The evening before the marathon I could not sleep. First I made the mistake of going to bed late (11pm) and the adrenaline would not let me have a very restful sleep. This was OK though because it meant that I got to the buses very early (4am). So I waited around and chatted with a couple of kindred spirits until Scott, Kelli, Alan and Rachel got there. I also saw Walter and Misty some time later. A little while later I decided to board the bus for the LONG ride up the canyon. I swear it felt like the bus ride was taking forever. This was bad because halfway through the ride I had to go to the bathroom something fierce. The bus finally got there and I jumped out into horribly cold weather. The temp was in the 20’s! Luckily I dressed for the occasion with a jacket, long pants, and my beanie. But even then it was still cold. The lines for the port-a-potties were short (thank goodness) and after that I set out to find my sister-in-law and /or some of my running blog friends. Luckily I found everybody around a nice fire pit. The group was Scott, Kelli, Emily (my SIL), Eric O, Alan, Michelle, and Rachel. There were about 20 fire pits up there, which was nice. Then the countdown began.
The sun eventually came up and started warming things up. The call came to shed warm-up clothes and put them in the clothes bag truck if we so desired. This was about 25 minutes before the start so it was a bit painful but understandable thing to do. We then said our goodbyes and everyone made their way to the start area for their assigned goal pace.
This is one of my favorite parts of a race, especially a marathon. You literally can take in people’s excitement and anxieties. I felt so happy to have trained hard all those months, luckily without significant injury, so that I could be there at that moment pumped up to go. It is a feeling of elation that is difficult to explain and probably difficult to understand if you haven’t lived it. Everybody stands around and tries to warm up and stretch as best they can. We give each other anxious smiles and wish each other good luck. The harsh reality of what lies before you, those brutal 26.2, for some reason doesn’t seem to damper anybody’s mood. On the contrary, everybody is probably thinking “fire the freaking gun already”. Then when that moment comes yelps of happiness and celebration come from the crowd and the test begins.
I was completely pumped up at that moment. All the aches and pains that I had been dealing with miraculously went away and off I went. I had three goals for this race: #1 The acceptable goal – anything under 4 hours, #2 The challenging goal – anything 3:55 and under, #3 The “in my dreams” goal – anything 3:50 and under. If I reached any of those goals I would be satisfied with the experience. I told myself I would not make the same mistake that I did at Top of Utah last year when I went out too fast and at mile 19 I totally bonked. So I religiously tried to keep to a pace of 8:45 in the hopes that I could achieve a pace of 8:50 over the first 20 miles. The adrenaline rushes though you so powerfully at this point in the race that this is pretty hard to achieve. I was pretty successful over the first few miles. However, I quickly realized that my Garmin distance and the course distance were over a tenth of a mile off. The course being further than the Garmin, of course. So I told myself that I would have to pump up my pace to make sure that I achieved at least an 8:40 pace on my Garmin. This strategy ended up in me running closer to an 8:35 pace, which was a little too fast for my ability.
One thing that drove me crazy over the first five miles is that the road was really sloped and when you have horribly flat feet like mine it makes running very uncomfortable. Well, aside from that the downward slope was actually very nice and I really enjoyed the run. I found this guy that was running exactly at the pace that I wanted and I paced him for a few miles. That was great. Then the guy messed it up by stopping to get water. I wear a CamelBak so I have no need to stop. After that, I didn’t look for a pacer anymore and decided that I was on my own. Overall the first half was great. The downhill was awesome the scenery was beautiful and the support staff were second to none. This was a great experience until I reached the half and realized that had run it at a PR (1:53). My exact thoughts were “damn!” (pardon my French).
I had, once again, done the first half too fast which meant my hopes for a negative split were probably gone. Then I saw it, the hill at mile 14, holy crap. After the marathon Kelli said that when she saw the hill she was not fazed by it at all. I cannot relate to that because when I saw the hill my heart sank. It looked big and ominous but I bit down and made my way up it. I definitely lost some time here but was pleasantly surprised with how well I felt at the top. I got a second wind here and got right back on pace. The downhill felt good at the beginning but after a while it didn’t help all that much. I started feeling very tired but not bonked tired. The uber-steep downhill at mile 18 was actually very nice and I got a second wind here. Between here and mile and the start of the trail I had ups and downs but for the most part I was able to maintain about an 8:55 to 9:00 pace. Then I got to the entrance to the trail and saw Jolynne (my wife), Sofia (my youngest), and Jacque (my wife’s aunt) cheering me on. That definitely gave me a boost and I was very grateful. However, then I hit the trail. The trail sucked.
The trail was very narrow and I felt closed in. Things got worse when I started catching up to people from the half marathon. I was so tired by now that I kept my head down and almost run into two half marathoners. At about mile 24.5 I was so tired I had to take a walk break. I walked about 10 seconds and then panicked about not hitting my goal, so I picked it up again. One grueling mile later I had to stop again. I was done. However, the thought of not reaching my goal was horrible so it gave me the boost I needed to keep going.
I finally made it out of the stinking trail and a spectator said that the finish line was four stop lights down the road. I could clearly see the stop lights and it looked like a long way but I stuck to it. At this point I started running into a lot of spectator support which was great. I picked up my pace. I was close enough to 3:55 on my Garmin that I did not want to mess up the opportunity to come in under that goal on my chip time. I picked up the pace and was finally able to make out the numbers on the clock at the finish line, they read 3:55:01. I started pumping my fists up in the air knowing that I had a chance to come in under 3:55 for my chip time and I had certainly beat 4 hours. I started to run faster and I heard a “Go Jose!” I looked to the sideline and it was Walter, fresh as can be, with a smile on his face and a finisher’s medal around his neck. I later found out Walter took fourth place overall in the race. I waved to Walter and ran into the finishing chute, cheering all the way. I did it! I later found out that my chip time was 3:54:40. I reached my challenge goal and I cut 40 minutes from my Top of Utah time last year. The best part was catching up with my family across the fence in the runners area and being able to bask in the accomplishment of the day.
Overall the 2009 Ogden Marathon was great. Incredible organization and support from the staff. The finish line was awesome, especially the runners area, which had all sorts of great goodies and good support. The course was more difficult than what I expected but the experience overall was top notch. I will be back. Congrats to all my fellow runners. To me Scott and Emily were the heroes of the day. Emily’s back went into really bad spasms at mile eight but she still suffered through it and finished. Scott was on his way to shattering a BQ when just after mile 20 his entire body went into cramps. Miraculously (no joke) he still finished. I am inspired by their performances. | 