Philippians 4:13

Shamrock Sportsfest Marathon

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Location:

Idaho Falls,ID,USA

Member Since:

Apr 21, 2007

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Other

Running Accomplishments:

2007 St. George Marathon 2:32:06 (marathon PR)

2014 St. George Marathon 2:32:45 (close to old PR...7 years later!)

2014 Boston Marathon, 2:39:00, 298th OA, 8th AG, 1st Idahoan

2013 Lake Lowell Marathon, 2:48:34 (Course Record), 1st Overall (#6)

2012 Boston Marathon, 2:43:26 (HOT!!), 114th OA, 9th Master OA, 1st Idahoan

2010 B&A Trail Marathon (MD), 2:40:18, 1st Overall (#3), Master's Course Record (still!)

2010 Mesa Falls Marathon, 2:48:55, 1st Overall (#4)

2009 Pocatello Marathon, 2:37:22, 1st Overall (#2)

2011 The M.A.D. Marathon, 2:55:14, 1st OA (training run) (#5)

2006 Teton Dam Marathon, 2:50:48 1st Overall (#1)

2015 Hood to Coast Relay (195 miles), 1st Masters Team (6th OA), 19:59:57, 6:03 avg pace for the team

2008 Ragner Relay Del Sol (182 mile relay) 1st place team 17:04:37, 5:38 pace avg for the team

50,000 lifetime miles from spring 2000 to October 2019.  Computer logged 50,000 miles from Jan 2005 to September 12, 2020. 

Logged (on computer) 49,802 miles (2 x circumference of the earth) in ~5,700 days (8/23/20)

Logged (on computer) 24,901 miles (circumference of the earth) in 2,889 days (11/29/12) http://jeff.fastrunningblog.com/blog-My-alarm-went-off-I-got-up-eventually-/11-29-2012.html  

Short-Term Running Goals:

Keep on running, enjoy it for the sake of running, relax and enjoy life...de-stress.  Stay fit as I enter retirement in < 4years.

No racing, retired.

Long-Term Running Goals:

Keep running until this old body says no, running for fun.

Personal:

 I started running competitively in 2005 and ran my first marathon in 2005. Now retired from competitive racing.

Bend down, O Lord, and hear my prayer;

answer me, for I need your help.
Protect me, for I am devoted to you.
Save me, for I serve you and trust you.
You are my God.
Be merciful to me, O Lord,
for I am calling on you constantly.
Give me happiness, O Lord,
for I give myself to you.
O Lord, you are so good, so ready to forgive,
so full of unfailing love for all who ask for your help.
Listen closely to my prayer, O Lord;
hear my urgent cry.
I will call to you whenever I’m in trouble,
and you will answer me.  - Psalm 86:1-7

Favorite Blogs:

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Miles:This week: 16.00 Month: 157.50 Year: 484.55
Runs With Moxie Lifetime Miles: 12491.60
Vibram Five Finger Bikila Lifetime Miles: 137.80
Saucony Xodus 2011 Lifetime Miles: 982.61
Saucony Fastwitch White 2019 Lifetime Miles: 1960.23
Saucony Guide Yellow 2019 Lifetime Miles: 1187.00
Brooks Launch 6 Red 2020 Lifetime Miles: 2227.00
Zoot Solana Tigers Lifetime Miles: 877.00
Nike React Infinity Black Flyknit 2021 Lifetime Miles: 960.90
Nike React Infinity Blue Flynit 2021 Lifetime Miles: 602.00
Nike Air Zoom Pegasus 38 Lifetime Miles: 667.00
Race: Shamrock Sportsfest Marathon (26.2 Miles) 02:48:56, Place overall: 18, Place in age division: 3
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
1.5026.200.000.0027.70

Well, my first pacing gig is over...and I wasn't able to pull any of the women through to the trials.  Here is the story...

Weather last night was horrible with tornado warnings all over and massive wind and rain.  When I woke up at 5am, it was still raining a bit but the wind was pushing 20-25mph steady out of the NNW.  Showered, ate something, drank coffee then Gatorade, watched the runners for the HM make their way to the 7am start then headed down to the course.  Met up with Aimee and Claire to warmup and check the weather...windy which made the 46 degrees really cold. 

Lined up at the start and saw Katie (Danner) Aldridge from the Blog going for the OT!  We had all dressed in singlets as it seemed to be warming up, no rain and some glimpses of the sun. 

