St George Marathon

[bluegoose]

Outstanding reports, guys. All of this talk is almost making me want to sign up for another one myself. Almost.

As for my wife, she felt really great. She had a couple of minor snags in her training program and was only able to go over 20 miles once. But she hit the starting line fairly healthy. She typically runs at least half of a race with friends, but this time she did nearly the whole race solo. She started out quite slow as planned, hitting the 10K and 13.1 mile splits on a pace for a 4:13.

She made up a lot of time on the back half and finished with a 4:04 something. 2 minutes off her personal best. She wanted to break 4:00 really badly but didn't realize how close she was until it was too late, as she doesn't run with a Garmin, or a watch at that.

Her sister finished her 13th marathon. She had a lousy season of training, for her, as her two other marathons (Boston and Billings) this season were about 3:50ish.

She had a great day on Saturday, though. She ran nearly the entire race within earshot of ERCoug or Nikuman, and somehow managed to pass nikuman in the last 8 miles. She was within a minute of him at the 30K mark and ended up blazing the last few miles and finishing at 3:28ish.

Overall they had a great day. Fantastic weather and the organization was top notch, as always.

[Pheidippides]

Outstanding reports, guys. All of this talk is almost making me want to sign up for another one myself. Almost.

As for my wife, she felt really great. She had a couple of minor snags in her training program and was only able to go over 20 miles once. But she hit the starting line fairly healthy. She typically runs at least half of a race with friends, but this time she did nearly the whole race solo. She started out quite slow as planned, hitting the 10K and 13.1 mile splits on a pace for a 4:13.

She made up a lot of time on the back half and finished with a 4:04 something. 2 minutes off her personal best. She wanted to break 4:00 really badly but didn't realize how close she was until it was too late, as she doesn't run with a Garmin, or a watch at that.

Her sister finished her 13th marathon. She had a lousy season of training, for her, as her two other marathons (Boston and Billings) this season were about 3:50ish.

She had a great day on Saturday, though. She ran nearly the entire race within earshot of ERCoug or Nikuman, and somehow managed to pass nikuman in the last 8 miles. She was within a minute of him at the 30K mark and ended up blazing the last few miles and finishing at 3:28ish.

Overall they had a great day. Fantastic weather and the organization was top notch, as always.

Wow. Only two people passed me in the last 8 miles. She was one of them, apparently, and she must have been flying because I wasn't slowing down. That's a strong finish! I assume that's a BQ for her (again?)

[Coach McGuirk]

just want to say all these reports are great and congrats to everyone that was competing! They now have me doing 2 marathons this next year, instead of the 1 and retirement. I'm dumb.

[Joe Public]

Over the last 7.5 miles, I passed 318 runners, and was passed by 2.

I've been wondering how you kept count of that! I just found the link to the website that shows that stat. I passed 535 runners and was passed by two over the last 7.5 miles.

[Joe Public]

nikuman - great job; you earned what you got

Dwight - It sounds like you had a great race. You did much better on your first than I did; way to be

Solon - It sounds like you got what you wanted out of the day. Nice run. I'll admit I was jealous of the folks who could stomach the post-race ice cream.

ER - Hurting like that is awful; sorry to hear it. I'm guessing you were still top 15 to 20 in your division, but that doesn't make the day any less miserable. I feel wrecked after a race, too (nausea all day, etc.), so maybe some of us just react like that. Congrats on what was still a really impressive time.

SB's wife - get well soon

[Pheidippides]

Here's the latest addition to The Wall. I highly, highly recommend these shoes.

[Moliere]

Here's the latest addition to The Wall. I highly, highly recommend these shoes.

Where do you get the glass cases? I'm secretly hoping to be able to add one of these to my office soon.

[Pheidippides]

Where do you get the glass cases? I'm secretly hoping to be able to add one of these to my office soon.

Football display case from The Container Store. Got the idea from a friend. I wear a size 12 shoe, so I think this should work for most people.

[Solon]

I've been wondering how you kept count of that! I just found the link to the website that shows that stat. I passed 535 runners and was passed by two over the last 7.5 miles.

