California International Marathon - RunMarathon

The run started out really, really well. I had been warned about going out too fast, cause the first couple of miles have a lot of downhill components. Multiple times I reassessed my pace, and decided that it was good, even though it was a little fast. The 4.0 hour pace group seemed a little slow for me, so I just ran by feel - and pretty soon that group was no longer in site. The first 5 miles or so just flew by, it was entertaining just watching all the clothing people were stripping off and tossing to the side of the road. I kept close tabs on my mile splits, and all were "too fast" per my race plan, but the pace felt really good, and I was still breathing through my nose (not breathing hard at all). I even briefly entertained the idea of catching the 3 hour 50 minute pace team, but threw that out as a great idea, for another race - told my self to just "stick to the plan" of breaking 4 hours with this one.

The miles just kept clicking by, for the most part the first half was uneventful. I took a gu every 40 minutes or so, opened the bag of Powerbar cola things, had a few of those every hour or so, and took a shot of cytomax and water every chance I had. For some reason they served the cytomax out of hard plastic cups - which meant you had to stop and walk to drink.... Not sure what the reasoning was, but those cups didn't work very well.

At the 13 mile point, they had an awesome crowd of spectators and fans, really got the runners pumped up. A block later, when the crowds were all gone, is when I think most of us realized the first half was the easy half - now the real work would begin. I had planned to meet up with my support team at the 1/2 way point - somehow we missed each other. That was a little disappointing, but I tried to "feed" off the other fans, and use their energy to help support me.

Up until about mile 22, every thing was going perfect. I knew I was doing OK pace wise, and was still feeling OK. My quads were started to talk to me a little bit, so I took one of my salt tabs, hoping that would prevent any cramping issues. Just about then, as I passed a group of spectators, they yelled "GO 4 hours, you guys Rock" and I thought - what the hell are they yelling about??? Just about then the 4 hour pace group overtook me, and swarmed around me with the 50 or so runners following that group. Now, I found myself back in a huge pack of runners, jostling for position, and trying to get on the right side of the street to hit the water stops, etc.

About mile 23, the pace group pulled about 50 feet in front of me - and I thought - this is it - this is where you make a decision, do you pull out all the stops and catch these people, or do you let them go, and let your dream of a sub 4 hour finish be destroyed???

I gritted my teeth, put on the meanest look I have in my arsenal of mean looks, and started trying to catch them. If you had asked me at that point, I would have sworn they were running an 8 minute mile pace, cause I was running just as hard as I could, and was just barely catching them. Finally, about mile 25 I caught the pace runner in the back of the pack, overheard him say that they had "gone a little fast", and that he was going to slow down so that they crossed right at 4.0 hours. My new goal then was just to stay in front of him, and bring it in to the finish.
My quads were really starting to yell at me at this point, so took my last salt tab, a 1/2 dozen sport beans, and drained the last of my water bottle. I figured "this is all I have to keep cramping at bay, it will either work or it won't", but I'll be done with this race one way or the other in 15 minutes.


Finally, we turned off "L" street, onto the finish leg. A crazy group of three females took the wrong chute, then turned around and came back at me - I almost collided with one of the women about 100 yards from the finish!! Finally in the chute, just concentrated on running fast, cause I did not want to somehow miss that magical 4 hour window.

My wife got an excellent photo of me crossing the finish line, only trouble is it shows "gun time", so it doesn't look like I actually beat the 4 hour goal. Maybe I can get my son to do a little photo shop magic for me.

I feel like I executed this race flawlessly. Training wise, we should have been a little more aggressive with hill training, lots of our long runs were in the flatlands around Chico. I dawned on me this morning that this was the first marathon that I really "raced". My previous two marathons were not really races - I would call them more a "survival test". This one I actually raced, and tried to make every second on the race course count.

Oh man, the warm down was painfull. Once I stopped, I really could not walk - my knees were killing me, my quads were cramping, my calves were screaming... I got my medal, a bottle of water and a space blanket, and started shuffling over to the food area. Met up with my wife and Faith (her good friend from college) and gave them both sweaty hugs and kisses.
By that time I was freezing - it was still about 40 degrees, and I said let's skip the food and hanging out, and we just headed back to the car. Walked about 4 blocks to the car, had my crew help me take off my shoes and wet clothes, put on some dry sweats, and stretched out in the back seat for the ride home.


My "20 year old olympic caliber runner" mind is trapped in a well worn, 48 year old body that is better suited for working at a desk than running. With that being said, I really can not complain - I PR'd this race, by cutting around 24 minutes off my Napa Valley Marathon time in March of 2008.


Awesome race - from sign in to the finish, CIM took care of the runners, and did a great job.