Redding Marathon - RunMarathon

Oh my gosh what a day! 40F, raining all day and puddles, soggy shoes, wet, wet wet! I went with just running in my tri suit. This was the hardest race I have ever done.

I had a 3:30 minute PR on the first 5k of the race (20:00) (ya downhill)
A 6 minute PR on the first 10k (41:50).
A 7 minute PR on the first half mary of the race (1:35:00).
and a 30 ish minute PR on the full distance Mary (same course), which got me to a Boston Qualifying time by 37 seconds (3:19:23). Phew.

The vast majority of the race was in zone 4 and there was a total of 3500 ish feet of elevation gain.

The first 3.5 miles was steep downhill, working the quads and giving me a nice hotspot on the ball of my left foot. I was worried that it was blistered, but oh well nothing to be done about it. Legs were stressed by the downhill, but settled into a pace once it got flatter. Folks were passing me (there was a relay component to the marathon) and it was hard to keep my pace down as folks went by and hard to regulate due to ups and downs every mile (not excatly flat). So not only was it raining, but there was a fairly strong headwind for 20 of the 26 miles. I tried to relax and settle into a rythm, did so fairly well and then hit the uphill section of the course. The hills started out fine, but then got steeper and just kept going from mile 10 to 15 ish. I hit the hills fairly hard wanting to keep my target pace relatively intact. I knew I would lose some time here.

By the time I got back down on the flats I could tell that the initial downhill and later hills had taken quite a bit out of my legs. It was getting much harder to maintain pace and the seconds were startting to add per mile. I knew I was on pace at the half way mark and wanted to just stay as close as I could to my pace without loosing too much. I didn't have much of a buffer. I just kept trying to be close to pace. I passed my family at 18.4 miles and they cheered me on, Yay! Then I headed on toward the last significant hill. At mile 19 I had to increase my effort increasing my respiration from breating in once, out twice per three foot strikes to in and out per 2 foot strikes (Typically Z5 ish effort, although my HR did not reflect it, still Z4). When I passed mile 20 I figured that I would have to maintain an 8:00 per mile pace over the last 6.2 miles including the last hill. I wasn't sure I could hold the line. I pressed on, trying to maintain 8:00 per mile, and was able to so for the next 5 miles. The last 1.2 miles was tough, very tough. My get up and go had got up and gone. I just tried to salvage what I could. Then at around mile 25.4 I started the extra loop away from the finish line while being able to see the finish line, I had less than 7 minutes to make BQ time and .8 miles to go. I was hurting to the turn around and then just hit it for the last .4 miles rasing my HR to 174 and just pushing it. Then I hit the bridge, with a surface made of glass, wet glass, very slippery. I just tried to keep my pace (9 mph +) and not slip. I closed in on the finish line and ... 3:19:23.... (BQ 3:20:00) Oh my gosh... BQ by 37 seconds. Did it by sooo little, but did it. Any lack of execution at any point of the race would have resulted in not making the pace. My strength was gone, I staggered over to somewhere to sit for a bit. My wet body cooled down soo fast, I started shaking badly. I knew I had to get into some dry clothes.. fast, but my legs were soo dead. I sat there for about 5 minutes or so gathering my strength and then started hobbling to the car. By the time I got to the car I was shaking uncontrollably, bordering on tears I was soo cold. I climbed into the car and covered my face with a towl so my wife couldn't see water leeking from my eyes I was soo cold shaking, trying to not bite my cheeks too much involuntarily. With the heat cranked full, I dried off and slowly changed into dry clothes. Ah, warmth, and dry, slowly returning, shaking stopping, returning to being human again. Phew that was really bad, but I had done it! After I was relatively stable I went to check out times... Woot 3rd in AG and 13th overall! Nice.


Nothing. That was all I had, executed to the fullest of my ability given my training. I only started running 2.3 years ago.

Hobbled to the car, got dry, got warm, got food, drove home.


Hard course, rain, only 2 ish year history of run training (2nd open mary).


The scenery makes this race awsome, despite the difficulty, even given limited visibility today. Post race food could be improved on. The rain put a damper on post race activities today. People wanted to be dry and warm.