Honestly, there's no way to make my race report interesting because the race itself could not have possibly been more boring. Um, wow. Sometimes you do what you gotta do though, and this was one of those times. I knew several months ago that we would have a crazy winter/spring schedule, so logistically, running the Yuma Territorial Marathon was really the smartest decision I could make. And sure enough, my husband is going out of town TOMORROW, so I got my winter marathon in the books just in time. His traveling schedule is only going to get worse from here on out. It really wouldn't have been feasible for me to train for a marathon past right about the January time frame.
So anyway, the race...
Not sure if you knew this, but Yuma, AZ is actually listed as the sunniest city in the world in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Bottled water from the bitchin' race packet they gave us. Even my 9-year old thought the goodies were lame. He did like taking one of the ink pens though.
Yeah, so it's sunny practically 365 here, oh, except for marathon day. That's right! Torrential downpour the first 3 miles of the race. Awesome. Eh, what can you do? At least it wasn't hot! I'll stop whining because many of the bloggers that I follow just did CIM, and that looked much, much worse. At least it stopped after about 30 minutes today. The rest of the race was sort of drizzly/misty but no big deal.
So in a nutshell, here is my race:
| 1 | 7:58.9 | 1.00 | 7:59 |
| 2 | 7:54.7 | 1.00 | 7:55 |
| 3 | 8:04.5 | 1.00 | 8:05 |
| 4 | 8:05.0 | 1.00 | 8:05 |
| 5 | 8:02.3 | 1.00 | 8:02 |
Imagine a view like this but wetter.
| 6 | 8:08.6 | 1.00 | 8:09 |
| 7 | 8:07.6 | 1.00 | 8:08 |
| 8 | 8:02.7 | 1.00 | 8:03 |
| 9 | 8:05.8 | 1.00 | 8:06 |
| 10 | 7:53.0 | 1.00 | 7:53 |
This but again, wetter.
| 11 | 7:55.9 | 1.00 | 7:56 |
| 12 | 8:03.7 | 1.00 | 8:04 |
| 13 | 7:59.5 | 1.00 | 8:00 |
I reached the turn-around point around 1:45:45 if I remember correctly. There was one girl WAY ahead of me (she ended up winning it in 3:17), and there were two others that I figured I'd be able to catch, as they looked like they were fading.
| 14 | 7:59.2 | 1.00 | 7:59 |
| 15 | 8:06.2 | 1.00 | 8:06 |
| 16 | 7:57.0 | 1.00 | 7:57 |
| 17 | 7:53.3 | 1.00 | 7:53 |
| 18 | 8:27.5 | 1.00 | 8:28 |
I had stopped to pee some time after mile 17. Just like in my last marathon. I ran to the port-o-potty announcing to everyone, "I have too many kids!" (mom bladder). I'm sure they were like, "WTH is she talking about?"
I tried to pull my shorts over to the side to be quicker but somehow didn't pull them over far enough and ended up drenching my entire R side with piss. Fantastic. Why did I even bother stopping?
| 19 | 7:58.2 | 1.00 | 7:58 |
| 20 | 8:01.7 | 1.00 | 8:02 |
| 21 | 7:55.5 | 1.00 | 7:56 |
| 22 | 7:59.8 | 1.00 | 8:00 |
| 23 | 8:00.6 | 1.00 | 8:01 |
| 24 | 7:59.6 | 1.00 | 8:00 |
More fields. More highway. More nothing. No one to run with. Or pass. Or anything. The nearest person was about 2-3 minutes ahead of me.
Finally entered the town of Somerton proper and was overwhelmed with greasy Mexican food smell. YUK. Not at all appetizing late in a marathon.
Hill during Miles 24-25. This is where I saw my only cheerleaders on the course--My friends Holly and Bill!*
(*Unfortunately, my husband was not able to come because Evan had a swim meet. You can't just drop Evan off alone because he's 9 and will miss events without a parent goading/nagging him to get ready.)
I looked at my Garmin and was gunning hard for that sub-3:30, but it just wasn't in the cards today. I think it was the combo of the rain, extra humidity, boring course, mental fatigue from boring course... Who knows?
| 25 | 8:11.1 | 1.00 | 8:11 |
| 26 | 7:40.8 | 1.00 | 7:41 |
| 27 | 2:43.7 | 0.39 | 6:59 |
Final results: 3:31:15, 2nd place female, 11th overall (There were 49 people in the marathon!)
Still pretty pleased with the end result. 7 minute PR, BQ, podium... Can't beat that.
Apologies that I haven't read/commented on any blogs lately. I'm teaching 4 classes this semester and am DYING. Will catch back up soon!
*Also, I have no idea why the font suddenly got smaller. Sorry!
