Salt Lake City Marathon

Getting There
I flew into Salt Lake City on Friday via Southwest. I really do not like flying with them, but anything to save a few bucks here and there. I thought it would be a direct flight but we had a brief stop in Phoenix. After getting into SLC, I got a rental car and headed over to my hotel right next to the Salt Palace Convention Center. After checking in and dumping off my stuff in my room, I walked over to the expo.

The Expo
It was a no frills expo. I was somewhat expecting something a bit bigger. I picked up my race packet and proceeded to visit every aisle. I bought a Superman keychain thingie for the Christopher Reeve Foundation and that was about it. I stopped by Dane Rauschenberg's booth to say hi and see all of the medals that he had amassed in the year that he ran a marathon in all 52 weeks of 1 year.

Carbo-load
After dropping off the race packet at my room, I headed over to the Gateway to find some food. I ended up eating at California Pizza Kitchen because I had a gift card. Ate a plate full of marinara linguini with shrimp and had a Wasatch unofficial amble ale which was recommended by the bunny/waitress. She was pretty much the only bunny I saw at this race. Too bad she was not running in the race. :D

The Race - first half
I woke up early and took the rail over to the starting line. There was plenty of water available and an abundance of port-o-potties called honey bucket... nice name. The race first started with the bike tour and the early start for the marathon walkers. Then the wheelchair folks took off. Finally came the full and half marathoners. The starting area was a tad cramped at the Olympic Legacy Bridge. I had to walk several yards after passing the starting mats before we were even able to start running. There was definitely a shortage of bunnies in this race. Only about a third were women in the marathon. I think most of them were running the half marathon. It didn't really play a factor because I felt rather fatigued from the get go. I didn't have the legs to be chasing any. The first 5 miles were easy because they were all downhill. The snow capped mountains in the backdrop was nice to look at while running. There came some pretty good rollers after the easy part was over. They weren't too tough, but I knew I wasn't going to have an easy day. While running through mile 12, my lower back started tightening up. This "bad patch" lasted about 2 miles. I had to keep reminding myself to relax as much as possible. When I crossed the halfway mark I felt as bad as I had at the Long Beach marathon. I was on pace to finish between 4:15 and 4:30. Good enough for me, so I continued to trot along.

1 - 8:50
2 - 8:39
3 - 8:25
4 - 8:42
5 - 8:47
6 - 9:03
7 - 9:56
8 - 9:20
9 - 9:47
10 - 9:42
11 - 9:20
12 - 9:54 - hit a bad patch
13 - 10:50 - the hills were getting to me

The Race - second half
The next couple of miles were a bit easier with a much welcomed downhill portion. Then things started getting bad. Both legs and feet felt tired and heavy. Took a pottie break between 17 and 18. I liked that there were no lines at all of the port-a-potties. I finally get to mile 20 and my legs quit on me. My quads and calves all locked up. I had to walk and eat some more shot bloks to get everything to loosen up. After that I just had to switch over to the run/walk method. The cramps would come back every now and then. Mile 25 was a long and steady climb. The sun was out at this point and I just felt like all of my remaining energy leaving me like there was a leak in my body. When I got close to the finish line at the Gateway, I tried to run quickly but everything cramped up again so it was a quick painful hobble to the finish. I'm glad that I dealt with the cramps instead of shutting things down and sitting on bus benches like I did at Long Beach.

14 - 9:33 - yeah for more downhills!
15 - 9:42
16 - 10:32
17 - 10:51
18 - 12:31 - pottie break
19 - 11:38
20 - 11:00
21 - 13:57 - yowzas! both quads and calves cramped up.
22 - 14:21
23 - 14:14
24 - 12:58
25 - 14:28 - long steady climb
26.2 - 16:25 - cramped my way to the finish line.
Finish: 4:43:38 Pace: 10:49