One again, I have waited too long to write this race report up and many of the details have escaped me. CIM was one of the last races to qualify of the Olympic trials, so the field was deep, especially on the women’s side. It was different to be running with so many quick women in a race. Congrats to the almost 30 women and 20 men that qualified to the Olympic trials that will be held at the Houston Marathon in January!
With all the other stuff that has been going on, I was unsure if I was even going to run this race even though I had signed up for it quite some time ago. In the end, I decided that I would just go do it and more or less make a plan the morning of the race. It seemed like recovery was slow to come after Portland marathon and I felt like I had struggled with the long up tempo runs in that I would get out about 15-17 miles and the legs would just go dead, almost like a bonk. This concerned me since I felt like I was not making good progress with my training. Thanksgiving morning I did the Turkey Trot 10k out at Scheels. A couple of days before I had picked up a pair of Saucony Kinvaro 2’s that I intend to use for CIM , but wanted to put some miles on them to ensure that there were no major issues. The morning was cold, clear and calm and I was able to run a solid 36:30 so my performance was looking OK. Back to CIM; I ended up going over to Sacramento with Jeff who had recently been coming to the Saturday group runs and splitting a room with him. We drove over, checked into the hotel and went over to the expo to pick up my packet and was able to get in and out in short order. We did walk around a bit but I had everything that I needed so no need to purchase anything. Jeff did pick up a few items. We met up with the rest of the CIM group at an Italian restraunt and had dinner with the group. It was a fixed menu with a choice of main course. I had the pasta with pesto. After dinner we headed back watched a bit of TV and headed to bed. We were back up at 4 am got dressed and headed down to the continental breakfast then on the bus to the starting line in Folsom, near the federal penitentiary, you know, the one Johnny Cash sings about. It was about a 30 minute drive to the start where we got off and hit the long line of “little blue rooms” at the start. I had read in other blogs that the line of port-o-potties was impressive, and it was in real life. We climbed back on one of the buses to stay warm and hung out until about 15 minutes before the race. Shortly before the starting time, I headed for the start line, placed the majority of my warm clothes in the goodie bag from the expo with my number on it and tossed it on the appropriate truck to be picked up at the finish. I did keep on a cheap, disposable quarter zip top until moments before the race. A few minutes before the start, I decided that I needed to hit the bushes one last time. On the way out, I bashed my knee and lower leg on a large rock. This scraped it up good, but I walked it off and by the time I got back to the starting line, it felt fine. I had decided to run near the three hour pace group for a portion of the race then some time near the half way point evaluate how I was feeling and evaluate and act accordingly. I lined up near the three hour pacer and the countdown began. Off everyone went and I made a concerted effort to hold back since I had gone out so quick, way too quick in Portland, plus the start here was down hill. I caught up to the three hour pace group at about mile two, so they must have gone out quick. At this point the pace felt relaxed, but I know that I was moving well. So I decided to that the plan was to just hold this pace and see what would happen. As before I made a conscious effort to take water at all the aid stations. For fuel, I had packed 4 vanilla Gu’s in a pair of shorts with pockets. The cups were small at most of the aid stations, so after spilling more than I consumed, I started getting water bottles off the tables at the start of the aid stations. These were much easier to get water in me than on me. I was to later find out that the water bottles were for the elite runners. Oh, well, I was running slower than even the woman’s QT, so I figured that I was not taking water from anyone. The bottles were great when I needed more than a splash to get a Gu down.
As the miles ticked away it is always interesting to see people ebb and flow around you. New faces will appear at your side then move ahead or fall back. Some you run with for a long time others just for a moment. Some you see once, never to be seen again and others you play hop-scotch for the entire race. The flow of fellow runner is dynamic in that your are running in a pack then, you find yourself alone- new faces and “old friends” something to distract the mind in the middle of the race.
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