 posted Oct-22-2007 01:57 PM
   
I was able to drive out of Kansas City about 25 miles before stopping at a rest area for a 10 minute nap. I was so tired, but the nap really refreshed me. I was then able to drive the rest of the way to Des Moines listening to the Nebraska and Texas A&M game on the radio.At the expo I met a couple of friends from the UK. We had supper with another friend, Nelson, who was doing the announcing of things at the Expo. Nelson was the one responsible for getting me on television after I ran my 200th marathon two years ago at Lincoln. Nelson wanted to know why it took so long to run my 250th there at Des Moines. I told him I had an off year this year. The Des Moines Marathon was about 10 degrees cooler than KC, but it felt hotter. It was in the 50's at the start and near 70 at the finish. Saturday night, I did get 9.5 hours of sleep. In the early miles I saw Fortunate One getting my attention and saying HI. For my pacing team I had a mile by mile pace. Five hour pace is at 11:24 miles. My fastest mile is 10:30 and slowest is 12:00. The rolling hills are between mile 4 and 8. There is a long incline the mile before. After the half it is very flat. I started off with my miles being 10 to 50 seconds fast overall. At my mile 12 I was 1 minute and 9 second fast, but at the half I was only 20 seconds fast. I had different people running with me off and on. Some taking off ahead of me, but mostly they drop back. In my style of running I am usually slow somewhere between mile 15 to 21 and it happened here too. At mile 16 I am 2 seconds slow, not bad but I was slowing down. By mile 17 I am 34 seconds slow. Then at mile 18 I was 1:05 slow. That was my slowest point. Although I was slow at mile 18 I lost the 3 runners that were with me. They fee back. Mile 19 I am now by myself at least I think so. As a pacer you always have shadow runners that follow, but do not commit and you do not know they are there. Mile 19 I gain 4 seconds. At mile 20 I gain 11 seconds. I feel okay at this pace, but the heat is bothering me. Thank goodness there is plenty of water, gaterade, oranges, banana, and Gu too. Mile 21 I gain another 10 seconds. From here on I got a lot of remarks like "No way the 5:00 pacer is passing us." But I would pass them. From mile 21 to 25 I have 11:30 pace scheduled. Then 13:54 the final 1.2 miles for a 4L59:39 finish. I like making mine a little different and I have an extra 20 seconds to play with. Mile 22, I am only 31 seconds behind pace and doing well at knocking off a little at a time. Mile 23, I am off by 21 seconds. Here I meet a young woman wanting to know my pace and I let her know that I am very close and if she stays in front of me she will break 5:00. She thanks me and picks it up just a little. The last 4 miles is a nice run in the open and you can see the downtown in the distance, where you finish. I love running the final miles at Des Moines. Mile 24, I start losing track of my pace, my mind has really turned to mush and I am not sure. I am unable to caluculate my time any longer. One time I try and I am right on time and again I am nearly 2 times ahead and a third time I give up. I met a young couple and told them that I will be close. Just a matter of seconds over or under. Then I do not see them. My pace must be to fast. I will just keep this pace and maybe slow down just a little after mile 26 and I should be very close. I am a couple of hundreds yards away and I here the announcer saying, "Here is the 5:00 pacer coming in just under 5:00. I finally look at my watch and it is right at 4:59. I slow down just a little to let the runners around me finish in front of me. I know, I would feel a lot better if I beat the 5:00 pacer on my first marathon or any marathon for that matter. I finish just 3 seconds of my scheduled finishing time. I had a 4:59:36. After the finish I had two of the runners that dropped back at mile 18 thank me for my help. The gal from mile 23 told me, "If you were not on my ass the final 3 miles I would of never finished under 5 hours." The young couple from Mile 24 passed me in the final mile and finished just over 4:59. They shadowme without me knowing it in the final couple of miles. It was great to get so many comments. Although I thought I was alone much of the time, I actually was not. Getting that kind of response,there may of been many more. I really love running Des Moines and being part of the pace team there. They work with you several months before the marathon. It started with me in March. This is a great place to run a marathon and be with an excellent and experienced pacer. Next is Blue Springs Trail 50k in Blue Springs, MO, on October 28th.
TomD
[This message has been edited by TomD (edited Oct-22-2007).]
[This message has been edited by TomD (edited Oct-22-2007).]
IP: Logged |
