Everything Counts

11.35 miles easy with Bret and Ken on the trails in Ogden, avg pace 8:01/mile.

10.05 miles easy in Central Ogden with Matt, avg pace 7:29/mile.

12.3 miles on the Parkway from Riverdale to 21st Street Pond and back with short detour on the Kingfisher Loop on the way out, avg pace 6:12/mile.

I did 2x2 miles at MP on the way back, slight uphill 5:19 5:18 one mile easy 5:19 5:16.

10 miles easy on the Parkway looping back through West Haven & West Ogden with Ken and Bret, avg pace 6:54/mile.

8.1 miles easy in South Ogden with Manny and Matt, avg pace 7:53/mile. Five days...

6.1 miles with Ken and Denver, avg pace 6:30/mile, two of which were marathon pace 5:19, 5:17. This was definitely the easiest this pace has felt all year, a walk in the park cardio-wise. It's all going to come down to the strength of my legs.

Going into Phoenix Marathon last year, a PR race for me, I had 14 runs of 15+ miles, 5 runs of 20+ miles, and 1 run of 25+. This cycle by comparison those numbers are 28/10/4. So I'm easily the most prepared I've ever been for a marathon. Time to cash that fitness in!

6.8 miles easy with Ben, Jon, and Matt, avg pace 7:25/mile.

4 miles easy in Chi-town, avg pace 6:44/mile with a few strides.

2.15 shakeout

CHICAGO MARATHON

I really felt prepared for this race. I wasn't very nervous and just knew that I had done enough work to get a favorable result. I wasn't sure if I'd hit my A goal of 2:17:59, but I was certain I could give it a run for its money, and if not I would still wind up with a PR. But the marathon has a mind of its own and had other ideas in store for me.

I met Ken, Janae, Emily, Jasmine, and Kathryn (the Utah representation) at the corner of Michigan and Wacker and we headed down to the race. It was probably 3/4 of mile and we jogged about a half mile of it. We got through the gates and checked into the American Development Tent. They told us that they were taking us out at 7:00 to the start line (15 minutes before what we were told before the race via email traffic). This was a bit frustrating; as we had to rush to use the bathrooms and warmup, plus we had to strip down our warm clothing and be in our racing attire for a half hour. Luckily it wasn't too cold and staying warm wasn't as big of a problem as I thought. But they didn't take us to the start line, instead they lined us up and we just waiting until two minutes before the race started to get to the starting line. So there was never any point to making us leave the tent a half hour early and stand on our feet in a line for 28 minutes.

I forced my way up to the front and started just behind 1-2 guys. The race was off and a lot of guys went out pretty fast. I stay controlled and by mile 3 found a guy that looked like I could use to draft off of. Another guy joined us and they were running side by side and I filled in behind. It was quite windy out there and I was going to draft as much as possible. Within a few miles we had a pack of four and then it grew to about six. We briefly discussed and everyone was shooting for an OTQ, so this was the group.

The guy leading was going a bit fast though in the early miles, but I decided a few seconds per mile too fast was better than running alone. Plus with the drafting off him the effort was likely going to be similar either way. This pack stayed together with 1-2 guys dropping back around 10 miles. We slowly picked guys off and kept moving up. Going South had the strongest winds and I just tried to stay behind someone the whole time. I really didn't do my fair share of leading with this pack, but no one seemed to mind so I just kept back.

A little before the half I had a mucous buildup that I started gagging on and I concentrated really hard to hack it up without starting my gag reflex.  I managed it successfully and felt good again. By the half the pack was stringing out and mile 13 was slow, so I moved up with one of the leaders in the pack and we got back on pace, but it was only four of us left. We came through the half in 1:08:49, right on pace and I felt I could manage another sub 1:09.

I took a gel for the first time right after the half. I felt decent for the next few miles, then I started to get nauseous and I also had another mucous buildup (not a good combo). I pulled over and threw up during mile 19. I lost the two guys remaining that I was working with and I couldn't catch back up. This was a bad time to run solo as we were headed South again and the wind was quite strong and temps had risen into the 60s. I ran another two miles or so at a decent pace and then threw up again. A PR was theoretically still possible with just 6:00-flat miles, but I just couldn't do it. I had lost too much fluid and my legs just wouldn't go. I was quite miserable.

