Interesting marathon. The first half was really nice and cool. According to my Garmin I hit the half just under 1:30. That was about the pace I wanted, so I was happy with the first half. I knew I probably couldn't get a 1:30 in the second half but wanted to run the first half under 1:30 (did it in 1:29:30).
The second half went well, slowed down a bunch, but still kept a fairly good pace. It got pretty hot. Drank a lot, and threw a lot of water on my head. Ran a little slower toward the end. I think the heat got me a little mentally, so I slowed down around the last mile and a half. I don't think it was as hot as my mind was telling me it was.
Anyway, I'm happy with the run. 44th Overall, 1st in the Clydesdale. (The first post I saw was 32nd overall, I guess they fixed some more chip times). This will be my last Clydesdale run. I'm going to be working on cutting weight pretty hard over the next two months. I want to loose about 25 pounds and make it down to around 177. I think if I do this, I'll do a lot better on the second half and may be able to keep it down below 1:30.
After the run I had a great time talking with Steve, Rob Murphy, and others. Both Steve and Rob had great times.
I talked to my Mom on the way home. She said that a news reporter said the race would be around .2 miles longer due to the detour at the end of the trail around mile 25. (The detour was to go off the trail because of the high river and potential flooding.) I think the start line was moved a little closer to compensate, but everyone's Garmin read between 26.45 and 26.5. I ran the inside of every corner to try to get the benefit on the turns and mine was 25.45. Of course, Garmins can be off... Still it was a neat run.
The chip timing was a little weird. They had a lot of problems. My time wasn't posted for over 3 hours. Chip time was one second longer than gun time, and I was back bout 30 feet at the start. The readers were facing forward, so everyone's chip time was definately off. So much for new technology (and I'm and IT geek).
I'm looking forward to St. George this fall.
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