Exciting day to say the least. I went into the race feeling fresh and ready to go. Most of the morning was pretty stress free. Got to the bus on time, got bussed to the start, asked to get off the bus while we waited so I could go to the bathroom. Took care of that then waited by the start for my coach John. He was going to run the first half or so with me. When I went to drop my bag at the bag drop I couldn't find my phone so I had to go back and look for it at the start but didn't see it. That added some stress and took away my warmup but I really didn't care too much. It was just a phone and it was a marathon so I didn't need to big of a warmup. I normally do the lunge matrix and leg swing before every run but I didn't have time so I ran out a quarter mile, peed in the bushes and ran back to the start. The first 1.5 miles are extremely downhill and John and I said no matter what no faster than 5:35. We were 5:42 for the first mile and 5:54 for the second. Those felt very easy and then the course was pretty tough for the next two miles. Some fairly steep ups and we were at 4500 ft. Those were in the 5:50 range and there was some heavy breathing going on. After 4 the course drops nicely until 10. We were able to settle into 2nd place running very comfortable high 5:30s to low 5:40s miles. At 10 miles we turned off the highway onto a side road out and back for 3 miles which was hilly. John stopped running with me here at 10 miles. I knew this section was coming and would be tough. My goal was to not worry about lost time here. I could see the leader when he came back and I figured he was about a minute ahead of me. I ran miles 11-13 in 5:57,6:09,5:47 and I was still feeling strong. I came through half in about 1:15:30 and I was uncertain about how the rest of the race would go. I wasn't feeling amazing or anything but not bad. Also, when we got back on the highway at 13.5 there was another nice stretch of downhill. My family was out there and I was seeing them every 2-3 which was awesome. I was told that I was 70 seconds behind first place at 14 miles. I would get those updates the rest of the race. I never had any really bad patches but this part of the race was long and lonely. Most of the miles were around 5:45 during the next six miles and I was gaining about 5 seconds per mile on the leader. By 18 miles I started to think I had a good chance to catch him. At 20 miles the downhill really lightened up and it felt tough to go from downhill to "flat". I could feel my quads suffering from the downhill but I felt like I was doing okay. At 20 miles I had the lead down to 20 seconds and I started to think about winning the thing. I remained patient and I knew that I still had plenty of time to catch him. As the course flattened out at 20 my pace dropped to the low 5:50s but I still felt okay. I finally caught him at 24 miles and as I passed him he said just pass me now I don't want to get nipped at the finish. I thought that was a little strange but I didn't have much energy to think to much about it. I just passed him and went on trying to keep it together. Just after 24 we ran behind a shopping center which included a steep 50 ft hill. It's not much at all but that really did me in. I never really recovered from that and I felt like the last two miles became a crawl after that. I had no idea how he was doing behind me. It was weird to be in the lead and having people cheer me on and yet feel so weak at the same time. My quads were officially gone now and although 25,26 were 6:08,6:14 I felt like I was shuffling and slowly moving by the 2:30 half marathoners. I heard footsteps just before mile 26 and he was back. I knew this would be trouble. I gave it everything I had to stay in front but he passed me. My wife Allison was there and she ran along side of me screaming encouragement. I could hear in her voice how bad she wanted it for me and I threw one last surge at him but my legs were gone and there was nothing there. My legs were buckling. He ended up putting 12 seconds on me in that last .25. I staggered across the line and saw him throwing up. I guess he earned it. I was frustrated that I was so close and couldn't find more but the more I thought about it there was just nothing in my legs and I tried my hardest and that's all I can ask for. This was about a 4 minute PR for me. Yes, it's an aided course but so was my PR from St. George. Even with the downhill it was still my best overall marathon performance. It turned out to be a great training cycle with PRs in the 5k,10k,1/2 marathon, and marathon. I'll take a break now and run mostly easy until January. The marathon is extremely difficult. That's all I have to say.
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