Well, I think by now most of you know that Colorado didn't exactly turn out the way I'd hoped. I never really felt all that good during the race....there were a few moments where everything felt like it was falling into place but they were too few and far between. My stomach started giving me issues by mile 3, which is never a good thing and it ended up affecting me the whole way. I was on my Boston qualifying pace until mile 19, but I knew that there was no way I could maintain it for 7 more miles because my legs were dead and I was trying way too hard to maintain the pace. I briefly considered just throwing in the towel right then and there, but I hadn't driven all that way and spent all that time training to quit just because it was getting tough, so I slowed my pace way down for a few miles and trudged on. When I hit the mile 24 marker, I realized that if I decided to quit feeling sorry for myself and actually put some effort into it, I could still get a PR out of the deal. My legs were pretty well shot by that point, especially my quads from the downhill, but I was able to pick up the pace enough to finish fairly strong and beat my previous best time by 48 seconds. One of the only consolations at that point was that I wasn't the only one suffering. There were a lot of marathoners that were reduced to walking or just barely jogging at that point and once I picked up my pace I started passing a lot of people, which earned me a few handshakes after I finished. My final time was 3:18:05, good for 61st out of 686 overall and 18th out of 52 in my age group.
Boston is still over 7 minutes away for me. The BQ monkey won round one, but I'll come back ready for more. I've got a couple of schemes in mind for how to vanquish the demons, but I'm not quite ready to share those just yet.... (the suspense is just too much, isn't it??).
3 comments:
Chris, congratulations on running a hell of a race and getting a new PR! Update your homepage with that new time and course. Hope you had fun in FC and Colorado.
I admire your attitude and perseverance to continue the laser focus this year. Even after you nail a BQ, did you think that'd be it? Your prime is still ahead of you, the 30's is the best for endurance. There's likely a whole decade of new goals ahead.
Have fun running!
Ah Chris, tough day. I read your report over on RT but waited to comment here. Congratulations on toughing it out and pulling out a PR when you really wanted to just stop. Proves how strong-willed you are. You were right on pace- you CAN run a BQ pace, but it just wasn't your day in the end. You trained hard, you gave it your all, and you ran an incredible time. You should be proud of yourself!! Enjoy a recovery period and a little mental break before you get back at it. You've got some fast races ahead of you. :)
Don't doubt yourself Chris. For various reasons, some forever unknown, it wasn't your day. However, you did everything you could, and planned excellently. I know the PR is no consolation, but rest up and then come back to this whole marathon affair - I guarantee that after that hardcore training cycle, you'll be ready to take it to a whole nother level, and in not too long.
Hopefully we'll BOTH be at Boston 09!
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