Getting back to Boston

Eight miles of taper/stress reduction after work. Given the stress reduction part, you could guess it would be a progression, and it was. despite not getting pushed by Lia like yesterday, it still wound up around 9:31 average. Checked my pulse when I stopped and it was about 120, and I'd pushed the last mile pretty hard.

Easy run after dark through Ben Geren. Legs took a bit to loosen, but wound up around 10:00 average which is what I wanted.

Ran on the Vegas Strip this morning. Nice day for a run, cool, clear, not much traffic. Could have done without all the escalators and stairways to pedestrian bridges though. Those were more of a workout than I really wanted. Now off to St. George.

Dawn run down a trail I didn't know was there 10 minutes before. Nice and cool, although not nearly as cool as it's supposed to be in the morning up at Central. I hammered 4 minutes plus on the way back to start the Aussie carbload, then went straight to breakfast and had waffles and OJ. Probably will go to the expo, get my stuff, come back and rest, then go back this afternoon for the first timers lecture. Then the pasta dinner at 4 or so.

Best marathon time since Boston. I got all my legs had to give me today so I can't complain. I knew BQ was highly iffy; my training just did not go that well. Missed too many tempo runs and ran too many 5Ks in there. But if I'm not as fast as I was 2.5 years ago, I can still wring what I have out.

Too dark to see the Garmin for the first 3 or 4 miles so I just ran by feel and what traffic would permit. Which actually didn't work out too bad. I averaged 8:01 for the first 10K, which would have been OK if I could have followed it up with a strong second 10K. But between the toughest part of the course, a 1:43 stop at the portapotty and just some not very strong running, I got to the half in just under 1:51, and 8:27. Third segment was largely downhill and I took some advantage but not enough, averaging 8:08 from 21.1K to 30K. Last 7 miles were largely downhill as well and I just didn't have it. Then I pretty much bonked at mile 24 and struggled for the rest of the way, with 8:39 and 8:44 miles for 25 and 26. Managed a semi "sprint" for the last 0.22 which just got me down to the 8:00 pace I wanted all along.

But thanks to that little sprint and the pitstop in the first half, I wound up with my first lifetime negative split on a marathon. A whopping 22 seconds, but negative split nonetheless. Then I cramped. Bigtime. Hamstrings and calves. Nice volunteer helped me stretch the hammies as I lay supine on the grass. I wound up having to walk most of the way back to the hotel, which actually helped. Although I am hurting like a big dog now. I would say though that I squeezed out everything my legs had to give. I felt the calves trying to go a couple of times in the last three miles; after the finish they just went.

It's my fastest marathon since Boston, 2.5 years ago. I'm just not as fast as I was then; there's a reason why the BAA bumps up the AG standards by 5 to 10 minutes per five years. And I didn't execute the training plan properly either. Maybe if I'd trained properly I could have gone under 3:35. My time without the pitstop would have barely been a BQ next year when I jump up to the 55-59 AG. But I'll need to do better than that (and train better than that) to actually have a chance to get in the race for 2016.