Finished. Hard. Race. Too. Much. Sun. More Later.
OK. I guess it's later and I'll try to write a proper report.
First of all, I met Snoqualmie and her great family last night. We spent some time on the beach and then went to dinner with Snoqualmie Ridge Runner and some other runners from the Snoqualmie running group. It was a lot of fun. I had salmon since I had salmon the night before the Ogden marathon last year, and that worked out pretty well.
One of the really nice things about this Newport marathon is that you don't have to be bussed to the start. In fact, the start was walking distance from both my and Snoqualmie's hotels. So this morning I got up and spent some quality time in the hotel, and then walked to Sno's hotel and met her there. We headed out walking to the start and even did a wee bit of jogging, but then she realized she had forgotten her Garmin and so we jogged a little back and got it. On our second approach to the start, we met up with Snoqualmie Ridge Runner and his friend. We got to the start about 20 minutes before the race started. None of this waiting at the start line for two hours up in the mountains like you do in Utah. It was cool, but actually quite pleasant at that point. I was comfortable enough in a singlet and shorts, which didn't bode well for later on.
Since this race doesn't use chip timing, I started up fairly near the front, probably about 4-5 rows back with the runners that we had dinner with last night, except for Snoqualmie, who started farther back. I didn't hit the start button on my watch right when the gun went off, but just a couple of seconds later, just before I went under the start banner, so my official time, when it's posted, will probably be just a couple of seconds longer than the time I got from my Garmin. My average pace is also slightly slower than what the Garmin says, because the Garmin measured a tenth of a mile long. I didn't start nearly as fast as the people around me. All kinds of people blew past me at the start, but I didn't want to start this thing as if it were a 5K.
The first 3 or so miles are a little loop in the town. This part was somewhat hilly. They weren't really big hills, but neither was it flat. Then the course goes down to the pay and goes on the road along the bay until a little past mile 15, and then turns around and goes back and ends about a mile or so away from the start. This part was mostly flat, except for a relatively steep up hill at mile 4 and then a gradual downhill for a couple of miles, which later is a gradual up hill for miles 25 and 26, and then a nice downhill for 0.2 to the finish.
There was not a cloud in the sky, but it was fairly shady for about the first half of the race, and then it was sunny and then entirely too warm for some of us who are not used to running in the heat at this point in the year.
I felt pretty good until about mile 16 and from that point on I really wanted to stop. I ran with a couple of guys for probably about miles 6-8. They were doing what was an easy pace to them because one of them is doing a 100 miler next Saturday, or something like that. I kept a pretty good pace while I was with them, but then I failed to keep up. Maybe those miles were a little too fast.
Later on, I ran for a little while with a woman from British Columbia who was originally for New Zealand. She was shooting for 3:40. It was a little strange because her Garmin was set to kilometers, with auto lap on, and so it kept beeping at different times. Her boyfriend or husband was riding a bike along side her supplying her with water and gel and the like. After a while, I failed to keep up with her, but then at about 24 miles, I saw her on the side of the road trying to get up. Her boyfriend/husband was with her, so I didn't stop to help.
I drank more at the aid stations than I usually do, I guess because I was feeling rather warm. But the result was that I took a somewhat longish, probably 2 minute, port-a-potty stop in mile 20.
I really struggled the last 8 or 9 miles and I just tried to run from one aid station to the next and I walked through the aid stations at that point, which I hadn't done earlier in the race. The last two full miles were particularly tough, with the gradual uphill. I wish I could have gone faster, but I was just trying to hang on and keep running. Mercifully, the last 0.2 is downhill and so I was able to pick up the pace and finish fairly strong. But I must have looked bad right after I finished because a couple of race people grabbed a hold of me and then Snoqualmie Ridge Runner, who had finished 12 minutes ahead of me, and seemed to be in really good shape already, escorted me to a chair in the shade and brought me food and water. My calves felt tight, but didn't cramp up like they did at Ogden last year. I stayed in the finish/line recovery area until Snoqualmie finished.
After we had both showered, my husband, my daughter, and I went to lunch with Snoqualmie's family and then visited a lighthouse, where Sno and I both climbed (and descended!) a whole bunch of stairs. Aren't you impressed. Then we went back to Sno's hotel and our two daughters played together for a while in the pool.
So here are things I liked about this race:
- It was nice to walk to the start and get there so close to the start of the race rather than having to wait around forever for the race to start.
- It was nice and shady for the first part of the race.
- And the best thing of all - it was great to meet Snoqualmie and her family and Snoqualmie Ridge Runner and his friends!
Here's what I didn't like about this race:
- It got hot and sunny.
- I didn't run quite as fast as I had hoped to.
Regarding the second item there, I had stated publicly that I wanted to run 3:30, but I really didn't believe that I would. Maybe I could have if I had believed it more and wanted it more, but maybe not. However, I did think that I had a legitimate shot at getting under 3:40, and I did manage that. But I did get a BQ and a PR. So I'm happy, but not ecstatic about my time.
So if you're curious about how hot it was, I'll tell the truth. It was about 49 degrees at the start and about 60 degrees by midway through the race. Maybe 60 degrees isn't very hot to some of you, but the sun was bearing down and it felt very warm. It was about 80% humidity, and there was a slight (maybe 5 mph) wind of the bay, which seemed like a headwind both directions, but was probably more of a cross wind.
Here are my stats, based on the Garmin measurement of 26.3:
AP: 8:26 (official AP is more like 8:29). Splits: 8:42, 8:13, 8:12, 8:07, 8:11, 7:52, 7:55, 7:48, 8:07, 8:07, 8:09, 8:07, 8:14, 8:23, 8:25, 8:27, 8:19, 8:46, 8:30, 10:41 (this was the port-o-potty stop), 8:41, 8:37, 8:47, 8:38, 8:56, 8:50, 0.30 @ 7:37.
So that was definitely not a negative split. Using my arbitrary designation of anything under 8:30 being classified as fast, I had 16 fast miles, and then the last 0.2 (or 0.3) fast. The other 10 miles were slow. But they were hard.
Here are the official placement results:
Overall place (men and women): 133 out of 676 Gender place (all women): 26 out of 355 Division place (women 40-44): 6 out of 52
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