Sunday 082111 Pikes Peak Marathon 2011

My PC is dead and so this is getting posted via a loaner. This will be a relatively quick one - I will get other stuff up on the race posted later this week. I have a ton of post race thoughts and folks to thank. A lot of thanking ...

3:06 up. I decided to try to pace for a 2:50 up, and was right near that through No Name Creek. As I climbed things got progressively slower but not by much through Barr Camp. After early running sorted stuff out, I was running near Sean O'Day and about 20 yards behind Brad Poppele - but it was one of those taffy works. Sometimes it would be really close and then other times it would really stretch out.

Above Barr Camp, things began to slow. I was not fried, but I just could not go. I got to the A frame and Sean and Brad had begun to pull away and I started to get eaten up by a couple of other guys. Above Aframe was a mess. I must have walked 75% of that. I just had no power. I watched guys just float away from me. Sean and Brad probably put 4 to 8 minutes on me in that stretch.

I strongly suspect that a good deal of this is because of a lack of long run training, and probably more importantly, a lack of training up high. Equally important however is the game that this plays in your head. Physically, even though this was 20 minutes slower than last year, it felt pretty close to the same (other than the walking). But that starts to mess with your head because you see the splits. In other words, I was probably as mentally unfit for running up high as I was physically unfit.

Seeing 3:06, I was thinking that based on how that felt, and the heat down low, a sub 5 would be a tough day. I had not bothered to count the number of runners ahead of me but I loosely guessed it was around 30 or so.

So I started down. Through the up, I had pretty much been able to keep a good mental view of what this was - a day of fun running on the mountain. At the Cirque sign down I took a quick fall on my hip on the turn in the pea gravel while avoiding runners up. No significant damage and I was on my way.

At about the 2 mile to go sign, I caught my first runner. I was convinced, seeing those who were just behind me that I would get caught by at least a couple of guys. I was not running crazy hard - but steady ... strong, but careful not to do anything stupid that would cause a big fall or make me unable to work the lower hotter down.

And that is what it was ... I picked folks off slowly but surely. I got to Barr Camp back down right at 4 hours and thought that a sub five was certainly doable but then got the oh so fun cramps that shoot up the back of the hamstrings. I talked out loud "easy, like water, relax, careful, water, flow down like water." As stupid as it sounds it worked (but the switch backs still caused some spasms).

In the lower Ws I caught JV. The competitive side of me was happy to catch another runner, but my heart broke a bit because he had been running strong for so long.

4:49:22 for a finish. I caught ten guys on the way down, and no one caught me. My down looks to be around a 1:42 and change.

Given the training I have done, the expectations I had based on that, and the uphill that I did, I am pretty happy with the outcome. I think I did pretty much what I could out there today. I am probably more fit a couple days after this run than I was going into it. While this is not my best or worst performance, I probably had more fun out there than I have had in a long time (the snow year of 08 in the Double is pretty close).

More to come in the days to come.

Splits:

Ruxton 2:59

Hydro 9:54 (6:55)

Top of Ws 33:53 (29:59)

No Name Creek 50:01 (16:08)

7.8 Sign 67:47 (17:46)

Barr Camp 87:35 (19:48)

Bottomless Pitt 1:42:12 (14:37)

Aframe (or 3 to go sign) 2:09:29 (27:16)

2 TO GO 2:27:35 (18:06)

1 TO GO 2:44:43 (17:08)

Summit 3:06 42 (21:59)

Barr down 3:58:20 (51:38)

Finish 4:49:22 (51:02)

This guy is amazing.

This guy is too.