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.