Two days before the event I came down with a virus.
It took over 2 hours and 4 minutes to complete - not good.
This year I decided to run it again.
I've already documented my training woes in previous posts. With my left foot bugging me still, I probably wasn't running at my peak performance.
On the day of the race I forgo my running watch, leaving me clueless about my running time. I decide that I want to finish strong, and was determined to find a solid, but not totally brutal pace. I also figure I will look for somebody to pace me.
In the Merced half I found somebody to follow that seem to be holding a good pace and yet pushed me to keep up with them. I followed them for most of the race, but pushed past them when they stopped at the last rest stop about 2 miles from the finish. It paid off, I knocked ~5 minutes off of my half-marathon PR.
On Saturday, after picking up my race bib and goodie bag, we took a cruise from Capitola to Santa Cruz. I got to see all the hills and realized, no way, not going to PR here.
We found a nice restaurant on the boardwalk. I had my usual pre-race dinner of pasta and shared a bottle of wine with my support team (my wife).
I got up at 5 am for the race. I had bought some bottled, organic cold coffee. I ate a Clif bar while drinking my coffee.
At the start line I did some warming up and active stretching. I saw a fellow runner from my hometown. He was going to run the full marathon. We wished each other a good run and ambled off to do some more warming up.
At the start, people walked until they actually got to the start line. I guess they didn't want to run anymore than they had to. The running started off at a very easy pace and I just went with it for a while. Then gaps opened up and I started moving forward. A quarter of the way in and I had plenty of room.
I didn't feel like I was pushing myself until the last 3 miles. Even then I was consciously pacing, not working to hard to catch people who might pass me. My left toe nail started hurting - uh oh! I new I should have cut them before the race.
I didn't really find a solid pacer. Those last 3 miles there were ~4 different people I followed. Coming into the finish, the pacing paid off, and I was able to sprint to the finish. Nobody passed me in that last instant, and I passed several. Very satisfying. I'm going to lose that toe nail though - bummer.
I finished in 1 hour 49 minutes flat, at an 8:19 pace, placing 15th out of 55 finishers in my age group. I could do better, but I'm happy with this for now.
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