Saturday, May 16, 2009

2009 Ogden Marathon Recap.

2009 Ogden Marathon - Lifetime Marathon #65

Today was the Ogden Marathon which was located about 30 miles North of Salt Lake City. I have run this race 5 times previously with finishing times ranging from 3:39 to 3:50.
My goal this year was firstly to run sub 3:40, and hopefully to run sub 3:30:59 to ensure an early season qualifying time for the 2010 Boston Marathon and take some of the pressure off the rest of the marathon running season.
This event and others like to is not possible without the enormous sacrifice of hundreds of volunteers including the amazing bus drivers who get up in the middle of the night to take us to the race start. So here is a picture of our smiling and helpful bus driver whose name I forgot to ask. But thank you for taking the time early on a Saturday morning to drive the runners up the canyon to the race start. You are sincerely appreciated my friend.


This is the scene at the starting area as the sun starts to come up. The race start was 7 am.


My good friend Leon Dietlaf, aged 50, veteran of more than 130 marathons and a recent SLC marathon finisher last month with a time of 3:25. Leon offered at the last minute to pace me through the first half of the course as close to 1:43 as possible. ( which he did.. exactly 1:43 at the half ....thanks Leon)



Ellie my "seatmate" on the bus. Ellie kindly agreed to pick up my race packet at next year's expo so I don't have to make two trips to Ogden and can just drive up early on the Saturday morning and meet her at the bus loading area.

The several thousand runners converging at the start of the race. Note the endless line of porta-potties in the field at the back.




The Race begins:
Perhaps I should give my mile splits and a brief narrative here :
Mile 1 7:31 downhill start, a little too fast
Mile 2 7:42 put the brakes on, a little too slow
Mile 3 7:29 next 3 miles felt just right
Mile 4 7:39
Mile 5 7:38
Mile 6 7:59 need to pick it up a bit here
Mile 7 7:38
Mile 8 7:47
Mile 9 7:52
MIle 10 7:57 took my first pain pill here
Mile 11 8:22 stopped to pee at portapotty.. clear and well hydrated ...took an endurolyte salt tablet here
Mile 12 7:56
Mile 13 7:53
First half : 1:43 right on schedule with a 2 minute cushion for a 3:30 finish

The first half was nice and easy downhills, with a tendency to go out too fast as I have done in other years. Having a pacer helped immensely this year.
Second half of the race:
Mile 14 8:04
Mile 15 8:12 in spite of the big hill, I dug deep to keep the pace
Mile 16 7:56
Mile 17 8:16
Mile 18 7:46 steep downhill and the pain pill was working here. Caught up with Leslie, a good female runner from the Sojourners Running Club in Orem who toasted me at the Moab Half marathon the other month !
Mile 19 9:10 Took in a lot of fluids at the aid station to avoid dedydration as it was starting to get warmer now.. mid 60's I believe.
Mile 20 7:49 Leslie faded away behind me
Mile 21 8:19
Mile 22 8:23
Mile 23 7:57 At this point I was exactly on pace for a 3:30. If only I had taken another salt tablet at mile 15 as the calf cramps were starting to hamper my running now and I allowed myself brief periods of walking and stretching
Mile 24 8:52 Lost valuable time with calf cramps. This is not looking good. Behind schedule by 1 minute
Mile 25 9:02 Starting to become very emotional as I realized my dream of a 3:30 was fading and 3:32 was looking inevitable
Mile 26 8:24 Tried desperately to pick up the pace but the calf cramps were severe and I just could not get on an 8 min/mile pace. This part of the race I don't like as we are away from the trail and on the road for the first time heading South to the finish line which is looming in the distance.
Last 0.34 miles.... 2:41 ......yes the race was indeed long and added about 1 minute to my total finish time. Perhaps if the course had been correct I could have made up that 16 seconds somewhere in the last mile and reached my main goal.
Final finish time : 3:32:16 This is actually my best time in the last 2 1/2 years of marathon racing bettered by a 3:30:57 at Park City 2006 and a 3:30:19 at St George 2006
I was very emotional at the finish. I called home to give the finish time to Brianna then put the cryocuff on my knees and started driving home after a visit to the Wasatch Running Club 's "Grand Slam" tent to pick up some schwag which included a race cap and a cool water bottle.
Now I have 8 days to rest and recover before I tackle the Los Angeles Marathon which will be held Monday May 25th - Memorial day 2009

5 comments:

Jill said...

I am very impressed!!!! Thanks for documenting all the details, I feel like I ran the race with you! I hope you are sound asleep and dreaming sweet things!
J

Leslie said...

Hey Jonathan! I noticed it while looking at your long list of marathons on facebook, and you listed it here, but way to go on the Ogden PR! You did have a good race despite the 2 minutes over. Sounds like some wicked calf cramps for you, sorry. I love the "Leslie faded away behind me" part, I almost cried ;)
Thanks for running with me as long as you did though, we'll have to do it again soon :)

elaine said...

Great read Jonathon. I wonder about the calf cramps. Is there a salt tablet containing proper ratios of calcium, magnesium and potassium too? Thanks for sharing.
Elaine from the St. George marathon.

Dane said...

Congrats on a steallar time on a deceivingly difficult course.

I don't mean to argue with you but when you say the course is long I assume you are going by a Garmin or something of that nature, right? You are aware how non-accurate those can be, especially when running in a canyon. Plus it i next to impossible to run the exact tangent of this course becasue of the runners/walkers in the half that we run into. So don't blame the course for being long- blame the course for being tough. Then again, blame nothing - a 3:32 is an awesome time!

elaine said...
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