I finished the race in 2:26:25 (1:17:36 second half). When I finished I got really light-headed and my face and arms were tingling. I got dizzy and started wobbling pretty badly. A volunteer grabbed me and held me up/helped me walk about a quarter of a mile down to the medical tent. There they kept me for over an hour. I kept trying to get discharged, but I was shaking from being cold and I couldn't walk at all. So they wouldn't let me leave. They finally laid me down and covered me with 5-6 blankets. After almost an hour and a half they finally let me leave the medical tent and I went to get my gear. I also saw Janae in the medical tent, they had brought her in on a wheelchair. I saw Emily and Jasmine at the American Development Tent after and they hadn't raced the way they had hoped either and we just kind of shook our heads and wondered why everyone of us had a pretty bad day. I found Amy shortly after that and we walked back to our hotel.

So, it was a frustrating day. I felt pretty dang good minus the stomach issues, which are really big issues. I had problems in the past with runner's trots in marathon, but I seem to have that solved and traded it in for this even worse problem. I threw up after both Morgan and Top of Utah marathons in similar fashion and I threw up during one of my 25 mile long runs in training. I don't know what it is. I didn't take gel in Top of Utah, only water and still threw up right after I finished. I need to go see some kind of specialist that can help me figure out what's going on. Any suggestions?

Splits (these are based on mile markers and are about 5-6 seconds per mile slower than what gps would've given):

1st Half: 5:12, 5:14, 5:08, 5:09, 5:14, 5:11, 5:17, 5:13, 5:15, 5:19, 5:16, 5:18, 5:23

2nd Half: 5:15, 5:14, 5:14, 5:20, 5:22, 5:41, 5:36, 5:54, 13:35 (missed split this is 2 miles), 6:31, 6:33, 6:29, 1:22

No run, rest/travel day. Hamstrings are crazy sore, calf muscles slightly sore, and everything else feels fine.

No run, hamstrings still pretty dang sore. Calf muscles feel better.

I've been thinking a lot about my race (not surprisingly). I really feel my fitness is at a high level. But with further thought and analysis, I don't think sub-2:18 was happening even if I had not gotten stomach issues. The weather just wasn't very conducive to fast running, wind and unseasonably warm temps. I looked at every guy in my pack aiming for 2:18 and looked at their finish times. No one made it. In fact the closest anyone came was 2:21. So I don't think my stomach issues cost me an OTQ, even with how good I was feeling, maybe a PR. But my confidence that the fitness is there if I can get good conditions and keep my stomach in check, is still high. I can do this. I need a flat, sea level half in late November or early December...open to suggestions. The 5:10-5:15 pace even in the wind felt very easy, I really feel I can cut 15 seconds per mile for a half at sea level.

30 minutes cross-training on the Arc Trainer.

7.2 miles easy with Denver, avg pace 7:41/mile. I also did some core exercises after.

8.1 miles easy with  Denver in South Ogden, avg pace 7:34/mile. My legs still have some deep fatigue in them, but the soreness is gone. The weather was perfect this morning at 8:00 AM, and it was nice to sleep in and actually run in daylight for a change.

10 miles easy on the Parkway with Ken and Tip, avg pace 6:32/mile. Legs are still tired, but coming around. Taking tomorrow off should help freshen them back up to resume some training next week.

12.2 miles easy on Monroe Your Boat with Denver, Ben, Jon, Ken, Manny, and Matt, avg pace 7:06/mile.

10.45 miles easy on the trails with Ben, Ken, and even Dave for part of it, avg pace 8:07/mile.

11.05 miles, avg pace 6:41/mile. I warmed up with Ben, Jon, and Dave two miles. Then I waited for Denver and Matt and I paced them on their five-mile tempo (6:37, 6:35, 6:28, 6:21, 6:12) then i found Ben and ran the last part of his tempo with him and finally did 3x30 seconds and mile pace followed by a cool down.

