St. George Marathon, Oct 7, 2023 - and a new Personal Record!

Let me tell you the best news first.  I finished in 3:29, which is a 14 minute PR for me and exceeded my wildest goal for a finish time.  Everything went right.  

https://www.athlinks.com/event/137781/results/Event/1058753/Course/2393408/Bib/5437

St. George is now my favorite road marathon course.   It's sort of down hill the first half, then a little hill, then sort of flat, then mostly downhill the second half.  In other words, it's amazing.  

And not just because I got a PR!   

Organizers, I have a suggestion for you.  Need more cowbell!  I'm only sort of kidding.  On a lonely stretch of pavement it's nice to hear one...they sound so cheerful!  Reminds me of happy cows in beautiful pastures in Switzerland.  

My training went pretty well.  I actually did some speed training.  I actually did some down hill runs.  

My training volume is lower than normal this year.  I'm averaging 12 running miles a week, and about 5 miles of hard hill hiking.   Most of my training a month before the race was a backpacking trip up to the highest point in Utah at 13,500 feet.   That counts as a run, right?  I also summited a couple of other high peaks as well.  

With a month to the race I read a book about nasal breathing and decided to train with that method.  I did two 4 mile runs breathing through my nose (!), one of them speed work, and some breath hold training while walking the dog.  I managed about 18 miles of nasal breathing during the race.   The Veyo hill was a little hard, so I walked for a few seconds and used my mouth to breath, and then the final miles of the race were hot and tiring and I couldn't hold the concentration.  But that was 18 miles more than I thought I could do it!    Photo for proof!  See my mouth was closed :)

My watch malfunctioned at the start (too many GPS watches in one place?) and I felt like I was running fast but my speed seemed slow.  After a 6 miles I checked the watch mileage against the mile markers and realized it was 1/2 mile off!  That's about when the 3:20 pacers caught me up and I realized I had been running too fast, not too slow.  Oops.  

I started the race with a 12 ounce bottle of Coke in my hand.  That lasted me for the first half of the race.  Then I switched to water for a few miles, then added water to my squishy bottle with my drink mix to carry the last half.  No stomach issues at all.  

At 12 miles the 3:30 pacers caught up to me, but the pacer (how did he have breath to speak?) said they were 3 minutes ahead of pace.  I felt good, and sped up a little, and when we hit the sweet downhill overlooking Snow Canyon, I held a 6:37 mile pace for over a mile!  

With 6 miles to go I started to feel the pace.  I stuffed a bag of ice in my bra, held some in my hand, put some in my hat.   The last 3 miles were torture and I did lose a little time...I think my pace would have put me at about 3:25 if I had held it.  

With 1/2 mile left to go my shoe came untied.  Tying it was torture too and cost me valuable time.  

After the finish I was super depleted and unable to do much, even talk.  I soaked my feet in ice water, sipped on water, and tried not to throw up.   Even 90 minutes later I felt pretty out of it.  Definitely didn't drink enough while racing but I know myself and what I'm capable of and I pushed my limits.  I can say I really prefer trail racing and I will probably go back to that as I enjoy the scenery and the pace changes a lot more.  

We had a lot of friends racing as well, including Addie, Chad, Jim and Sylvia and lots of others from all over!.   Sylvia won the women's marathon in 2:36 for the 4th time!  Jim ran his fastest half marathon in 1:42, which is faster than I've ever run a half, so I've definitely created a monster.  

https://www.stgeorgeutah.com/news/archive/2023/10/07/ggg-jj-santana-sylvia-bedford-win-back-to-back-st-george-marathon-titles/

Here's the nuts and bolts of my nutrition for the geeks. 

Best recent addition to my supplements: Copper - instantly decreased muscle soreness post-workout.  See vigeohealth.net for further guidance, as it needs to be balanced with other nutrients.  

Week before:  Extra salt, creatine, BPC-157 (oral and injected), colostrum, enzymes, bromantane, and essential amino acids.   Daily vitamins a bit more than usual.   PEMF, Massage, Chiropractic adjustment.  

Morning of race:  Keto hot chocolate, mixed nut packet for breakfast (not the best but it was an early bus ride to the start).  MOTS-c, Cerebrolysin, Kava, Ketones, Caffeine, Nicotene Gum.   Yes I threw everything I knew might help at this race!  

Race nutrition:  12 ounces of coke, 1 ounce kava, 1 ounce ketones, 1/2 packet drink mix (UCAN, MCT powder, EAA's, Colostrum, LMNT), some water.