Sunday, December 07, 2008

CIM 2008 Marathon Results


Sacramento International Marathon


December 7, 2008

Results Summary:

Chip time: 3:15:55
Division place: 56/466
overall place: 635/5198
pace/mile: 7:28
1st half: 1:38:34
2nd half: 1:37:21

Details:

We (Carles and I) flew up on Friday. It was extremely foggy in Sacramento so we were delayed out of San Diego for a couple hours. We got in late and were staying at the Grand Sheraton in Sacramento which was the HQ for the race. there were three different companies (building supply, auto parts and bio-med) having some rather boring XMAS parties at the Sheraton. So we left in to explore Sacramento a bit. After taking a VERY COLD walk around town we ended up resorting to Domino's pizza as everything else was closed.

Woke up after eight hours sleep on Saturday and got some coffee and checked in at the convention center. We won some yogurt drinks and spent some time at the expo and then went on a 25 min brisk run. I grabbed a subway turkey sandwich while Carles did some more exercise and shopping. we headed out for a early dinner and ended up at a upscale Mexican restaurant at 6 pm. We both at the gigantic "el burrito" which seemed to turn into stone after digested. strange pre-race meal. after going out a bit more, I turned in at 10 pm and woke up the next day at 4:45 am.

I had a single gel and some power-aid drink. hopped on the bus at 5:30 am (very long bus line) and ended up in Folsom at 6:00 am. there were like 1000 porta-potties there the 6,000 people looked more like 10,000. My bus was not returning to Sacramento so I remained on board until 6:25 and just listened to the radio. Why did I remain on board? As it was 38 degrees outside!

I finally got out to the 38 degree weather, stopped by the portapotty, walked over to the start line and dropped off my sweats in the truck. It was mighty cold with short and a long sleve jersey and gloves at 7 am! I got up to the front and looked around and found the 3:15 pace guy and decided I'd start with him. I ran in that group steadily until about 6 miles when I had to stop by the porta facility again. I tried to catch up when I emerged, and kept the group in my sight for awhile, and then let them drop away. I came through the 1/2 marathon at about 1:38:55 and felt great. The small hills up were complemented by longer hills down, and the cold weather really made it ideal.

I kept going at the same pace and never really felt that tired. around miles 17/18 I started to feel I was slowing, but then there was more downhill and I used that to speed up and then remained at that speed. I had hit mile 16 excatly at 2:00 and wanted to hit 24 miles at exactly 3 hours - which I did. Beginning at mile 22 I dediced that I felt good and began speeding up. by mile 24 I felt fine running 7:10, then 7:07 for mile 25 and 7:04 for 26. I realized I could have probably pushed a bit more a bit earlier and probably gone close to 5 min faster (maybe) overall.

In the end I had negative split by 30 seconds in the second half and felt pretty good when it was done.

Mile Splits:

1. 0:07:27
2. 0:07:27
3. 0:07:27
4. 0:07:30
5. 0:07:35
6. 0:07:50
7. 0:07:16
8. 0:07:56
9. 0:07:26
10. 0:07:28
11. 0:07:36
12. 0:07:29
13. 0:07:32
14. 0:07:32
15. 0:07:32
16. 0:07:22
17. 0:07:35
18. 0:07:34
19. 0:07:23
20. 0:07:39
21. 0:07:32
22. 0:07:38
23. 0:07:23
24. 0:07:10
25. 0:07:07
26. 0:08:29 (7:04 for 1.2 miles)

total: 3:15:55