My experience with getting taken for my hard earned money would show up again Friday night in St. George. Of course, pasta dinner was in the works so the whole crew rolled to Scaldoni. Our great friend Whitney made reservations for us back in March for like 10-12 folks. They didn’t have a table for us, however, so we had to split up. John, Lindsay, Colleen and I sat together. We each ordered pasta with marinara sauce. However, little Colleen and her little girl Lindsay planned to split an order. The waiter suggested that they just get two kid orders instead because that would be cheaper. When the meals came Lindsay and Colleen had these bowls of pasta that even I would not be able to complete. John and I received ours and asked, “where’s the rest of the food?”
The girls clearly had more food than either John or me. I said we were victims of getting short changed but the waiter said we were victims of an optical illusion. It only looked like Lindsay and Colleen had more pasta. WTH? 17 dollars later for me – I also ordered one $3 meatball and I knew the restaurant was part of a clever ruse to take me for a bunch of money this weekend. Did I mention the girls only paid four freaking dollars each for their meals? Seriously, four dollars.Saturday, October 4th, 2008, a date which will live in infamy. That's just a joke. I have run much worse marathons. The Denver '07 marathon was much colder and wetter. Atlanta '05 Marathon course may have been more challenging. But St. George '08 was, I'd say, a preponderance of the worse aspects of the aforementioned. It started raining sometime during the bus ride to the start. A school bus, by the way. I noticed quite a few more hills than the St. George advocates claim.
In spite of the rainy morning, I really felt I was well prepared for this race. I had everything in place. Two good, pre-race trips to the water closet, plenty of hydration earlier in the week, a peanut butter & honey sandwich two hours before start. Everything in its place.
As I wished success to all my other running buddies just before the start I jotted back to the 4 hour pace leader. When I introduced myself to Catherine I subtly inquired on her qualifications. She was more than able to get me there. She even assured me that we would slow down at Vale hill (the 1 mile trek up & around some dead volcano).
I was all set. When we started I really felt great. Took me about 4 minutes to get across the start line. We ran along in the pitch dark for some time. The great thing about running in the dark is you can never see the hill. I mean I was able to see about two people in front of me at best. It was so wet out that I thought I would truly slip, fall and end my race there in the dark. Another great thing about running in the dark is that you can jot over to the side of the road and do a number one without anyone being the wiser. Of course, that’s just what I did. “Ahh”, I thought standing there in the dark, “It’s good to be a man”.
After running back up to catch up with my pace girl we were really on our way. The run was so comfortable. I knew I had a great chance of making my target. There were so many times that I had to pull myself back from picking up the pace. I knew I could keep up this pace all day. The plan was starting to become more tangible with each step. I would run along with this group through mile 23 or so then I would handily increase my pace until I had a good five minutes between us. It’s nothing short of amazing what your mind will do in the early stages of a marathon. I guess it had just reason though, I don’t remember the last time my body felt so prepared before and during a 26 miler. No stomach problems, legs felt rested but not heavy. That’s really all there is in distance running…legs and stomach. You can push through hours of running with a headache, busted skin on your shoulder blade, strained back. But, if your legs (any part) are giving you grief, you will contemplate stopping and will probably stop depending on the severity. Do not let your stomach start acting up on you, you’ll drop out for sure…after all, most of us are not going to win so we don’t want to risk being covered in our own disgust just to get to the finish. I digress.
My legs and stomach were moving me to a PR, not only a PR but I was going to hit my goal time. It was there. Already I was excited about the prospect at mile 7. My trusted Oakley Thump II, mp3 shades were jamming out some Rock, Hip Hop and the like. The rain was not a real bother because I had my music and I had loaded a bunch of new songs, some given to me by one of my great running buddies, Beth. There I am, just behind my pacer, feeling strong and knowing I could do this all day. I heard Catherine say that we were going to slow down now because we were hitting Vale Hill. I looked up… That ain’t no hill, that’s a HILL! No matter, the pace was not that bad, ATP had prepared me for this. So had Loving Hill. I was fine. Suddenly, my Thump II stopped thumping. It just died. That was OK, though, because the first three years of marathoning I ran without music, I just press on. But, it will suck wearing shades I don’t even need.
Now, what is that sound? Some strange beeping. Every time I move my left arm, there it goes again. It’s my Garmin, it wants my attention. “What’s wrong Garmin? Why are you making so much racket?” In one second intervals a screen pops up, “Memory full, delete runs”. Keep cool, Don. No need for panic. I reassured myself. I’ll just delete some runs and be on my way. Well easier said than done. Had it not been for the 350 bucks I spent on that thing two years ago…I would have tossed it in the desert. Every time I pushed a button the watch would beep and go back to that stupid screen. “I’m trying to delete runs but you won’t let me you stupid idiot”, I mentally screamed at my Garmin. After several attempts, in the rain, barely able to read the screen, I figured it out. You must press the button between the one second beeping intervals.
