheered us on. The only bad part about the cool drizzle was that my blisters got worse. I've got one on the inside of my left big toe the size of Texas. I realize Adidas are not for me. The toe box is just too narrow. Too bad as our Tri team is sponsored by them. Oh well! :) Its all over now anyway isn't it?!
Until next time.. Sam
I had decided to run 8 min. pace, then Doug stated he was running with the 3:20 group -- shucks I said..let me run it and see what happens.. We met outside of bike gallery on sw10th and Salmon.. then we headed towards the river and that is when I noticed the streets were filled with people at 6:30 in the morning, ton's of cops and officials every where! Not like the NYC Marathon, but not like a tiny local Triathlon either. ENERGY was everywhere!
I was freezing by the time we got to the 3:20 line-up. Then I noticed it was about 5 degrees warmer in the crowd (just like with the penguins I guess). The gun went off and slowly we all got over the start line and started. Even our pace guy went a bit fast at first. I felt wide awake and it was all pretty exciting!
We chatted and had a great time (a group of 4-5 people) and the 3:20 pace-setter was pretty good. At around mile 15 Doug started to pull away, Trevor was already gone, and Steve decided to go after Doug. I looked down at my heart rate and was sure I should stay with the 3:20 group. I was already at about 176bpm. This eventually went up to about 185 where I spent a good deal of the last part of the marathon above my lactic threshold. I think taking some aspirin helped greatly around mile 15. The cool weather didn't hurt either.
Any heat at all and I would have been a goner. I had two bottles of nutrition that I sipped the whole way. Little tiny sips and then water at every aid station. I think I had about 300 calories stuffed in those two bottles with salt and all the rest. I should have not sipped the last 3 miles when I pick-up the pace though. Other than that I was happy with how I kept my body from bonking by keeping the high quality malto-dextrin flowing down my throat (or yard mulch as Kacy calls it) -- and the front of my shirt.
Steve sent me this great link (if you click on the course map you can see the splits if you hover the mouse over certain sections) http://www.runpix.biz/por08/42/finord.php?LastName=6955&lan=&aset=0 which shows I actually ran the last 5 miles at 7:30 pace. I think I ran a good tactical race for the shape I was. The last 3 miles felt hard but everything before that didn't feel half as bad as the last 7 miles in the 70.3 IronMan I did earlier in June (in Boise). I think part of the trick was staying positive, smiling, drafting in the group and staying focused..
With around 2 miles to go Steve #2 from Con-way left the 3:20 pace group, so I dropped behind him and gave it all I got. I guess they were actually a little over the 3:20 pace -- as even with the increase in speed I barely broke 3:20. Oh well! They pace-setters from Red Lizard did a great job for the most part.
At about 25.5 miles I saw that Steve had paid for it dearly by trying to stick with Doug. We ended up having a mad dash to the finish line and finishing around the same time. By the time I crossed the line I was about ready to throw-up and thought I would..but kept it down with some help from a guy who walked me over to the side.. Definitely should have stopped drinking the malto about 10 minutes prior to going hard at the end... Oh..and my left leg started locking up as I did my 100 yrd dash to cross the line and try to overtake my running friends.. chuckle :)
The course is great, you get to run over two bridges.. the music was great & the Iron Heads came out and cheered us on. The only bad part about the cool drizzle was that my blisters got worse. I've got one on the inside of my left big toe the size of Texas. I realize Adidas are not for me. The toe box is just too narrow. Too bad as our Tri team is sponsored by them. Oh well! :) Its all over now anyway isn't it?!
Until next time.. Sam
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