I didn't want to do a workout quite yet, I'm trying to show some patience and let the body tell me when I'm ready.

10 miles easy in South Weber into Uintah and back, avg pace 6:24/mile.

10 miles easy on the Parkway with Dave, Manny, and Ben, avg pace 7:24/mile.

LEWIS PEAK

We met up at the North Ogden Divide and ran up to Lewis Peak and then down into the Ogden Valley to Windsurfer Beach. It was an incredible run. The first 2.5 miles are crazy steep. I stopped at 2 miles and watched a brilliant sunrise while I waited for the others to catch up. Overall pace was 7:26/mile (range was 5:13 to 12:54).

12.1 miles in West Haven from the pond with Ben, Ken, Manny, Denver, and Matt, avg pace 7:13/mile. A lot of laughs this morning and another skunk encounter, it's not if but when!

11.25 miles on the trails with incredible moonlight, avg pace 8:22/mile.

11 miles, 8 of which were on a progression. Dave, Denver, Matt, Ken, and Ben showed up. Matt and Denver had a five-mile tempo planned and Ken, Ben, and I joined them and then added three more progression miles (6:32, 6:30, 6:24, 6:12, 6:02, 5:46, 5:31, 4:45). The last three miles were aided with the last half mile very aided.

6 miles easy from my house with Dave, avg pace 7:02/mile.

OGDEN SUPERLOOP

I met Bret at 5:30 at the Rainbow Gardens trailhead head for a massive trail run. Denver and Matt joined us for the first five miles, and Dave, being the good friend he is, drove around for over six hours supplying us with food/water and making sure we were all right. 

We ran from Rainbow on the BST to Beus Canyon. From there we ascended up to Mt. Ogden Peak.

Bret halfway up Beus with the lights of Ogden in the background, just before dawn.

Me with the moonlight in the background.

The trail was covered in 3-4 inches of fresh snow. Made for some difficult running; in fact it resulting in a lot of power hiking.

The breaking light hitting Ben Lomond Peak in the distance.

View from Mt. Ogden of the rising sun and Snow Basin down below.

Selfie at the summit.

We then descended down the Snow Basin side of Mt. Ogden and met Dave down at the Snow Basin parking lot. We thought we were following a trail, but it basically ran out and we bush-whacked down some ski slopes for quite awhile before finding another trail. I changed socks there, which was just heavenly as my socks were soaked from the snow up top. We also ate some Lay's potato chips, which hit the spot. Up until then I'd had a Honeystinger waffle, a package of jelly beans, and 24 ounces of very heavily concentrated Gatorade. None of this bothered my stomach at all, which was great! I also drank 20 ounces of water or so.

Moon setting over the moutains above Snow Basin.

We got moving again and ran down to Wheeler Canyon along the Ard & Nord trail and down Icebox Canyon.

Icebox Canyon trail

From there we hit the dam and ran 1.5 miles of road along Pineview Reservoir to Windsurfer parking lot. There we met Dave again and refilled some water. Albert Wint also met us there and was going to finish the rest of the run with us. It was great to have him there and see him again. We started up the Skyline Trail and had a good 7 miles of climbing. Around 5 miles up, my left knee flared up bigtime with some tedinitis. By the time we got to the top of Skyline I could barely bend my knee. It hurt quite badly on each step. We had two miles down to the North Ogden Divide. I told those guys to go without me and just to tell Dave to wait for me and I'd hop in his car. It hurt to get 31.5 miles into a planned 40 and have to call it early, but I literally couldn't run through the pain. I walked down 1,500 feet in two miles and each step was painful on my knee. I met Dave and changed shirts and hopped in the car. 

Pineview as seen from halfway up Skyline.

Towards the top of the Skyline Trail and just before final descent to North Ogden Divide.

Overall it was a freaking awesome run! The furthest and by far the longest timewise I've ever run. I want to attempt it again next year and go the full 40! Bret finished and said he ended up actually with 44, so I guess the full 44! Fun times on the trails this morning. Now I need a few days off to heal this knee, ouch!

Here's the run on Strava