Week 42 Wrapup (Park City Marathon edition)

Last days before the Park City Marathon

I ran a tempo run on Tuesday, then left Wednesday after work to drive to Utah. The rising water level in Lake Powell has made for a resurgence of tourists, and consequent lack of cheap hotel rooms in Page. So, I drove all the way past Kanab, then slept in the back of the car at a rest area off 89.

The next morning, I drove the rest of the way into Provo, rested at Tyler and Danniey's for a bit, then met friends at Fuddrucker's for lunch. After lunch, walked the Provo Canyon trail for a little bit in an attempt to acclimate a little to the altitude, then went over to Dave's. After Scott got there, we went for a quick 3 mile run around Dave's neighborhood, which suddenly had a lot more hills than I remembered. At Dave's house, Scott gave me the best compliment I've yet received on my recent weight loss. He said, "You look like you actually had cancer".

Friday, Danniey and Tyler and I went to Cafe Rio for lunch, then I picked up Shane and went to Park City. Shane thought it would be too gay for two guys to sit around the hotel together, so he suggested a date to the movies. This would have been only slightly less gay but for the fact that we went to see Death Race, whose explosions and T&A were well suited to un-gay-ing our date. The movie was every bit as stupid as I imagined it would be and yet still totally awesome.

After the movie, we picked up our packets, then headed to the restaurant where everyone was meeting for dinner. Dinner was really good, but I had wanted to get in a lot of carbs, and was disappointed that my seafood fettuccine had too much seafood and not enough fettuccine. That's not a complaint I ever thought I would make.

Once we got back to the hotel, I found out that somehow I had taken off my Forerunner at Dave's and left it there the previous night. I was really angry about this, because I've tracked every single training run, and was really looking forward to getting a good mapping of my first marathon. I really wanted to know how each hilly section would impact my mile split times, how long I was stopping for water, etc. Plus, I wanted to know my pace and how much time I had left at any point on the course. Shane and Scott tried to convince me that I might be better off without it, and I could certainly see the wisdom in that. Sometimes on the training runs, knowing how long was left made it difficult to finish, where not knowing could have kept me going easier. I still really wanted it, though.

I agonized about taking 2 hours round trip to drive back and get it vs. trying to get a good night's sleep. In the end I opted for sleep. However, I had a nasty headache (most likely from the altitude), and didn't even get to sleep for about three hours. This made me furious, because if I had known that, I definitely would have spent the time driving back to get the Forerunner.

On race morning, I had half of a Clif bar, and a really gross Lara bar. This was all washed down by the breakfast of champions: a can of Diet Mountain Dew Code Red. It was pretty cold when we walked out to the start. Most people were waiting inside the fieldhouse at the start, so even though they had plenty of porta-potties, people didn't really start using them until right before the start, since they didn't want to go outside. Scott had to pee before the start, so he got stuck in the line, and we didn't cross the start line until a couple of minutes after the start. (We had chips, but the timer wasn't tracking chip time or splits for this course.)

I was running with Scott, who had done four previous marathons but was a little out of shape, and Shane, who had done three marathons and is an excellent runner, but had just had a trail race of almost 12 miles the previous weekend. So, neither of them were looking to score an excellent time out of this race, and they were both committed to sticking with me to bring me in.

The first mile or two were kind of tough because it was cold, and I was breathing heavily to get enough oxygen out of the thin air. My hands were numb and I had to shove them in my shorts for a while. By the time a couple of miles had passed by, I was breathing fine, and my hands were warmed up. The first several miles were either slight neighborhood hills, or the gentle 2% grade of the rail trail. We did stop again after a few miles for Scott to poop. I think that took a few minutes off our time, but without the Forerunner, I don't know if it's 2 minutes, or 10 minutes, or what. Just outside of Park City, Shane and I defiled the watershed with a pee stop in the bushes which killed another few seconds at least.

When we got back into Park City the hills started coming faster and harder. The highest point of the course is about mile 18, and I had thought it would be all downhill from there. It wasn't. There were still a couple of really steep hills, including a two block section that just about everybody had to stop and walk.

At just after mile 20, my left knee started having these sudden throbbing pains that would come on quick but then leave equally so. I tried to tough it out for a mile, then stopped for a minute to stretch to see if that would do anything. It didn't, so I soldiered on, and after a couple of more miles, it went away. The remainder of the race was uneventful, and although I didn't feel like I could run any faster than I was running at the end, I didn't feel like I was going to die or anything.

We finally crossed the finish line at 4:55:06. It's not a good time, but my only real goal was to beat 5 hours, so we did that. If it had been a flat course at sea level that we had started on time, it could have easily been less than 4 1/2, I think.

My previous training runs had topped out at 20 miles, and those 20 mile runs had not even gone all that well. This race, despite being over six miles longer, felt way easier than those long training runs. Even with the altitude and the hills, the lower temperature more than made up for it. People write about how difficult the marathon is in the last six miles, but I wasn't feeling that. I don't know if it was because I was running with other people (which really helps to keep you going) or if it was because I was just so excited that it wasn't so hot and that I was going mostly downhill. But, I didn't feel like the last six miles were particularly more difficult than the six miles before it. I had the little thing with my left knee, but that wasn't a big deal in the overall view of the race. And, at no point in the race did I have any pain in my right shin, which was great since it had been bothering me a lot the previous week and a half.

After the race, Scott left, and Shane and I went to lunch with Tyler and Danniey. I went with Tyler and Danniey to visit Nena and Granddad, then went and got my car from Shane and went back to Provo to watch the Olympic marathon. My legs were sore after the race, but not that much more sore than some of my training runs. And driving back the next day, they weren't nearly as uncomfortable sitting in the car as I had feared.

I have to say this was a great first marathon experience. Many people questioned my choice of running this one as my first. I certainly wouldn't have chosen it myself, but Scott had already planned it, so, I thought I'd just roll with it. The course is absolutely gorgeous. You can't fully appreciate everything you're seeing, since you're focused on running, but you get to experience way more of the area than you'd ever see from the road. There were plenty of aid stations, with plenty of gels and food and stuff at them, too. I ran without the camelbak, and never felt like I was wanting for liquid or gel or anything. There weren't a whole lot of spectators on this course, but Tyler and Danniey did come up for the finish, so that was nice.

I would definitely run another marathon, but I don't particularly want to train for another marathon, at least not during the summer. I think this is how those crazy people who run a marathon every weekend get started. They don't want to train, so they just keep racing over and over again so they won't lose their abilities and have to retrain to get them back.


Please go see Shane's writeup on his blog (with pictures!).
Also, here are pictures from the official photographer.
You may also see the overall results for the race.
NEW! (9/1/08) Shane's update - featuring "The Gayest Photos of All Time"!