AM - woke up at 5:30, dressed and got ready for the half marathon. My calf was still bugging me a bit, but not as much as before, so I was kind of hopeful that I might be able to still run a good race. Got to the start at 6:10, went to the bathroom, warmed up and then did some strides. I could feel my calf during the strides, and that had me worried before I even started. Took off, and ended up starting a bit too fast, but found my pace fairly quickly. First mile was around 6:25, I believe. At this point, I wasn't very confident in my ability to be able to maintain this pace, and I think I started experiencing some negative mental attitude at this point. My calf was still in the back of my mind. Second mile was about 6:55, I think. I felt like I was already redlining here, even though this was slower than my anticipated marathon pace. On top of that, I was feeling concerned about my calf, and didn't want to risk seriously injuring it this close to St. George. Mile 3 was 7:15. I felt like I was already wasted - not good, and my calf was starting to tighten up. I decided at this point that I was going to bag the race and start walking once I got to the aid station and pace Laura through the rest of the half. This had been my plan B ever since I had the problem on Saturday. I never thought of quitting, but I decided at that point that this race was no longer about me, as I would not have been able to get a PR, and would have run a major risk of getting a more serious injury. I started walking at the 3.5 mile mark, and ended up walking for a mile before Laura caught up to me. I admit, even though I knew I had decided what I was going to do, it was pretty discouraging seeing all of those runners pass by me. I didn't start feeling better until I saw Laura start to catch up to me. Then I focused on trying to get her up to her target pace. We did manage to slowly improve the average pace by a few seconds per mile by the time we reached the turnaround, and then it was almost all downhill, which helped her, I think. We hit some low 10:00 miles and had one mile below 10:00, and then Lybi joined us at the 8.5 mile mark. I was trying to be a good pacer, but I kept letting her fall behind me. Finally Lybi and Laura settled into a routine of catching up to me and slugging me on the shoulder in order to motivate her. At about mile 11, I think she started to run out of gas a bit, as our splits were slowing, but she toughed it out, and finished very strong. After the race finished, my calf was quite sore and tight, and we gathered up everyone and then headed back to Mike and Laura's, where I put some ice on my calf and sat down on the couch while Lybi finished packing us up. Overall, a disappointing experience to not have been able to race this the way I wanted to, although I realized that the altitude had really affected me, and I would not have been able to hit my splits anyways, so the disappointment was eased by being able to help pace Laura. In addition, we were able to have a good time visiting with Mike and Laura, and we brought Lybi's parents with us from New Mexico, where we stayed Friday night, and then Lybi's other sister Rebecca came over on Saturday evening as well, and they stayed until early Monday morning. So I rate this as a great family time, good time being a pacer, and not so good race (for me). Oh well, that's life. I am going to go easy on the calf the rest of this week - all cycling for me, and will have Lybi scrape and massage the heck out of it. No more MP miles until my calf feels 100%. | 