Casper Marathon 2012

For my first marathon since June of 2011, I chose to run 26.2 in Casper, Wyoming.  Finances had a large part to play in that decision--I figured a four-hour drive and two tanks of gas would be cheaper than a flight to just about anywhere.

I'd been watching the weather reports closely and with some concern for the past few days.  Temperatures for today were predicted to be in the 80s (which wouldn't happen until hopefully well after I was finished), with winds of up to 14mph (which might well happen during my race).  I was mildly worried because, as I've discussed before, I don't run well in the heat.  But as I've also discussed before, I run pretty well at altitude.  Since Casper is essentially the same elevation as Denver, I was counting on that working in my favor.

My (embarrassing) total lack of understanding of basic geography led to what turned out to be an entirely erroneous impression of the course.  In short, I thought there would be a lot of trees and a lot of shade.  I could not have been more wrong.  Nearly the entire course was open and exposed, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

And no wind.

My goal was to finish under 3 hours and 50 minutes.  Or at least, finish faster than 3:58, which was my PR time from Steamboat exactly one year ago.  That would mean setting a pretty aggressive pace; but I'd been training for that pace since January and had some really excellent long runs doing so.  In fact, all 3 of my 20+-mile runs had been just stellar.  So my confidence level going into the race was pretty high.  Once I got going, though, it dissolved pretty quickly.

I'm happy to say that I maintained my 3:50 pace pretty well for the first 5 miles, but then started to lose it.  I slowed a bit over the next 5 miles, to about 3:55 pace (obviously, those are marathon finish times, not minutes per mile).  But somehow, at mile 11, I completely fell apart.  I rallied a bit for the next couple of miles, but that was all I had.  The second half of my race saw me walking a lot, and saw my average per mile pace slip from sub-9 to between 11 and 13, with mile 23 coming in at 14 and a half minutes.

I had a four-and-a-half hour drive back after the race to dissect, analyze, and ultimately come to peace with today's race, and during that period I decided that I just started out too fast.  I'm not yet ready for a 3:50 marathon.  Or at least, not one without a lot more shade.  There are other things I could have done differently, or better.  But, as I discussed with another runner as we were trudging along mile 23, I still finished faster than all the folks who were behind me, plus everyone who was still on the couch at home.

Official Time: 4:33:51
YTD Race Miles: 52.9
YTD Total Miles: 636.9
Herd of Antelope: Sure, I'd heard of them.  But I didn't see any.  Not.  One.