For Saturday’s Utah Valley Marathon, I served as the official 3:40 pacer. That’s 40 minutes slower than the fastest marathon I’ve run, so it’s not tremendously challenging. But I put more pressure on myself when I pace than when I go all-out. The reason? If I blow my own race, that’s my problem. But if I bomb while pacing, I ruin it for other people. I don’t worry about being able to run a 3:40, but I’m human, so nothing is guaranteed.

My goal when pacing is to run as consistently as possible. If I’m pacing a 3:40, I could easily run a 1:35 first half and then a 2:05 second half and finish in 3:40. But That doesn’t do any good for the people I’m leading. The bulk of the people I’m pacing are women between the ages of 18 and 34 trying to qualify for Boston and I want to get them there.

I keep an eye on my Garmin and try to keep my average pace based on how far I think I’m going to run. A marathon is 26.2 miles, but with all the tangents you run, you typically end up with anywhere from 26.3 to 26.5 miles on the Garmin. I assume 26.4, which requires an 8:20 average pace. 26.3 would be 8:21 and 26.5 would be 8:18.

I assume I need 8:20s, I try to keep my current and average pace at that rate, and aim for miles between 8:15 and 8:25. I don’t want to go too fast and burn people out, nor do I want to go too slow and make it tougher for folks to kick it into gear. I had paced twice before Utah Valley, both times leading the 3:30 group. In 2009,, I went 3:29:54. This year, I went 3:29:39. I wasn’t thrilled about this year, but I was less than one second per mile off.

For me, perfect would be either 3:39:59 (getting there at the right time and still make it in sub-3:40) or 3:40.00 — how can you argue with that?

I normally need a mile or two to settle into the right groove because I’m running at a pace I’m not used to. But today, I locked in right off the bat and felt comfortable. Utah Valley is a beautiful downhill course. The scenery is about as good as I’ve seen anywhere. Charlottesville, Va. and Catalina are my favorites, and this one is definitely right up there with those, except it’s a faster course. I really think I would have challenged for sub-3 if I was going all-out today.

I had to be careful at times, because on some of the downhill portions, I’d accidentally speed up to a 7:45 pace. That’s a good minute or so slower than I would have been running, so it felt very easy. I was never disappointed with the miles I was running — I got my group from one mile to the next with consistency. I personally struggled at some points going up hills at elevation (the race started at 5600 feet and there were some decent climbs that left me sucking for air). My heart rate actually got up to 179 at one point, about what I’d run a 10K at.

We hit the half in 1:49:46, 14 seconds too fast. I was a little disappointed with that, but I knew there were some flatter parts of the race where we’d slow down a touch. I had a group of about 20 people who stayed with me through at least mile 20 or so. They ran just behind me for the most part, but they took turns running with me and talking with me. They all wanted to know about my running experience and how I became the pacer. The subject of Operation Jack came up, because in the course of what I’m doing, the race directors offered me a complimentary entry if I was willing to pace.

For me, it was an opportunity to take an easy week, and it’s always fun to pace, so I accepted the invitation. At least four or five of the people in my group were directly impacted by autism. One man is a caretaker for a 22-year-old who has autism. Another has a son with autism. Somebody had a nephew with autism. That’s why I’m doing this — you can’t throw a stone without hitting somebody impacted by it. I told them all to check out my site. If you ran with me, leave a comment and say hi!

Anyways, the group thinned out a tiny bit at mile 20. I held consistent, but for people running at the edge of their limits, that last 10K is pretty tough. Some people were running strong and I encouraged them to kick late. Others needed motivation and I told them not to let 24 or 25 miles of hard work go to waste with one poor mile. Some just couldn’t hold on, but there’s nothing I can do about that — I have to keep moving my 3:40 sign from the start line to the finish line.

With about two miles to go, I knew I was going to be pretty close to dead-on. It’s so tough for me not to get excited and turn it on late, but I didn’t. It’s important that I stay right on target so people trailing behind and trying to catch up don’t lose hope.

There’s not a whole lot more to say, I guess. My Garmin can tell you what I thought about my finish.

Pretty much dead-on.

I think my official time was actually 3:39:58. I get excited about fast times, but it’s also exciting to go out, chase a goal and nail it. When I run, I’m competitive and I want to do my best. While running a 3:40 is much slower than what I’m capable of, I still had to run a marathon and execute the race as perfectly as possible. It was a physical challenge and I was pretty happy with how I did. I got a lot of people from my group thanking me afterwards, which was pretty rewarding.

So, I got to enjoy a run through a very scenic course, I helped a fair amount of people qualify for Boston and I spread the word about Operation Jack and Train 4 Autism. All-in-all, I’d call that a pretty good day. Race 29 is history. Only 31 to go!

I had a 220-minute courtship with this sign. We broke up shortly after the race.

