It was an early start to this race. The race was 50 minutes from our house and I had to be at the buses between 4-5 am, and get there with enough time to pick up my race packet before that. In the days leading up to the race everything seemed to fall perfectly in place. I woke up at 2:45, at some toast and a banana and water, and then headed out. I was feeling excited and maybe only a little nervous on the drive out. Mostly just confident that I had put in the work to have a good race today. My goal was to run under 3:00 hours, and if it was a good day possibly 2:50, and worse case I was confident I wouldn't go over 3:10.
Picked up my packet, got on the bus at 4:30, and headed up the mountain. It took the bus over an hour to get to the start line. It was a pretty curvy steep road and was still pitch black out. I thought I could get an hour of sleep on the bus ride, but runners are talkers and I had a great conversation with the lady next to me. And was able to watch the course out the bus window. I was even more excited to see how downhill it was. Not just slightly downhill-we were really going to be running down the mountain.
The race started above 5000 feet elevation. The bathroom lines weren't crowded and I was able to use them as much as I needed before the race. I also found a fire about 100 meters from the start that no one seemed to know about, so I was able to keep warm easily.
At 6:45 we had to put all our clothes on the truck to head down, so I did a 10 minute easy warmup, and was ready to go.
The first 13 miles I felt like I was holding back. It was hard to let so many girls pass me that I knew I could beat. There seemed to be 10-15 girls ahead of me, but I didn't want to run the first half too hard and then completely die at the end. So I tried not to go faster than 6:30 pace. I was so glad it was feeling easy, and was just able to enjoy the scenery, enjoy being in shape, and truly enjoy running. By mile 5 I could already feel the downhill pounding in my legs, but nothing to be worried about. Took a gu at mile 7 and was able to eat the whole thing. I ran the first half in 1:23:30 (I won Fontana Days half marathon in June in 1:23:35). Even though the first half was faster than I anticipated, it was also much more downhill, and I was still feeling good. And my watch was saying I was 0.25 ahead of the mile markers. So I was running good tangents- or the course was short.
Miles 13-15 was where the hill started. And they were hills that were half a mile to a mile long. They were gradual to steep; but any hill after pounding down hill was hard. I was able to get through them but slowed considerably.
But after each stretch of hills came the steep downhill again and I was able to settle back into mid 6 minute pace until the biggest hill at mile 19-21. I had tried to down some more gu to get some calories in around mile 17, but I kept gagging on it. So instead focused on drinking a full cup of gatorade and a full cup of water at each aid station. But mile 20 was my slowest. I was able to pick it back up though, and with 5K to go I knew I could still beat 3 hours, but it would be close.
Mile 23-24 was fine, but then it flattened out the last 2 miles and I began to see 3 hours slipping out of sight, I kept trying to charge forward. The last mile was never ending, and you ran straight for a mile and then turned for the last .20 miles, so it was hard not seeing the finish line to charge to.
When I crossed the finish line it said I was the 10th girl. I had no idea who was in front of me. At mile 18 of the race we started running past half marathoners, and it only got busier as we continued down the canyon. Well, I guess some people registered for the marathon and decided to run the half, so it screwed up the results. So by the time I found out I was in 4th it sounded great. I missed 3rd by about 90 seconds-2 minutes.
I have mixed emotions about this race, but mostly happy. A little frustrated I didn't run under 3 hours, and so close to a PR. Maybe I got a little overconfident in my expectations. But it was only 90 seconds slower than my fastest marathon coming out of collegiate racing 7 years ago. My fastest post baby marathon by almost 20 minutes. It feels good to be back!!!! And considering I averaged 5 days a week on the treadmill, Cameron was in San Diego for 8 weeks, I have 3 little kids and I was completely self motivated; I couldn't be more proud of my race.
Here is my splits:
6:18, 6:20, 6:17, 6:28, 6:34, 6:33, 6:34, 6:35, 6:21, 6:21, 6:34, 6:31, 6:31, 6:50, 7:11, 7:52, 7:44, 7:08, 6:27, 9:18 (mile 20 brutal hill!), 7:07, 6:42, 7:13, 7:53, 7:49, 7:50.
The second half was definitely more challenging than the first, and the splits reflect that. This was not a course to negative split.
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