Illinois Marathon 10K Recap

Payton Jordan Cardinal Invite Recap for Men, for Women, and Lopez Lomong gets away with one.

Wednesday, April 25th - 6 miles.  Ran solo on the trails and looped around town.  Legs were complete garbage, and could barely function.  9:20 min/mile average pace.

Thursday, April 26th - 4 miles.  Joined Crystal after her drills and strides, and ran around town.  Don't remember time, but kept it low-mid 8's.  Felt better, but legs were still putty.

Friday, April 27th - 2.5 miles.  Ran easy before we took off for Champaign.  Spent some quality time with the foam roller, as well.  Drove up to Champaign, hit up the expo and a quick dinner at Applebees, then got settled into the hotel nice and early.  A lot colder in central Illinois than home, and praying for no rain on Sat. (per weather reports).

Saturday, April 28th - 22 miles (yes, you read that correctly): 2 up, ILLINOIS MARATHON 10K (39:35 PR; 8/2221 overall, 2/104 age group), 14 down).  Woke up bright and early to some nasty rain, and headed to the course.  Relatively light traffic to the race, but took a little bit to get to the parking lot (Assembly Hall).
Walked over to Assembly Hall and met up with Colby (running his debut marathon), and Gibbs (running the 1/2 marathon, paced by Crystal).  The 10K started roughly 45 minutes after the marathon start, so I was going to take my time to change and get warmed up since we were parked close by.  Weather was starting to get a little better since the rain was letting up, but it was a bit windy and cool (40's).

Walked everyone to the start, before heading off to the parking lot of find the car so I could change and get ready (no gear check for 10Kers).  Only I couldn't find the car, and frantically searched for a good 25 minutes, running up and down the aisles!  So obviously panic had settled in, and thoughts of not being able to run the race because of all the crap I was carrying seeped into my head.  So at 7:15 (15 minutes before start of the race), decided to attempt to check in my bag and pray that the organizers/volunteers would hear my pleas.  I summoned up all the charm I had, and thankfully the crew took my bag and I rushed off to get a quick 10 minute warmup.  Lined up in the corral, did some dynamic stretching before starting off.  Went out with a group of 10 or so, and went out fast the first mile before settling into pace and falling off the lead pack.  Literally was running by myself for the last 5 miles, and into this nuisance of a wind which was swirling.  Between miles 2 and 3, caught a younger kid who had gone out hard with the lead group.  Felt kind of bad, since he was looking over his shoulder every 10 seconds as I was rapidly closing in on him, and tried to encourage him to keep up but he was literally out of my sight by the 3rd mile.  Got locked in, picked off a couple more people down the stretch, then coasted towards the finish.  Last mile, you work back into campus and towards Memorial Stadium.  There is this annoying U-Turn towards the end, before heading onto the field and towards the 50 yard line, where the finish is.  Super cool finish, and definitely one of my more favorites I have ever done.  Very pleased about the race - executed the plan perfectly, technically PRed, and felt pretty good the entire way without expending too much energy.  Stretched out on the field, ran into Mike Kettler who had finished the half marathon (1:19 despite multiple walk breaks), then hung around to watch Gibbs and Crystal finish before heading back to the car and changing so I could get ready to run Megan in.

Of course, Pat finds the car immediately, so change and head out towards 1st and Green St, which was right at the halfway point of the race.  Met up with Megan shortly after we got there, and weaved through downtown Champaign before heading out to the other side of town.  Glad I made it out there earlier than later, because the crowd was pretty sparse on the back half and the runners were so spread out that it would have been mentally brutal to run by yourself.  Megan's legs were tired, so worked on settling her into an easier pace.  Picked off quite a few runners over the next 6 miles or so, which is always a great confidence boost.  Once we got to mile 20, we started focusing a mile at a time.  Had a hill around the mile 24 mark which caused a small walk break, but Megan snapped out of it when she was passed by a runner who had passed her earlier on (Megan passed her around mile 10), so she focused all her anger/competitive drive on beating her.  Passed her shortly after, then worked on gapping her the rest of the way.  Last mile was cool, because I had literally run the same last mile in my race, so could really talk her through it.  We dipped under a bridge onto Stadium Dr. before making the turn onto First St., which was the last quarter mile or so.  Saw Pat and Crystal right before we turned into the ramp towards Memorial Stadium, and Megan started to get choked up.  I told her to enjoy every step because this is what she had worked for, and let her finish in a blaze of glory.  Welcome to the club, Megan!

An awesome part of the race is that the officials will let anyone with a bib onto the field, so was able to get back in and meet up so we could get to the car.  Got a quick brunch downtown, before heading back to the hotel for a much deserved nap.  Had dinner reservations at Destihl's, (micro-brew pub with AWESOME food) which was absolutely amazing, then headed to Old Chicago to meet up with Gibbs and Colby.  Gibbs ran very well (1:36), and Colby killed it in his debut marathon (2:57), so we had a few victory brews to celebrate!

Sunday, April 29th - 4 miles.  Drove back from Champaign in the morning, and literally crashed out all afternoon.  Legs were pretty shredded, and didn't feel good.  Did late at night, and wasn't moving too fast.  270 loop plus some change.  No watch, but guessing closer to 40 minutes total.  52 miles this week, 199 miles in April, 702.5 miles in 2012.

Successful weekend of running, and happy to be home.  Easy running all week, some track work in between, and the Triad 5K this weekend.