"By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail"

The weekend started with a flight from Dallas to SLC on Thursday afternoon. The view of the snow-capped mountains was pretty awesome! I stayed at Tom Slick’s house in Sandy on Thursday night. We drove the 288 miles to SGM on Friday morning, making sure to come into town via the marathon route. It looked just like it did when I ran this race in 2007. We traveled the breathtaking route from Central, past Veyo, Snow Canyon, and into St George.
Went to the Expo, twice. Met up with Huans32(MarkO), Kristi, Utahrunner (Kathie), Hickgirl(Kimmie), their mom, Rd Runner (Jeff) and Megan, Chad and Jon (from Fastrunningblog), Smooth, Canyon (Marcie and her family), Kodi (Mel and his buddy, whose name escapes me), Saw SweetiePie and Mr. SweetiePie walking back to the hotel. Rode with Mark and Kristi to Brick Oven where the early birds were finishing dinner while we waited and mingled for a good hour outside. Finally got to meet Gumpchump (Teena and her husband Ry – who is not quite as tall as I had imagined…it’s just that Gumpers is so teeny), Smooth (Susanna and Larry), SweetiePie (and her hubby, daughter, and future SIL…I’m so sorry that you left before we got seated, but your sacrifice probably saved us another hour of waiting!!! ). Saw Don Gardinero (Dale, who went somewhere else to have Mexican food).Saw BeMo, Bennett, Alisak (and Lex), and Robow8 who finished eating before we got seated. I’ve never gone to a race and seen so many familiar faces. Dinner was alright, but the company was excellent!
Flashback 2 weeks
While running what was to be a 13 miler at marathon pace, I was stopped in my tracks by a terrible right calf cramp at mile 5. At least I thought it was a cramp. About a week ago at mile 5 of a 6 mile tempo run the same thing happened. I hadn’t run since..hoping that 5 days of rest would cure whatever was wrong with my calf. By Saturday morning I felt good, and had no lingering calf pains.
Saturday, 3:20AM. Slick and I picked up Dale and headed over to catch the early buses. We met up with Jeff and Megan and ended up getting on the 2nd bus. Got our “massage fast pass” stickers and a chance to win some fabulous prizes.
Got to the top, picked up some free gloves, took a few pictures by the “St George Marathon Starting Line” then made our way to the 2nd fire from the end. Had about 2 hours to kill, but time flew by as more and more forumites showed up. I think I heard that the temperature was about 38 degrees at the start, but the fires (if you could avoid smoke inhalation) helped much. With about 15 minutes ‘til start time, those of us planning to run in our 3:15 group dropped our bags and headed to the “eLite corral” (How cool is that? In there with all the speedsters!!) Soon thereafter someone said “Go!” (I think) and we were off.
The first few miles went by right on schedule. I tried to run right in the middle of the road. Our group of 5 or so stuck together and conversation was flowing. The cool morning air with a slight tailwind felt awesome!
As we approached the 6 mile mark, my right calf tensed up and started to cramp. I was afraid of that… I said goodbye to the group and worked my way over to the right shoulder of the road and started to stretch it. What a major disappointment. I was worried that this exact thing might happen…and it did. Now what? It was still dark, and very lonely as the throngs of runners passed by. I decided to see if I could jog a little and maybe figure away to hobble myself to the finish. I found that if I ran on the right shoulder of the road (slowly and out of the flow of traffic), and angled my foot slightly outward, ran very flatfooted, that I could tolerate the pain, and that the cramp didn’t get any tighter. If I ran above 8:00/mi it didn’t seem too bad either. I decided that I would walk-run the rest of this thing and make it to the finish. I spent too much time preparing for this race to DNF.
After a few miles the pain stopped getting any worse, and the calf never got any tighter.
I walked through all aid stations, making sure to stay well-hydrated and took Gus at the right times. The downhill sections gave the calfs a nice break, but I walked and stretched quite a few times on the few uphill sections that there were. At any other marathon, I’m not sure I would have been able to finish.
Eventually, I got passed by the 3:15, 3:20, 3:30 pace groups. I really didn’t care about time…
The crowds were exceptional this year. Up near Snow Canyon – the fans were giving the infamous Wellesley girls some competition. The wall-to-wall people as we entered St George were a welcome sight. (It’s a little easier to NOT walk, when there are crowds of people and little kids looking for side-fives.)