Gun fires and we are off.  Now my charge was to try and run fairly steady for a 2:45 -2:47 finish, which meant between 6:18-6:22 pace.  With the wind factored in, I knew we would need to use the wind at our backs to run some quicker but even effort miles to make up for the effects of the headwind.  Miles 1-5 wind was mostly at our backs, 6-16...HEAD ON plus mile 6-7 had the only uphill (over an overpass). Miles 16-19 still into the wind but somewhat protected, miles 20-22 crosswind, 23-26.2 wind at our backs. So I wanted to go a little faster, say 6:15ish at first, allow for the wind to slow us up for the next stretch.  Miles 1-6 went pretty much according to plan with couple of quicker miles but right on target.  However, by 5M my GPS was already measuring the course 0.15M long.  I was trying to keep steady, but the gals were kinda all over except for Jessica, Claire and the twins, Katie Danner and a couple I never met, so we did not have a consistent pack.  Mile 8-11 was a really #$% as we hit the boardwalk with the wind head on.  I jumped to the front to take the wind and push a little back onto the OTQ pace and quickly started losing some of the gals By 13M it was pretty much Jessica, me, Alan from NY who was helping out and another guy.  I asked Alan to take Jessica while I tried to get the remains of  the pack back up with us.  By 16M, Jessica and Alan were up by about 25 seconds and I was trying to pull Claire along in second (no one else in sight at the time).  Claire was struggling, running low on fuel through 20M.  At around 21M, notice third place women (Karissa) coming up fast and notice that Jessica had dropped Alan.  So I put on the burners to catch her by 23M and try to pace her back down to see if we could get the 2:47.  She was running well, but everytime I tried to push back to OTQ required pace, she could only hold a 6:27 (which is what she was holding from about 16M on until I caught her).  We turned onto the boardwalk, saw the finish and saw 2:47 click over.  I burned ahead a little so Jessica could have the glory shot of 1st place by herself and she clicked in at 2:49 and change.  The rest of the women started rolling in, with the top 15 or so breaking 3:00. 

So, I was kind of a failure in my pacing gig.  If I would have held the 2:45, I would have dropped everyone so I held back to try and help the ones that I could.  By 16M, it was down to place, not OTQ so I tried to help 2nd along for a while but feel I let Jessica down if I would have been there to push her a bit more.

I forgot how much sea level makes a difference!  Never even breathed hard once, even when I ran my sub 6:00 pace at 22-23M.  If I had been running for me, I think I could have beat the 2:35 guy, which could have put me about 6th.  Oh well, maybe next year.

On that note, this could be a good men's OTQ for the FRB, but the weather can be vary unpredictable and could be a dream killer (as it was for these women).

Splits:

1-6:32

2-6:13

3-6:04 (a downhill helped here)

4-6:13

5-6:15

6-6:19

7-6:10

8-6:27 (first mile into the wind on the boardwalk)

9-6:19

10-6:29

11-6:17

12-6:28 (starting to slow for the pack)

13-6:17

14-6:41 (stop to wait for the pack to catch up)

15-6:39 (pack struggling, only Claire hangs on)

16-6:35 (trying to coax Claire thru the next few miles)

17-6:32

18-6:34

19-6:35

20-6:50 (a bit of uphill and a nasty crosswind)

21-6:20 (see 3rd coming on, start to chase down Jessica)

22-5:51 (in pursuit of Jessica)

23-5:55

24-6:27 (pushing Jessica, but could not get her any faster)

25-6:27

26-6:27

0.2-~3:00 (put I have the last stretch at more like 0.5M)

So, overall I enjoyed it but wish I could have helped the women to OTQ...any of them.  Kind of bittersweet.  The gals and assistant elite program Director all said I did all that I could do to help, but...All the women racers were very nice and I want to thank them all for the opportunity and trust they put in me to help them out.  I don't remember all their names, but it was great meeting Allison, Brandy, Aimee, Jessica, Claire, Katie and Katie, Jennifer, Karissa and Bev (who has run all 6 OT to date but did not make it today for this next one) and the others that names escape me at this late hour.

Now, off to DC for a week of training in a really swank hotel in Foggy Bottom.

 (Tangents - 185 miles)

Comments
From Adam RW on Sun, Mar 16, 2008 at 20:03:29

Great tale Jeff. Sounds like despite the outcome it was still a good experience. You'll have to have a Guinness for me tomorrow for St. Pat's. I had mine tonight with some corned beef and cabbage...

From jtshad on Sun, Mar 16, 2008 at 20:06:32

Thanks, Adam, I just got a few suggestions of good Irish pubs here in DC to hit. Of course, I had a few Yuengling lagers at the post race bash before leaving, unfortunately they didn't have any black and tan (Yuengling is great beer!).

From Jon on Sun, Mar 16, 2008 at 21:03:02

I enjoyed reading your tale and found myself rooting for you and the women. Sad none could make OT. You all tried hard, though. Was today their last chance? On an effort level, how hard was it running the 2:49?

From George on Sun, Mar 16, 2008 at 21:22:52

Jeff

Wow. 2:48 controlled. Sweet. As always, solid work, solid entry.

Too bad on the ladies - but I am glad they had their shot.

GZ

From wheakory on Sun, Mar 16, 2008 at 21:31:33

Nice job Jeff!. The wind definitely was a factor or your pacing group would have made the qualifying time. Great job and I bet you would have been under 2:35.

