Huntsville Marathon #4

The week before this race I had been feeling good. Got a couple of 7 mile runs done and took it easy the two days before the race. I was feeling good the night before but wasn't liking the forecast which seemed to show temperatures getting warmer and warmer. It was looking to be in the mid 70's around the time I was hoping to finish. Even warmer if I finished later.
 

This race has a later start than most other races, in one way its good as I don't have to get up so early, but it can make it tough around midday with no shade. 
I picked up Marisa and Elvia and headed to Huntsville. It was cool in Huntsville and I hoped it would be cooler up the top, but from experience it isn't always.  We loaded onto the buses and headed up towards Monte Cristo. We got there, I had a sweatshirt on but realized I didn't need it.

 

We met up with different friends, got pictures taken and before we knew it they wanted us to load up the drop bags and work our way to the start line. Saw a black guy who was quite thin and tall and I commented to someone he's the one I wanted to beat today, they laughed. It turned out he won the race and was from Kenya. After a few visits to the potties we had all made our way to the start line. The shirt was already off as it wasn't even chilly.
And we were off running.

I felt good at the start. My goals for the race were to first try to get a sub 4:00. If I didn't do that, I wanted to at least PR which would mean about a 4:12 or better finish. I had my pace chart printed on my arms and for the first 16 miles wanted an 8:30/m pace. I needed to bank time for the final 5 or 6 miles and wanted to use the ease of the downhill.

The first 5 miles my pace was going well. 8:05, 7:58, 8:35, 8:13 and 8:43. My overall pace so far was 8:18. It wasn't a hard pace for me with the downhill. At almost every aid station I would fuel, drink, and dump one cup of water on my head. They had a great variety of foods, bananas, gu, pretzels, swedish fish, oranges...
The second 5 miles were about the same, 8:08, 8:31, 8:05, 8:33 and 8:28. Still going strong and feeling good. It was during this time that I even dreamed that maybe I'll surprise myself and get close to a BQ, yeah right, dream on. I was 1:39 ahead of my goal at 10 miles into the course of 1:25:00 into the race and at an overall 8:20/m pace. But the temperature was slowly climbing.  I ran a few miles with Sue Mantyla and she kept me company. Its amazing how the time will click by so easily when you have someone to talk to. I lost her at one of the aid stations where I got some GU, slice of orange and some drinks.
This race was one that I did well with keeping up with the intake of food and water. Its something I am not always consistent with.

I reached the half marathon mat at 1:50:01, still at my pacing chart goal. Now only 3 more miles at this pace then I could ease off to a 10:00 pace until mile 23. This is where it got more difficult for me.  The next two miles were both 9:25, the incline had flattened out some. At the 15 mile aid station I had no choice but to use the portapotty.

That made mile 16 very close to a 12:00 mile. I was now 13 seconds per mile or 4 minutes and 49 seconds behind my goal at that point. I was now realizing I couldn't make up that kind of time as the following miles would be difficult for me. For the next 3 miles I was close to the 10:00 pace but not quite. I had my garmin virtual partner set at a 9:07 pace which is what I needed at the end. At mile 19 I was still below that pace but knew I couldn't do a 9:07 pace for the final 7.2 miles. So now my goal would be to at least PR. Jonathan caught up to me around this point and motioned for me to hang with him. I did for maybe 2 or 3 tenths of a mile then had to drop back as I was spent and there was no way I could keep that pace. So I watched him slowly get further and further ahead of me as I ran/walked my way the rest of the course.

I thought the community really supported this race. People were out in their front yards cheering on the runners, there were people playing bagpipes, or their boom box type things, cheer leaders cheering us on, hundreds of sheep staring at us as we hobbled past them. I'm sure I saw Shaun the sheep in there with them. Around mile 23 I knew a PR was now also out the window for me, so for the final miles I just decided to enjoy the scenery and the support etc. I took a few pictures and kept plodding forward knowing the finish line wasn't that far away.

The heat was terrible and I was having memories of the first time I ran this race. I had no idea what my finish time would be that race and picked 4:00 but ended up finishing around 5:13. 4 years later its dejavu. Same finish goal, but the ending was at least stronger this year than in 2012. I ended up finishing in 4:27:28. Out of my 12 marathons its my 3rd fastest and about 14 minutes slower than my finish time last year in the cold rain and 4 minutes slower than Utah Valley earlier this year.
Hopefully next year Huntsville will start earlier and will give us much cooler weather! But its still my favorite marathon in Utah and I will keep encouraging people to run it with me. It may not be as big as some of the others or at glitzy, but they do a super job with all aspects of the race. Is there room for improvement? Sure, but thats true for every race. I love Revel Big Cottonwood, but they need decals :) Vigor Big Cottonwood? They need better medals, Some of the others? Volunteers need to be back from the finish mat to give runners room to slow down rather than handing the medals to them on the timing mat. No race is perfect, but if it was, what would us runners complain about!