Birthday & Marathon Weekend

This last weekend was packed full of fun festivities. Kevin made the trek North on Thursday night and worked from home on Friday. It was nice to come home from work Friday and have lunch together and have him there when I got off work at 4. I had picked up some amazing beef tenderloin steaks for an early birthday dinner Friday (since we were going to be in Ft. Collins Sat & Sun). We marinated them and grilled them and paired it with Mushroom/Chevre Orzo and our favorite Tannat! It was delicious!

We opened gifts and Kevin got some fun new clothes, shoes, a video game, books, and I framed a fantastic photo that his mom got him last year of Ironman Canada @ the 25th Anniversary. I'm excited to see it up on his wall. And of course, we had ice cream cake! Yummy! It was fun to celebrate his life and to acknowledge how much he has brought into mine. He is so special and I couldn't be more blessed!  

Saturday we slept in and then we headed up to Fort Collins to pick up our race packets. Kevin decided to run the 1/2 marathon and I was doing the full, which is something I might regret later! We went out to dinner with my good friend Molly & her fiance Shaun. I ate so much food I felt sick but I had an excuse right?! It was pouring rain and I was dreading what the morning might have in store for us. I don't mind running in the rain but they bus us to the top of Poudre Canyon and I had no interest in standing around in the rain getting wet before starting. 

After little sleep we were up at 4am. Luckily the morning was clear, although cool out with wet roads. It was perfect marathon weather actually. I got on the last bus up so I only had to stand around for about 10-15 minutes, sounds like Kevin had to wait over an hour! And it wasn't exactly warm up there!

The race started at 6:15 and Kevin was starting down the canyon at 7. Once we were off I felt great. I knew pacing might be an issue running down and I wasn't sure if I'd get it right immediately. My goal was to finish under 3:40 to get a slot to Boston, which was 8:23 pace. I knew I had the aerobic engine for it but I was more worried about how I'd hold up structurally running down hill for 26.2 miles, especially since I hadn't trained on allot of hills. My first mile was 7:20, oops! But it felt so easy. I backed it off and #2 was 8:20-perfect. I kept the next 18 miles between 8:17-8:23 exactly it was perfect. At one point a man came running up next to me and said "you look like your just out for a jog". That is honestly what it felt like, it felt so easy but I knew I had to save one I had for later. Only 5 miles in or so I could feel my right ITB/Quad getting achy. It wasn't hurting just a dull ache and I thought maybe it was the crowning in the road running along the left side only. I began to switch it up and take the right side when we turned that direction to switch up the pitch under my feet as well as take the shorter distance around curves and on the straights I'd stay to one side running in the dirt or in the middle of the road were it wasn't so pitched. As I ticked each mile off the ache was changing from dull ache to increasing pain. 

My tactic was to race steady until 20 miles then pick up the pace the last 10k. By the time I hit 20 I said "ok, steady til 22 then pick it up", then at 22 I said "ok, steady until 24 then pick it up to get home". Haha! The pain was so intense it was all I could do to keep going. I seriously have never felt such intense muscle pain while running in my life! I was actually tracking to finish about 3:38 until about mile 21 when I just couldn't make my legs fire any faster. My pace starting to slip, 8:32, 8:47, 8:52, etc. I realized with 2 miles to go I was going to have to pick up the pace to 7:45+ mm  in order to make up the time and although my last mile or 2 were a bit faster my legs were not going to go 7:45 again. I realized I wasn't going to make it and just pushed through the pain to get home. I was ready to see Kevin! There were so many times I wanted to stop and walk it hurt so bad but I told myself "I didn't walk at all during either of my Ironman races, I'm surely not going to walk here". I have to say though, this marathon was WAY more difficult than either IM last year. Obviously IM marathons are slower but they are also after 114 miles of swimming and biking so you'd think that would be worse?! I think it was just this particular course and how much it beats up your body...1250ft of descent over 18 miles?  Everyone said how fast this course would be and I do agree with that to some extent but given the terrain and altitude I think that takes away from some of the speed. Check the course:

All in all I'm happy with the race. I still had a PR and I learned allot! I have never considered myself a strong runner, I think if I focused only on running for 3-5 years I could do really well and train myself to be a "runner" but I love triathlon too much and think that I do much better with multiple disciplines, which reminds me-I need to start swimming and biking, first Tri is only about 6 weeks away! I will definitely be picking a flat sea level course to secure a Boston slot in the future! 

If you could only see my trying to sit down and stand up you would get a good laugh. I might try and steal a walker from one of the patients today when they aren't looking. 

Off to rest the legs and load up on the Vitamin I.