December 1st and 2nd was a busy weekend, on Saturday I attended the Western States 100 mi. lottery, and Sunday was the California International Marathon (CIM). For the weekend I had two wishes, 1) Get into the Western States 100 (1:6 odds), and 2) qualify for the Boston Marathon (run the CIM under 3:11:00).
My first goal (get into WS100) didn't happen. With a 1:6 chance of getting selected, realistically I knew I wouldn't get selected. I plan on applying every year, hopefully they don't change the 3 year rule..
(El Presidente)
At the CIM 2007 I did reach my goal however (ran a 3:06), and qualified for the Boston Marathon. It was a cool day, but luckily I was wearing my new Swain Sports Performance Shirt. When the race started I made my way to the 3:10 pacer, this was the guy that I needed to follow to qualify for Boston. From the start I was a little sore (ran a tempo run the weekend before, not the best strategy), but the 7:10 min/mile felt comfortable. I have the habit of getting antsy at runs and running faster than I should, luckily I had my friend Tom to rein in my desire to run too fast! I reached mile 13 at 1:36, right on pace and feeling good. Around mile 20 I started to feel really good, and I decided to see how fast I could finish. Compared to many of the previous ultra marathons I had done, 6 miles seemed like a short distance. Yet the last 6 miles are never easy! Nonetheless, I pushed through and finished the race at 3:06 beating my only other marathon time (Big Sur) by 36 minutes. Tom finished at 3:18, beating his PR by 12 minutes!
The CIM is a fast course, and with a overall elevation decline it is a great course for a PR. I felt good about the run, but afterwards I was questioning whether I could have ran a 3:00? I ran a positive split (6 minutes faster on the second 1/2!), and I probabl ycould have ran faster, but I now have my goal for the next marathon. As far as the Boston Marathon, my wife Heidi had already made travel arrangements before the run, so it was critical that I qualified!!
(Wall? What wall?!)
(Tom, Gordy, and I Post-Race at the Capital)