Here are the splits in case you’re curious about my consistency:
1: 8:19
2: 8:18
3: 8:23
4: 8:35
5: 8:20

6: 8:20
7: 8:26
8: 8:19
9: 8:15
10: 8:13

11: 8:24
12: 8:08
13: 8:12
14: 8:31
15: 8:38

16: 8:07
17: 8:23
18: 8:17
19: 8:23
20: 8:16

21: 8:21
22: 8:25
23: 8:25
24: 8:17
25: 8:24

26: 8:28
.31 2:38 (8:30 pace)

With 60 marathons on the schedule for 2010, I’m bound to get a little bit of everything. I thought I got a year’s worth of painful misery last weekend in the Med City Marathon in Rochester, Minn. Unfortunately, the San Diego Rock ‘N Roll Marathon served up a second serving on Sunday.

I headed into the race thinking I could get run in the 3:06 range if everything went right. This was my fifth time running the course, and I’ve made mistakes there, but I’ve also run it well. Early on the course is quick, then there’s a good hill about nine miles in, which is followed by a big downhill and then no elevation changes of consequence.

The biggest thing that impacts me in San Diego is the humidity. The temperatures are relatively cool. The first two hours are usually in the mid-60s, which isn’t perfect, but it’s always colder in San Diego than where I live, so it feels okay. There’s a cloud cover, too. So physically, it feels good, but the humidity makes it tough for your body to cool down. As a result, what feels like an easy effort is actually tough.

Last year, I ran by feel and willingly ignored heart rate. My pace was fine, but my heart rate was at the 10K level. If you do that for seven miles, the last 19 are going to be miserable. And they were. So this year, I knew to be very careful and stay within my limits. I did that early and stayed under control. I expected to be a little fast, and I was. I know how I’ve been running lately and I figured I’d be ahead of sub-3 pace until mile nine when we headed up the hill on the 163, where I’d lose it, then get it back down the ensuing downhill and eventually be in a good race against myself.

I could tell it was humid early on, but I ran well. I went through the 10K in the high 42s and felt pretty optimistic about the day. But at about mile 7, I started to get a little stiff in my legs. It wasn’t a terrible feeling, but it was unusual and I was a little concerned.

At mile 8, I started to get the hip pain I’ve been feeling in all of my races for the past month or so. Mile 8 has been where it’s been kicking in, so I wasn’t surprised. And it started to feel pretty painful pretty quickly. It started to work its way down my leg and by about mile 9, I finally realized that the problem is in my IT band in my right leg.

I was in a considerable amount of pain and by the time we started heading up the hill, I knew it was going to be a long day. I actually held a pretty good pace going up the hill, and I moved well on the subsequent downhill, but I was yelling “ouch” a lot more than I wanted to.

Once I was at about mile 12, the wheels came off. I went through the half in something like 1:34:58. Trends to a 3:10, but I figured I’d do 3:13 or 3:14 at best. By 16.5, though, I had a limp in my stride, like last week in Rochester. It was on-and-off the rest of the way, but I was really hurting. It was an extremely painful run and I was slowing down in a hurry.

I’ve gotten pretty good at fighting through pain caused from fatigue, but pain caused from injury is a whole different story. I was just wanting this run to be over from about mile 17 on. The sun came out at about mile 19 and things continued to deteriorate. The Cytomax sports drink on the course made me queasy, which was no surprise — that happened the other times I had Cytomax during the Rock ‘N Roll events. I resorted to water only and started pouring it over myself because I was getting warmer and warmer.

Volunteers were handing out sponges soaked with ice water and I took those three times. Painfully cold, but wonderfully cooling. I was looking at a time somewhere in the 3:20s. I had no idea where, because I had no idea how badly I would continue to slow.

I didn’t even start doing the math until two miles to go, when I figured out that I was looking at somewhere between a 3:24 and a 3:26. I was feeling a tiny bit short on breath over the final two miles. The last 6 or 7 miles in the sun were completely exposed and I was getting cooked.

I saw a friend of mine named Charlie who paced me for a couple of minutes with a little less than a mile to go. It helped me pick up the pace the rest of the way, and I stayed below 3:26 with a 3:25:18 finish time. I was walking with some pretty severe pain in my right leg and a ridiculous limp for about an hour after the finish. Now my challenge is going to be to get better while running a marathon every week.

As for the race, I strongly do NOT recommend this race. Weather is never great, and I’m not a fan of Competitor events. They’re events, not races, and I feel like they’re catered towards non-runners looking to do a marathon, not runners looking to run a marathon. I was nervous about their transportation logistics, and sure enough, it was a disaster. From the time I left the finishers area to go to the shuttle, it took more than two hours before I got to my car. I’ve run this race five years in a row, but I don’t think I’ll be down next year.

All-in-all, a very difficult day at the office. But another race is in the books for Operation Jack. 28 down, 32 to go!

I would be perfectly content permanently forgetting this run.

I got this custom medal holder donated. It has 60 pegs and I’m going to post an updated picture each week as I get closer to filling it up.