First off, I am incredibly sore from that marathon. I thought with all the ultras, long runs and quad beating I’ve done the past two years that a marathon would feel relatively short and recovery would be faster. Huh Uh! That pace on that surface will still tear you up.

Well, LA was an interesting weekend. I’m coming home getting done what I wanted to do albeit just a bit slower than I thought I would. Didn’t really matter as long as I was under that Olympic Qualifying Time of 2:18. As the finish got closer I was furiously calculating how long the last two miles, then one mile, then last quarter were going to take me as the time whittled down and I was getting closer and closer to that 2:18 mark. Two miles out I knew it was going to be close and knew I had to keep the pace up but not too hot for fear of cramping and really destroying my chances. It was a fine balance. With about ½ mile left I could see the finish up ahead and less than 4min on my watch. I had to book it so I “sprinted” with everything I had at that point and kept repeating “I don’t want to have to do this again, I don’t want to do this again.” And it worked. 2:17:30. Cutting it closer than I wanted but knowing that out of that field of strong guys I was lucky to get under that. I wasn’t running any faster except under better conditions but I think what really slowed most of us down was the unassuming difficulty of the course. It was hard, like really hard. At least it seemed like it. Maybe weather contributed but I don’t know. A couple guys ran fast and that was it. Everyone else had pretty off days.

The lead group went off the front right from the gun with a 4:40 mile. Luckily there was a second group of guys that were a bit smarter and we started out at a nice even 5:10-5:15 pace for the first couple miles. Right where I wanted to be and a nice little crowd to work with. The problem was that it was feeling pretty hot right from the start. I was really thinking it should have felt more comfortable for awhile. So much for that. Guess it’s been awhile since I’ve run a marathon.

We worked together for most of the race and it was a great group. About 13 miles it pretty much broke apart for good. Scott surged and dropped me. I tried to go with him and dropped Scotty Bauhs and Pat Rizzo. Cruising through Beverly Hills was probably the hardest part trying to push while starting to feel the fatigue creeping in and no one to run with. About mile 17-18 though Mike Morgan caught up to me. He made a good move around me but I knew that sticking on him was the only way I wasn’t getting caught by a few other lurkers right behind me. I went with him and remarkably was able to stick with him for a few miles, catch Scott and over take him, pull me to the top of the hill at 23mi, and put me in a position where a 2:18 was still a possibility. I never could have done it without him. Thanks Mike.

It was a good race for me in that mentally it was tough, I had a couple strong moments where it was either make it or break it and I held on. It was a less than I was hoping race in that I didn’t run as fast or easily as I wanted to and thought I was in better shape to run a 5:10 pace. Now I have a year to work on that and get to where I need to be to have a good race at the trials.

The after party was phenomenal. I had good Scotch in one hand, a Dominican cigar in the other, an outdoor fire pit in front of me, and cool people around. That is to say, I didn’t go to an after party and it was perfect.

I don’t have many nice things to say about the organization of this race so maybe I’ll just not say anything at all on that topic other than to say I’m glad I was able to stick it to them a little bit with a 5^th place finish and OT time.

Salomon made their first foray to the road running world in a while. I ran in the new X-Series shoe and it was great. Every day I’m more stoked that I get to run in phenomenal footwear and what has really surprised me has been the top notch apparel and gear. Versatility and functional pieces for the most extreme trail and mountain conditions, to an obstacle race last weekend, and now, the road. It’s awesome!

Now we got that out of the way, I get to look forward to Comrades later this spring with a few other stops along the way to get ready for it, oh and a few Atlas obstacle races thrown in just for fun.

Check out Strava for my data and splits on the race. https://www.strava.com/activities/268874062

I took along 4 Blue-Pom Roctane GU gels, and three Roctane Electrolyte caps. I wore the aforementioned Salomon X-Series, Sense Shorts, and Sense Tank and Swiftwick Pulse One Socks.