Training in Montana

St George Marathon

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Location:

Billings,MT,

Member Since:

Jan 10, 2011

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Boston Qualifier

Running Accomplishments:

~~Longest Ultra: Bighorn Trail Run: 12:19:00, 52 miles, Bighorn Mountains, WY, June 20, 2015

50K: Bighorn Trail Run: 5:52:13, 32 miles, Bighorn Mountains, WY, June 15, 2013

Marathon: 3:25:01, Deseret News Marathon, SLC, UT, July 24, 2013

Half-Marathon: 1:37:00 (downhill), Deseret News Marathon Split, SLC, UT, July 24, 2013

10K: 44:07, Big Sky State Games, Billings, MT, July 2012

5K: 20:25, Big Sky State Games, Billings, MT, July 2013

Short-Term Running Goals:

Get back into running shape.

Long-Term Running Goals:

Not get super fat, and qualify for Boston before I'm 50 (April 2023).

Personal:

Started running seriously in March 2010. Married 22 years to a hot momma and we have 3 boys, 1 sweet girl, 2 dogs, 3 2 0 1 cat, and 6     4 5 6 3 5 3 1 2 0 chickens (until Spring 2019 when we'll start over). As of September 2018 I'm looking for work... yay. I'm on the local School Board.

Favorite Blogs:

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Adrenaline 18 Lifetime Miles: 424.24
Cascadia 12 Lifetime Miles: 396.50
Adrenaline 18 #2 Lifetime Miles: 64.00
Altra Lifetime Miles: 50.50
Brooks 20 Lifetime Miles: 50.00
Cascadia Green/orange Lifetime Miles: 223.00
Race: St George Marathon (26.219 Miles) 03:42:45
Total Distance
26.20

Meh. Likely my last road marathon where I try for a time. It's just not that important to me to suffer for that long. Not sure I'll ever get to Boston and I think I'm okay with that. 

Report:

Goal going into the race was to PR with a 3:24:xx by running average 7:40-45 miles. Got good sleep Thursday night, flew to Vegas Friday late morning with my non-runner wife, got to St. George by 4 pm and my Mom fixed us a nice meal of spaghetti and french bread. Yum. Chill evening, got to bed about 10 pm and slept well. Woke at 4:15 am, showered, Dad dropped me off about 4:45 and I got there in the nick of time. Line was a few hundred people deep when I got there (but still a straight line), way more full than 5 years ago, but I got there at 4:15 last year. A few minutes after showing up the line started snaking, and by the time our bus left the line was snaked all the way around the park and onto the sidewalk across the street. That's a lot of standing. Got to the start line and put on my warm gear, hung by a fire, hit the PoP, sat by another fire, and then wasted too much time because I was then hustling to get all my stuff together and put the drop bag in the van, take an anti-diarrhea pill, and find the 3:25 pacer. I did it, but was on the far edge of the pacer, not on the pavement. Next time I need to be sooner.

Horn went off and the pacer was in sight, but a ways in front. I kept the balloons in sight the next while which was helpful. Feeling pretty good, weaving through people (why do slow people start up front?), and avoiding the middle of the road divots where Butler got caught up. I'd forgotten to write down my paces on my arm or a pace band, so I just decided to run and hope the pacer would keep us honest but not "bank time". I think he did well, but I don't know their final time. I felt pretty good, and the temps were good, but too warm for starting temps and my body. I don't do heat well. Veyo came and I love that spot. I moved to the far right and gave high 5s all the way down the street as I knew I wouldn't feel like it later. Veyo hill was okay. I made it most of the way then walked a bit, then ran to the PoPs for my only stop, just a water stop thankfully. A lady I'd been following stopped as well, so we both were now way behind the pacer. I tagged along behind her (at a safe distance) for quite a few miles and we made some progress on the pace ballooons. Our speeds actually changed quite a bit, so we kept leapfrogging each other. Dameron Valley is a dam-long-hill valley. Wow, it just kept going and going. Finally crested the hill but I think there was one more to go. At this stage I was feeling pretty good, 3:25 was within my sights although I didn't know if I'd break it or just be close. Somewhere between 8-13 the clouds disappeared and the sun came out. That's probably what sapped my desire. I was doing fairly well, hitting decent paces (I think, although I missed hitting the mile marker on my watch a number of times) and my nutrition was clicking along as desired.

On the big downhill, sometime after mile 16, I became disillusioned with the marathon. I was tired of trying to run faster than my body really wanted, and just wanted to jog it in. Truth be told, if I had a ride, I might have just quit right there and rode to the end. I have other finishers medals. It was a sort of epiphany for me that I just don't have what it takes to do well in the marathon. And I think I'm okay with that. Karl Malone was not an NBA champion. He just didn't have it in him to do well in the NBA Finals. Stockton was the same. But they're both amazing players. They just didn't have it. I'm not Stockton or Malone, but I'm a 5-time marathon, 2-time 50K, and 1-time 52M finisher. And I'm okay with that.

After my great disillusionment I took it really easy and got passed by a lot of people. Just about every mile after that I walked when I got to the mile marker. Not for a certain distance, just until I wanted to run again. I earlier had told my family not to meet me on the course, but I didn't know what they'd decided so I still looked for them. It would've been nice to see them, but wouldn't have helped me at all. I was done. I kept running and drinking and encouraging where I could but I wanted to be finished. Finally came to the finisher's chute and I didn't put any more effort into it, just nonchalantly ran across the line and finished. I'm happy to have completed the race, but I don't know if I'll be back to a road marathon. Maybe I will, maybe when a 3:23 will actually get me to Boston I'll care more, but I think my Boston dream is gone too. And I'm okay with that right now.

Adrenaline 16 Miles: 26.20
Weight: 0.00
Comments
From allie on Tue, Oct 04, 2016 at 16:46:15 from 24.99.46.55

you started and you finished. the whole process is a great challenge and you conquered it. regardless of time, i'm sure the experience will always be meaningful.

congrats on marathon #5.

From allie on Tue, Oct 04, 2016 at 16:47:15 from 24.99.46.55

PS - why did you have to remind me that stockton and malone never won a championship? i'll never get over it.

From Russ on Tue, Oct 04, 2016 at 23:17:37 from 199.167.208.164

Thanks allie, great perspective. And I'm sorry for the Stockton/Malone reminder. It pains me every time I see "The Shove" replayed on nearly every NBA game on TV. Ugh.

From butlerbrunning on Wed, Oct 05, 2016 at 15:02:00 from 104.52.197.67

Glad you finished Russ.

I want you to know that a few short years ago I ran my first marathon and completely hated it. I actually told myself that I could care less to run another. I did love running and competing and continued to run and get better times in shorter distances. It wasn't until my good buddy who is a champion marathoner encouraged me to do another marathon due to the amount of miles I had been running with him that I truly found a love for marathons after I took 2nd place to him at San Antonio R&R. I never knew you could actually feel somewhat good after a marathon until then. Keep after it maybe something will change.

From I Just Run on Thu, Oct 13, 2016 at 21:02:17 from 199.38.187.9

It's always an accomplishment to finish a marathon ... nothing the scoff at!!!

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