Got up about 4am. Brian (and family) stayed at our house and Chet (and dad) came to pick us up at 4:45. We headed into town to get on a school bus to take us to the starting line. I was 1st! (on the bus). Never forget that folks: I was the very first in the entire marathon to get on that particular bus. The starting line was packed with people. Not surprising since there were 7500 of us. They had food (I had some banana) and music and big fires. The fires were ok, but not super necessary, as it wasn't that cold, even at 5200 ft at 5:30am. This was a theme that would build throughout the day. We packed into the masses for the start. Just behind us were 2 guys running the first of 2 marathons in 2 days. Just in front of us was a woman with a prosthetic leg from about the knee down. It took 5 1/2 minutes from the gun for us to get to the starting line.
The first few miles were very crowded, and very normal. An interesting phenomenon is that when you are running with that many people, it is kinda stinky. 7500 sweating bodies spreading out along the course. With the fastest running doing about 5 minute miles, and the slowest runners doing about 15 minute miles, the pack stretches out quickly. About 2 miles in my friend Luke suddenly appeared next to me, which was very nice. (Particularly since my regular running buddy ditched me at about mile 7.) (To be fair, he did end up beating me by about 20 minutes, so I can't blame him too much. I expected him to beat me, but figured we would stick together until 15 or 20 miles, and then he would get about 5-10 minutes on me over the last half dozen miles.) Luke and I stuck together until about mile 20.
After so many Saturdays running all summer long, and doing a number of them on the course, it kinda just felt like a regular Saturday morning run, only about 7300 extra people showed up. I hit the half way mark at 1:59, which was essentially where I wanted to be. They have people with balloons and signs that run at a designated pace to help you out. The 4:00 guy "balloon boy" as we called him was safely a few hundred yards behind us for much of the first 2.5 hours of the race. If only it would stay that way. . . .
Turns out, it was warm. St. George experienced some triple digit days around the 1st of October this year. While it wasn't that hot at 8 in the morning, it was still too hot for running. As things heat up, everyone slows down. Balloon boy caught up around mile 18 or 19, and officially dropped me at about mile 20. Also, there is a stretch of road here in Southern Utah that hates me. On the marathon course, it is the stretch from mile 20 to 23. It is the steepest downhill, mixed with short uphill. Oh, and you've been running for 3 hours when you get there. And it was hot. Luckily, at this point the aid stations were every mile. My routine was: 1 cup of water on my head, followed by 1 cup of gatorade to drink, followed by 1 cup of water mixed between my head and drinking. I slowed down a lot during that stretch. I only stopped moving forward once, which was to stretch for 30 seconds or a minute.
I'll admit that there was a nagging though in the back of my head that I could stop at any aid station or ambulance along the way and just say "I'm done". And it would all be over. I can't say it was some sort of supreme victory of will that kept me going, but it was just what you do. You keep running. More than anything else, that's what marathon training is. You train yourself to just keep going, hour after hour.
The extreme hydration routine actually made me start feeling better, and the last 3 miles went better than the 3 proceeding them. The last 3 miles is also where there are actually people along the course. The bibs all have the runners first name on them, so it was interesting when people would call out my name to encourage me. The last 3 miles were a very interesting experience. Exhaustion. In every conceivable way. Muscles tightening up, brain shutting down, people cheering you on, and still nothing to do but to keep running.
I hit 25.2 miles right at 4 hours according to my watch, so I told myself that surely I could do just one more 10 minute mile. On through downtown St. George I went. I passed quite a few people over the last couple of miles. (Mostly those who had passed me half an hour before, I think.) In the end, I finished in 4:10:00. (That's 2585th place, out of 5694 finishers and about 7400 starters.) 26.2 miles at 9:32 per mile.
Turns out, it was the hottest St George Marathon ever. I'm not sure that anyone beat their expectation for the day. You'll have to quiz others about my state immediately after finishing. I was too exhausted to think or remember much. Physically, I did pretty well though. I could walk around reasonably well later that day, and could certainly move better than Brian the next day. For the next 10 days or so any time I took even a few steps running, I could feel it in my knees. It was over 6 miles further than I had ever run before in my life.
So, that was my marathon. Will I ever do another? I'm not sure. For now, I'm happy with a few weeks "off" where all I have done is quit a job, pack a house, plan a move and now I get to drive across the country.
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