Top of Utah Marathon: Rain, Hail and Porta-Potties

There's one thing I know for sure about the marathon, it's unpredictable!

On Saturday, Lindy and I both ran our 8th marathon together - Top of Utah.  She came into town on Friday night and we carbo loaded at The Old Spaghetti Factory with pasta and marinara sauce.

 Then we went to Logan and headed to the expo to get our bib numbers and then to our hotel.

When I registered for the marathon, I booked one of the cheapest theme rooms at the Anniversary Inn - Lost In Space.  It was pretty cheesy.  I thought I would be sharing this room with my husband but since Lindy was willing to fly in and run the marathon, she got to experience the cheesiness.  Lucky her.

Here we are on marathon morning ready to run 26.2

 We were worried about rain and we should have been. It rained.  Not lightly.  Heavy, downpour rain and heavy, downpour hail.  We got soaked.  Also, I had stomach problems and had to stop at the porta-potties four times.  Four times.  That eats a lot from your time.  I wish I knew what caused the stomach problems because I would never eat that food again.  What did I say about the marathon?  Unpredictable.  On the other hand, my legs didn't cramp at all - probably thanks to my electrolyte pills - and I felt like I ran more the last six miles than in any other marathon I've ran.  Official time: 4:17:14.

The first portion of the marathon is downhill and that did not agree with Lindy's quads.  She's not sure downhill marathons are for her.  But I like the marathon for that reason.  Gotta love starting out the first half downhill - if your body can take it.  I'll be back to run it again.  Next time, it better be without the stomach issues.  Bring on St. George in a couple of weeks!

Funny story.  I was running by a girl and we were getting pounded with hail.  Her friend was cheering her on from the side and then started running with her.  As we're getting soaked and pounded with hail he said to her, "Remember, only thirty percent chance of rain today.  Should be dry."  That made me laugh.

Top Of Utah Marathon

Top of Utah Marathon

My watch says 26.44 miles, 3:47:48, 8:37 pace, 7.0 mph, 2283 calories, ascent of 1263 feet.

Things I did right:
Carb-loading- Thursday night I had rice, Chicken rigatoni, sourdough bread, pita bread. Friday night I had spaghetti with a marinara and mushroom sauce, and French bread. Saturday morning I had a plain bagel and a banana. During the race I took one of my own gels, and the two that the race handed out. I also took orange slices and banana quarters that race volunteers handed out at several points along the course. I had two gels leftover on my body at the end, that I never took, and a packet of pomegranate gummy chews that I never took. My nutrition was good. I never felt empty or light headed. I never felt hungry or lacking.

Electrolytes and fluids:
I had my hand-held. I refilled it several times along the way. I started with water and put a nuun tab in my water. I used 2 more nuun tabs along the way. In water. Never took Gatorade. I didn’t cramp along the course. I didn’t cramp until I bent down to put my warm-up pants back on at the end of the race.

Injinji socks:
They served me well. My feet don’t look any different today (Sunday) than they did Friday. Even though my feet were wet for the entire race. Even though I ran through pouring rain. Even though many others around me were complaining of blisters and feet squishing in wet shoes. My feet were fine.

Body Glide:
I did a good job. I only chafed one little spot in my left arm pit. Not bad at all.

Choice of clothing:
Mary said extra clothes in the rain would just be extra wet clothing. She was right. I chose a gray sport-bra, knowing that my white tank would be wet with rain. Wore my favorite long-distance shorts and my most comfortable white tank. I added my white aasics cap that Ive never practiced with. Im glad I did. This was advice from Mary and Uncle Lee- to wear a hat since there was 20% chance of rain. The hat was perfect in the downpour I could see clearly and never had rain getting me in the face. We stopped at Sport Authority the night before the race and got Marcie a visor. We were very happy to have these.

Things I did wrong:
Didn’t practice enough on downhill.

Chose a course with 18 miles of straight downhill.

Stopped doing my leg strength workout. Stopped doing squats and lunges and such when my mileage was high during training.

Let my pain in my quads get the best of me. I need better mental strategies for pain.

Perhaps went out too fast? I think it’s hard to fight the downward pull of gravity, so I just let it carry me. Perhaps I should’ve held back? Perhaps I need to study up on proper downhill stride.

What I learned about myself:
I can run in rain. I can run for a long time in rain.

Downhill is my kryptonite. Courses with variety or flat serve me better.

Positive people (around me) help me feel strong. Negative people make me feel weak. I need to remember to be positive for others. For a long while I was running by 3 young guys who were talking very optimistically and positively. After awhile I couldn’t keep up, but I appreciated their optimism while it was there. Sometimes I ran by people who were audibly moaning and complaining. This did nothing good for me!

I get a big boost from having a friendly and familiar pacer at the end- About 2 miles from the end the guy running by me asked me how I’m doing. I came out of my zone and saw that it was my Uncle Lee! How long had he been there? He was running by me, at a slightly faster pace so I picked up my pace just a bit. He gave me words of encouragement “your legs are still working good”. And after seeing him I had a little more pep in my step and felt like I could actually finish this thing. Then my brother-in-law, Scott, showed up running alongside me on the sidewalk. This was a boost as well. He disappeared and then showed up again. And ran alongside me a little more. I threw him my empty water bottle, and ‘doh’ it landed in a mud puddle:( He fished it out for me.

I really like a double scoop of Aggie Icecream in a waffle cone at the end of a race! Even if I’ve been wet and chilly the whole race, Icecream is still pretty rewarding!!!

In summary:
I had a great time hanging out with Marcie. I had a great weekend. The marathon was hard- maybe my hardest out of the 8 I’ve done. But at the end of the day I learned allot and I don’t regret it. I survived. Sometimes just making it to the finish line is a huge triumph.

*Sorry no pictures. Anticipating rain I decided to leave my phone/camera at the hotel.