Fly on the Wall

Rest day. 

It was my daughter's 10th birthday Saturday and my wife and my 12th anniversary on Sunday.  Our family spent the weekend up Provo Canyon in Wildwood at my in-law's family cabin.  Late Saturday night/ Sunday morning our dog started acting nervous and weird.  By Sunday morning we realized he was really sick and took him to an emergency vet in Orem.  He was bloated and his stomach had twisted.  The vet said he had a 50/50 chance if we opted for surgery.  The other option was euthanasia.  The surgery was incredibly expensive and I'm not sure if paying so much for a dog is justifiable.  That much money could by a well for a small African village.  On the other hand my daughter was trying to give me all her birthday money to help pay for it (she only knew the surgery was expensive, not that euthanasia was the only other option).  So we did the irrational thing and opted for surgery.

Our dog survived the surgery but lost about 20% of his stomach (before this he was almost as skinny as I am).  He is still doing ok and the vet says if he makes it through to Wednesday morning without infection setting in he should live.  I realize we could have a sick child or a host of other problems that would be much, much worse.  None the less, I am exhausted from the stress of all this.  

5.5 EZ on JRP.

5 ez w/ 2 @ marathon pace effort.

3 mile warm up.

6:55, 168bpm.

7:00, 176bpm.

2 mile cool down.

6:52 pace is a 2:59:59 marathon.  So I was 3 to 7 seconds off pace, BUT it was 83 degrees with a 26+ mph head wind (gusts to 33+) for about 1.7 of these 2 flat miles.  My heart rate for the second mile was a bit higher than I would have liked.  With cooler temps, no head wind, some drafting, race day magic, caffinated gels, dumb luck, and the pull of gravity down the hills at Saint George, I think I've got a shot at sub 3. 

5 ez on JRP.  Cold but not wet.

3 days out and the forecast is not looking too good.  It's the wind I'm worried about.  Lets hope for a nice tail wind.

5 ez w/ 6x100 strides at moderate effort.  Ran on the Virgin River Trail in Bloomington. 

I'm very happy with my effort and time, heck(guess I've been in Utah a long time) I'm thrilled with both! But I did not go sub 3. My time was 3:01:48* This is a 7 minute PR and over an hour off of my first marathon time, 4:06 @ TOU 2004 and I trained hard for that 4:06. This was only my first attempt at sub 3 (I can't even remember how many tries it took me to BQ) and I think I'll have a good shot next year!

I had a great time today. Lots of smiling friendly faces at the campfire. Lots of sweaty runners after the finish line. To me both are a good thing. I looked for more friends at the finish but unfortunately only found a few, yes I did stick around.

I started with a strong effort and worked hard for every mile there after. I think aerobically I was good. But I think my biggest limiting factor today was leg strength. The last few miles I felt like I was running on stumps, tired stumps. And throughout the race I just couldn't keep my legs moving as fast as I wanted to even though my heart rate was kind of low. I started with the sub-3 pace group but just couldn't hang with them. I lost them before Veyo and ended up less than 3 minutes behind them.


*They had new chips this year and mine didn't work. Apparently you can not fold the loop flat against your shoe but need to leave a big floppy bow. Oh well now I know. The marathon took my Garmin time as both my chip and gun time and said they would verify it on the photos. Lucky for me this is one of the very few times I've remembered to stop my watch at the finish. I'm guessing my Garmin time was within a few seconds of what my chip time would have been. But I'm glad I wasn't a few seconds within a sub 3!

1 6:58 154bpm
2 6.56 166
3 6.41 165
4 6.43 162
5 6.48 165
6 6.35 162
7 6.34 162
8 7.48 164
9 7.20 165
10 7.08 166
11 7.29 167 (quick pit stop somewhere in one of these miles)
12 7.05 166
13 6.58 166
14 6.45 167
15 6.24 169
16 6.23 167
17 6.34 169 (these last 3.1 miles = my 5k PR )
18 6.47 167
19 7.13 169
20 6.51 167
21 6.34 168
22 7.11 168
23 6.59 166
24 6.53 168
25 7.15 169 (legs hammered)
26 7.16 172
.23 7.17 171

6:56 ave pace. 166 bpm ave.