Aaah. I was wondering too and chalked it up to nikuman's iron-trap memory.

Very cool stats.

I passed 421, and was passed by 7 over the last 7.5.

ER beat me by 5.3 miles.

[ERCougar]

You guys finished strong!
On the other side of things, I passed 72 and was passed by 152 over the last 7.5 miles.

That runpix thing is pretty cool.

I finally looked at my official race splits:
10K 48:45
1/2M 1:49:23
30K 2:34:06
Full 3:42:50

The ONE thing I wanted to do was to negative split this. There's no excuse not to--most of the drop is in the second half of the race.

Ok...I'm done venting. Congrats on really well-run races, everyone. Seriously--niku ran a fantastic race, but he's run a bunch of these so he should (not to take anything away). Same with Solon. Joe and Dwight--I'm seriously impressed.

[Pheidippides]

You can watch the finishing video at voddov.com - they put it up last night, all 200+minutes of it. Mine is hilariously bad - form has broken down, I'm swaying like a drunken sailor and I have all sorts of funky faces as I break down emotionally. Also, the announcer got my name wrong. Awesome.

[Donuthole]

You can watch the finishing video at voddov.com - they put it up last night, all 200+minutes of it. Mine is hilariously bad - form has broken down, I'm swaying like a drunken sailor and I have all sorts of funky faces as I break down emotionally. Also, the announcer got my name wrong. Awesome.

How the hell do they get your name wrong? I mean, it's not as foolproof as some () but I would wager 95+ out of 100 high-school-educated Americans would pronounce your name correctly on first read. (On second thought, I don't think I've ever heard your name said out loud, so perhaps I have no idea how to say your name.)

[BigPiney]

You guys finished strong!
On the other side of things, I passed 72 and was passed by 152 over the last 7.5 miles.

That runpix thing is pretty cool.

I finally looked at my official race splits:
10K 48:45
1/2M 1:49:23
30K 2:34:06
Full 3:42:50

The ONE thing I wanted to do was to negative split this. There's no excuse not to--most of the drop is in the second half of the race.

Ok...I'm done venting. Congrats on really well-run races, everyone. Seriously--niku ran a fantastic race, but he's run a bunch of these so he should (not to take anything away). Same with Solon. Joe and Dwight--I'm seriously impressed.

Man, it gets better. Well a bit.

I am still pissed about how poorly I did last year. Your perfomacne sounds a lot like mine did, but at least your wife didn't run along side you for the first 11 miles and then go on to beat you by 27 minutes.

[Pheidippides]

How the hell do they get your name wrong? I mean, it's not as foolproof as some () but I would wager 95+ out of 100 high-school-educated Americans would pronounce your name correctly on first read. (On second thought, I don't think I've ever heard your name said out loud, so perhaps I have no idea how to say your name.)

No, I'm pretty sure you'd say it correctly. Not that hard, although it's admittedly very uncommon (I have actually considered changing it). I'd blame St George education except (1) I know plenty of intelligent people from there (including present company), (2) the announcer was probably from out of town, and (3) I am not going to criticize StG at all for this race because they did such a great job.

Dude wasn't even close, though. Apparently my last name ends with an r. Who knew?

[cowboy]

Congrats to everyone. My wife and I flew down and I was her support team. I had planned to run with her, but it became apparent in August that I was not going to get in shape in time, so I bailed. We flew down the day before with friends on a small plane, and she threw up the whole way, so I was really worried about her, but she was game by Saturday morning, and ran it with a PR of 4:15. Two years ago, the thought of running a full two miles was overwhelming to her, and now she has run two marathons. Her first was last year in the rain in Logan and she ran a 4:29. I'm really proud of her.

I feel like a real wuss not running, but this has been a rough summer. I'm hoping to run the Phoenix in March. The nice thing about this weekend for me, though, is that I ran St. George in 2008 when it rained/snowed, and I ran it with a stress fracture. Having run the St. George course, and run in the rain, my wife admitted that she had no idea how I did that, and has a new respect for me. That's a pretty good compliment for a woman who's had four kids, and with all but the last (an emergency c-section) was up running errands two days later.