Steamboat Marathon 2011

This blog is a few days late. But I choose to think of it as being a few weeks early. After all my original plan was to run the Seattle Rock N Roll Marathon at the end of June, not Steamboat Springs at the beginning. But, such is life. And it may have turned out for the best...

I joined Glenn and Carrie from Runner's Edge of the Rockies on the drive up to Steamboat. We had a great time chatting and listening to music. Definitely Springtime in the Rockies! We were a little worried about how high the Yampa River was (as in, almost to the bottom of every bridge that crossed it), but we had been assured by the race directors in a recent email that the road for the race was still dry, and that the race was still on! ("Funny, I never would've thought that it might not be. What would they have done if they'd had to cancel it?") First stop in town was at the Expo, where I got my race stuff and spent some time chatting with a few Runner's Roost teammates. Dinner that night was at Cugino's, one of a few Italian restaurants in town. There were about two dozen of us from Runner's Edge, basically taking over a corner of the place. Plus, everybody else in town was eating there too. ("So, what, service was slow I'm guessing?" "Only slightly.")

Early Sunday morning, I was on a bus to the marathon start. I had everything I would need for the race. I also had a throwaway shirt, throwaway pants, and a throwaway jacket. ("Also arm warmers, gloves, hat, tights, vest, jacket..." "It's June!" "Yeah, at 8,000 feet! Remember what happened on Day 1 of the Bicycle Tour?") On the way up, I tried to pay attention to the feel of the hills. Going down the first hill, which would translate to the last climb of the race, I remember thinking that it didn't seem so bad. ("Let's see if you still feel that way after 23 miles!") At the top, I touched base with Carol, Amy, and Marissa from Team Roost, and also Laura and Sheila from Team RER. We wished each other good luck and got ready to run.

The start was sort of funny. There was a woman with a megaphone who had been announcing, "Seven minutes to the start...six minutes to the start...five minutes..." and so on; so naturally I assumed there'd be some kind of final countdown for the last ten or at least five seconds. Well, if there was, I didn't hear it. Instead, the gun suddenly went off! Good thing I wasn't right on the front line! ("Of course, if you had been, you might have heard the count!")

During the first few warmup miles, I remember feeling very inconsistent. I knew the paces I wanted to hit, but for some reason had difficulty staying on them. I'd feel like I was on pace, but my Garmin would tell me I was going too fast. So I'd try to slow down, and overcompensate. But after the first four miles (including the first big uphill climb), I hit the long downhill stretch. It was time for me to bank some time. But even here I wound up running too fast for a lot of it. I'd planned on holding a steady 8:31 pace for this big downhill, but I wound up all over the map. Some of my splits were closer to 8:17, and at any given time I'd look at my Garmin and see I was running even faster than that! Over the course of the next ten or so miles, I averaged about 8:20 pace.

Then there was the surprise uphill just past the halfway point. As is my wont, I'd been studying the course map for the last week or so--the elevation chart, really. And that chart didn't really show a climb at mile 14. So that was a bit of annoying. Still, that was an 8:30 mile. And I was still feeling really good. I was a little ahead of my pace, and managing to stay hydrated despite the lack of aid stations because I was carrying my own Gatorade. My walk breaks every mile were fairly quick, because it's easy to walk fast when you're walking downhill, but were giving me a small rest and chance to reset. The miles were just flying by.

When I finished mile 20 and my Garmin read 2:54:55, I knew I was going to have a sub-4 hour race. Even if I slowed to a 10-minute pace till te end, I'd still achieve my goal. Naturally, I didn't intend to do that: I still wanted to keep running and maybe even finish under 3:55! Little did I realize that I'd need every second of the time I'd been banking up so far.

For almost the next 5k I was actually in pretty decent shape, although I was running a bit slower than I had been (deliberately. I'd slowed my pace a little bit, hoping to offset that by taking less walk breaks--every other mile). Then that last, long uphill climb happened. The hill seemed a lot longer and teeper than it had four hours earlier on the ride up. Fortunately, the weather was still cooperating. It had been pretty overcast and cool all morning.

The last 5k into town was pretty torturous. It was finally starting to get warm, and I was definitely running out of steam. I walked a few short stretches in miles 23 and 24, then picked it up to a jogging shuffle for the end. I tried to draw energy from the spectators (now that I was in town there were more of them). That helped, but my calves started spasming due to dehydration, which really scared me. I was afraid they'd give out on me and I'd go down and not be able to get back up. I really can't overstate how legitimately terrifying that thought was.

Running down Lincoln, I finally could see the finish line in the distance. "Eleven blocks!" shouted a spectator. It looked so far away! I looked down for a few moments, then looked back up. It didn't look any closer!

The RER crew less than a quarter mile from the end was a truly welcome sight. Despite how strong everyone says I looked when I reached them, I was really struggling, and my calves were shaking so bad I was sure I was going to fall. As I ran past, I called out (begged, really) for someone to run with me to the finish. Good ole Bret, who had driven to about mile 21 to get some pictures earlier, didn't hesitate. He ran alongside me, shouting encouragement. I focused on his words instead of my spasming legs, and on the finishing clock as it edged towards 3:59:00. I crossed the finish line just as it reached that time. My Garmin said 3:58:51. I'd done it! After chasing a sub-4 finish since the very beginning, and dealing with coming close last year in Cleveland, the heartbreak of falling apart halfway through Chicago, and the demoralizing failure at New Orleans, I'd finally done it.

I was beyond thrilled, but also a bit surprised. Between this and my consistently good races at the Georgetown to Idaho Springs over the lasts few years, I always seem to perform well at altitude. Better than I tend to do at lower elevation. I have no idea why that is, but I suspect humidity is the culprit. I think that's what did me in at NOLA (I know it was the heat that killed me in Chicago). Nashville, Disney World, and Omaha were all warm and humid races, and not my top performers. On the other hand, windy OKC and elevated (comparatively) St George were great races for me! Clearly, I have issues running in humidity.

Now, for the honor roll! Big props go to my Runner's Roost and Runner's Edge teammates. Amy S took the women's win for the second year running. ("Before the race, I asked her if she was going to try to defend her title. She said she wasn't too concerned about it; she wasn't running with a watch, and just wanted to have a 'fun' race." "Well, I imagine she'd qualify a second title as 'fun'!") Carol S and Sheila D both ran good races, as did Marissa M and Laura C. Jeannene G took 3rd in her AG at the 10k, and Denice M took 1st in hers (and 4th overall). Once again, I'm honored and humbled and blessed to be a part of such great teams!

Official Time: 3:58:47
YTD Race Miles: 77.8
YTD Total Miles: 656
Mid-race bathroom breaks: 0