With about 2 miles to go, I could hear the crowd talking about the 3:40 pace group that was right behind me. I never looked back to see how close they were – but it gave me a new goal – to stay ahead of them. By now, I pretty much knew I could finish, so I picked up the pace a little. With about ½ mile to go I saw the guy with the American Flag up ahead. He had passed me a few miles back, and I decided I’d try to finish with him. I caught him and crossed the finish line just ahead of him (he got his picture in the St George Newspaper..but they managed to crop me out :0).
I made my way around the showers, got my 2nd St George Marathon Finishers’ Medal, shook the hands of 2 men in wheelchairs, and made my way to the Blue Bunny booth. By the time I got back to the finish line, I saw Fly, Huans32, Canyon, and Tom Slick. It’s about here that I decided to stop my Garmin. (doh!) I hung around the park for quite a while and ran into Lark, BMR, Robow8, Hawkeye, Mrs. Hawkeye, Mrs. Fit, Smooth, RdRunner, Mrs. RdRunner, and ??? I never sat on the grass, in fear that I wouldn’t be able to get back up.
As I write this I have my leg elevated. My right calf and ankle are still a bit swollen, and I’m going to take a few weeks off to see if I can’t totally recover from whatever it is that is bothering my calf. I’m wondering if it may be some sort of tear. This was my 18th marathon in less than 4 years, and I’ve never had anything quite like this happen. I’ve had the usual tightening after 18-20 miles, but never at 5 miles. I’ll give it some time to heal, then evaluate whether any more marathons are in my future.
Even though I finished in a respectable 3:37:55, I’m a bit disappointed. The weather was perfect to give a PR a shot. I’m disappointed that I couldn’t stick with Huans32 longer than I had..maybe we could have pushed each other along further, maybe not. On the other hand, I’m satisfied to have finished..and hopefully without any permanent damage to my body!
Saturday night HillbillyRunner, Tom Slick, Theresa (I have no idea what her forumite name used to be…but had the exact same finishing time as me this year, 3:37:55..how bizarre is that?), and her husband, Canyon, Canyon’s sister, and I attended the St George 10-year Club Banquet..even though it was only my 2nd St George, it exposed me to a group of crazies that have been coming back for decades! One woman has completed all 33 St George Marathons (and nearly 200 total marathons). I get tired just thinking about that many years of pounding the pavement. St George has quite a community of long-time, close-knit runners. It’s a very cool race.
Once again I owe a debt of gratitude to my host for the weekend, Tom Slick. He’s a heck of a runner and a great tour guide and friend! Thanks, Slick for another memorable marathon weekend. (Y’all really need to clean up that Great Salt Lake a little and add a beach or something!)
I applaud those of you that came to St George with your “A games” and went home with some PRs, and feel the pain of those of you who came up short of your expectations. I can truly empathize. In a few weeks, when the swelling and pain have completely subsided, I’ll probably start getting that urge to run at St George again.
Lessons learned:
The early bus is really not worth it. Sleep is better. (If I won something, I might think differently about this one. The fast pass was OK, but the massage was a bit painful..especially on the calf)
Eat at the Expo. The food might not be great, but there is no waiting and lots of room to mingle.
They didn’t have drop boxes for clothes at the first few aid stations this year. I’ll miss my hat and shirt…but I knew there was the chance I wouldn’t see them again (if they did make it back to the tennis courts, I forgot to look for them).
Bringing a folding chair or air mattress to the starting line is a great idea. A pup tent and a sleeping bag might be even better!
Stairs are no fun for about 48 hours after the St George Marathon. Even 3 days later they’re just now getting bearable – not quite running up or down them.
If you get pizza as your pre-race meal…have them hold the onions and peppers—and if they don’t Tums work pretty well.

Splits
01 7:29 167
02 7:35 161
03 7:29 145
04 7:22 143
05 7:33 148
06 6:56 144
07 8:03 139
08 8:53 149
09 8:18 150
10 9:37 140
11 8:52 148
12 8:45 143
13 9:01 139
14 8:56 141
15 7:52 144
16 8:01 139
17 8:49 139
18 8:13 140
19 9:09 143
20 8:53 136
21 7:56 139
22 8:33 143
23 8:38 139
24 8:34 137
25 8:21 145
26 7:52 152
26.2 ??