Marathon Day

Well I'm not big on race reports but I thought that I just gotta do it because it was the grand finale.

The night before for our carbo load/Valentine dinner went to Romeo's. We had reservations and I knew that we would wait some time, but this was crazy. Reservations were at 7:30 we got their at 7:10 and I knew that we would have to wait some but this was just way different. The line was out the door, no prob we had reservations...wrong-o!! Everyone had reservations. We waited and hour and a half to get a table and then another hour and a half to get out meal. It was so crazy, there was a bigger table that was running the race and they made some comments like "well at least we don't have to eat breakfast because our dinner was so late"! Luckily I sat just about the whole time, so I didn't wear out my legs....It's weird how much just standing will wear out your legs.

Race morning started out fine just a little chilly I had to go to the bathroom a couple of times, and then my stomach started to churn. I kinda dismissed it as nerves because I didn't want this race to beat me like it did last year. I didn't feel that I had enough time at race start to use the bathroom and hope back in place, then as the firewoeks went off I noticed a full battleship length of porta-potties to my left. I still didn't use them and that decision will come back to haunt me for a while. As the race started I noticed a more percise yearning to go serious potty. As I passed the maybe half mile mark I went #1, and instantly felt better I was confident that this would be the end of my worries and I would be fine.

After several more miles IT came back and I was able to hold it off until mile 13, I wanted to wait until there were no lines in the porta-potties. Luckily, around the mile 13 water stop there was a porta-potty for the volunteers and there was no line. I jumped on it, did what I had to do made my time there as quick as possible, and I'm back on track. I estimated that I spent maybe 3 minutes in there. After a mile or so I caught back up to Amy, who acted shocked when she saw me. I explained what happened, collected myself and was back at it-in the hunt for Red.

I kept what I thought was a pretty good pace (around 9 min mile). I kept passing people and was really impressed that I was able to keep it up. I visioned myself "picking people of as I pass them", I enjoyed watching them really struggling, and me,T what I thought zipping on past them. I kept on thinking that Red was around the next bend and I would see her, run with her up until the last and then both give it our best shot with a finish line sprint to the finish. Up until mile 23 I was doing pretty good then I dropped to about a 9:30-10:00 min mile. I felt good mentally and more or less physically but just could not go any faster. I really tried it just was not going to happen, so I knew that I would have to seen Red slow down to me or I would never see her. Well the later is reality.

Sorry Red, didn't want to make this race all about beating you, but I was really trying to. My official time 4:10:02, Red beat me by a little over a minute. (I'm sure she'll post what the exact time was)

Now that I didn't beat Red I look back at this course from this year as to my performance from last year. And I am amazed that TriZones could get a human to increase in strength and endurance. I was amazed, I didn't really have serious thoughts of walking any portion of the race. I was mentally altogether throughout the whole race. And I set a PR by 34 minutes!

Thank you Tracy for getting me mentally and physically prepated for this event. I felt my best ever! Thank you!!