From Adam RW on Sun, Mar 16, 2008 at 21:42:35

Jeff, The more I think about it the more amazing your story becomes. How many marathons have you run under this time? To go out and do it as effortlessly as you made it sound seems great to me. I'm really eager now to see the next race you truly hammer...

From Lybi on Sun, Mar 16, 2008 at 22:30:46

Great job, Jeff! You did a great job of helping in every way you could. That's all anyone can have expected of you. Man, something is seriously eery about running a marathon that fast and not even breathing hard. Can't wait to see how your next marathon goes.

From jtshad on Mon, Mar 17, 2008 at 05:46:44

Thanks everyone.

Jon, yes, this pretty much was their last real chance. As far as effort, it wasn't hard at all (comparatively speaking, all marathons are hard but I felt I had held back a lot to keep the pace for the women).

Adam, this was my 10th marathon in the last 2.5 years and I have run 5 of them faster than this (Boston 06 was just a bit slower and I was done after that one!).

From Dale on Mon, Mar 17, 2008 at 08:32:08

Only part I disagree with was where you said you failed at the pacing gig. Sounds to me like you did everything possible to help all of the women to make it but you can't run it for them. The weather issue was a bummer but this wasn't the first marathon in the last 12 months where weather was an issue.

Great race and nice job...you've definitely got some fast times in you just waiting to be let out! Congrats!

From Katie on Mon, Mar 17, 2008 at 08:54:30

Jeff was AWESOME! I was over-the-top happy to see a fastrunningblogg'er was going to pace us! It was rumored that we had over 25 2:42-2:47 female marathoner's in all. The first 1/2 was super fun and felt easy despite the wind(1:23:30), we had a good pack of girls working together for most of that. There was no room to loose the pack though, once I was left on my own, the wind was too much, I got cold and completely fell apart. Words can't describe how I felt for myself and the other girls who were in the same boat as me.

There is no other race next weekend that I know of. Since I really only ran 18 miles at MP, I am feeling pretty good today and would try again next weekend if there were another race anywhere that would be fast enough.

Any chance of organizing a last minute St. George Marathon for next Sunday?

From jeremystaples on Mon, Mar 17, 2008 at 09:11:17

Hey Jeff, it was great to meet you this weekend. I'm sorry things did not go exactly as planned, but it sounds like you did a great job (I was wondering where the pack was when we saw you around mile 13). I can attest to the nastiness of that wind and I faced it for a much shorter time. Anyway, great job!

From James on Mon, Mar 17, 2008 at 09:55:59

Great job and a great post! Now that you have done your service you can go back next year and kick some trash.

From MikeBPR on Mon, Mar 17, 2008 at 09:59:08

Thanks for the comment. Pacing is fun, but my hands are down to you, I am not trying to get folks in to OT's I am just helping them to PR's. If I could I would make pacing a full time job! Its fun to run and help others, but I do miss racing for myself. I think the further away from your race pace, the easier it is to run it for others. When I paced for a friend in RnR AZ, I wanted to go faster since she was dying out and I was recovering from injury and feeling great...in the end she set her PR by 1 minute 44 seconds and I knew it was worth it!

Happy St Patties Day, enjoy DC!

From josse on Mon, Mar 17, 2008 at 20:16:21

Great effort in trying to help all those woman. I hope you are there when I am tring to quilify:) I am sad to hear that no one did especially Katie. Darn

From MichelleL on Mon, Mar 17, 2008 at 22:03:13

Jeff, I feel so much gratitude for your efforts and I wasn't even in the race! Thank you so much for doing what you could for the women in the race. I am sure they are very grateful too.

From jtshad on Mon, Mar 17, 2008 at 22:28:43

Thanks again everyone.

Jeremy, it was a real pleasure meeting you and running with you, hope to do it again some day.

Katie, sorry the day did not turn out the way you wanted. I really wanted to see all of you get the OT and wish I could have done a whole lot more to help get you there. You still have a lot of great running ahead of you, keep you spirits up and keep moving those feet fast. It was a pleasure meeting you.

From superfly on Tue, Mar 18, 2008 at 08:12:45

Way to be such a nice guy and help out. That isn't something that just anyone can do for others. Too bad none of them made it. But on the flip side what a good training run for you. Hopefully you don't have any recovery phase and you'll be all set for your next race. Good job!

From Jim on Tue, Mar 18, 2008 at 10:51:13

Sounds like you did a great job trying to pace them to the OTQ but the one thing that is out of our control is the weather. Great job as usual!

From Chad on Tue, Mar 18, 2008 at 10:58:31

Jeff-what a great entry. Sounds like you did everything you could do on the pacing end. However, it always seems to come down to what is going on race day. . . the conditions, the weather, the competition, etc. Too much you can't control. However, it sounds like a great experience and your friends are fortunate to have you out there with them. Enjoy your trip.

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