Once I was done messing with my watch, I was nearly at the top on Vale hill. When I reached the crest I looked up and Catherine was gone. My pace girl with the Cliff Bar balloons, where was she? I peered between the rain drops searching for those freakin’ balloons. I think I see them, so I take off. I can catch her, I did it earlier. And the downhill was there to aid me. There must have been times going down that hill when I was one minute or more faster than my race pace.
It was all to no avail. I would never see Catherine or those balloons again. What I did for the next 9-10 miles was slowly come to that realization. It was so funny. Every now and again I could see them and thought I was getting closer. I’d see a water stop ahead and know that they must be hitting that stop. My solution always included some version of plowing through the water stop and catching up with them. It never worked. My mistake was thinking I could make up the difference so quickly. It would cost me in the end.
All that tough running, jetting down the hills as quickly as possible. Marching up those long hills that were to come. Ledges Parkway – approaching the top of that hill was worse to me than the effort at Vale Hill. I remember seeing the green Ledges Parkway sign. It was off in the distance (you can see for miles at so many points on this course), and the incline looked fairly serious. I just thought to myself that I would concentrate on something else. So, thoughts of catching back up with the elusive Cliff Bar pace girl kept creeping up in my mind. If anything it served for great distraction. After all, I had no music (my Thump Pros are dead forever), couldn’t tell the distance on my watch (had to reset Mr. Garmin miles earlier), and I was pretty winded from all the hard running.
The end of the trek to Ledges Parkway wouldn’t come for what seemed another hour. Don’t forget, this is a pretty long hill. Once I crossed it we did see many more down hill runs. The rain never stopped, of course, and the head wind was just another excuse I could use. Now it would be unfair to think these are just excuses. Many of my friends from Dallas would have done even better if not for some of the conditions. They did perform well in spite of these issues.
Biegel, Lindsay, Colleen, and Garlon all qualified for Boston. That was really no surprise, they’ve been doing great this season. Amir, John, Jim and JJ were great out there, too. JJ and Jim set PRs and I think Amir did as well. John had a nasty knee and was not able to train for like 8 weeks or something. Still his performance was strong.
All in all the race was tough for me because I over did it trying to catch up with the pace group. The up hill parts of the race were pretty serious. The down hills were so brutal that I tore a hole in the toe of both socks!
The end of the race was awesome. Both good and bad. When I realized that I would not meet my goal upon crossing the finish line, I nearly cried. That’s no joke. I cannot remember the last time an emotional expression that strong took over me. I sucked it up though ‘cause I’m a man! Haha.
Awesome on the good side because, even though it was pretty cold, the marathon supplied ice cream sandwiches and cones. I tore into those. Wow, they were so good. My teeth were chattering away as I was digging into the cold treats. I tried my best to get brain freeze but I don’t think that’s possible when your body temperature is already very low. Then I sat down near the fruit tables and gobbled down as many vines of green and red grapes as possible. After barely coming back to life I started freezing and hyperthermia was near. I headed over to the help tent where they fixed me up with a blanket and heated saline bags to wrap around my neck.
Jump forward to me making it back to the Holiday Inn after hitching a ride with perfect strangers. I was simply too cold to try to find a shuttle or anything. To gain enough sympathy to convince someone to give me a ride, I stood around with my arms wrapped around me, teeth chattering and looking lost. I asked a young couple (the guy was a runner and the girl in jeans and a jacket), “do you know which way to the Holiday Inn?” The reply was, “that way I think” as he pointed clearly in the opposite direction. So, I just stood there for a moment with puppy dog eyes and finally the girl said, “can we give you a ride”? I resisted the urge to reply, “Hell, yeah, why do you think I’m standing here?” Instead I nodded politely and we were on our way.
After hot tubbing it with my crew, enjoying a pizza party by the pool, and picking up some Starbucks and Dairy Queen, we all headed back to Las Vegas. Sorry, no stories to tell about Las Vegas. You know the motto. Let’s just say, a fun time was had by all.
One little note about Holiday Inn in St. George…they continued the grift theme with an up charge of $100/night during the marathon and required two nights stay. The audacity. After a little convincing though they did refund us for one night.
I did PR after all of this. Not my goal, but I’ll take the extra two minutes. Never, never stop running.
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