Day One - The Highway's Jammed with broken heroes...

It sure was out there today - I know I was one of them !! We boarded the school buses & made out way up the Canyon where we would wait what we anticipated to be just over an hour, however one on the buses had hit a rock & 2 of its wheels were off the ground so three buses had to shuttle 11 buses worth of runners to the top at 9752 feet above sea level & it was rather chilly - I foolishly didn't take the foil blanket provided but survived. I did however manage to sit on my gels bursting them in my poscket & leaving me rather sticky. We eventually got going at 7.03, Traviss decided to go out with the 3.05 pacer I was more conseravtive going out just behind the 3.15 pacer with vague hopes of running sub 3.25 which given the downhill nature of the course & a 3.33 just a fortnight ago in Wolverhampton seemed realistic. The course was so steep it was tough to head off slowly without basically putting the brakes on & ramming your toes into the end of yor shoes - I was averaging 6.53 minute miles after 2 miles & just 24 more would have seen me crack 3 hours, but it wasn;t to be - I broke my 5 mile PB by 32 seconds & had run the first 7 miles sub 7 Minute miling before gradually slowing over the next 8 miles. At about 17 miles the wheels started falling off & I was reseting my time goals mile by mile - 3.30,3.40, 3.45 but by 19 miles I was done & forced to walk but did so only for a minute & worked out 11 minute miles would get me home in around 3.43, but by 22 the walking became more & time just slipped away I walked 3/4 of a mile for each of the last 3 miles & by now was seeing the debris of others that had gone off too quickly & crashed & burned. I eventually flew home in 3.50.27 & can safely say that's not how to do it, However my 93rd sub 4 hour marathon is in the books & in just 5 hours after sleeping we'll be heading for Billings Montana & day 2. 8 hours of driving post race took us through Idaho, passing the Potato Museum - how cool would that be to take the kids & on through Yellowstone National Park in Montana. The scenery through Yellowstone & Montana was at times breathtaking. Day 2 will be about finishing & not a time as I'm feeling pretty battered, we have less driving post race tomorrow thankfully - 430 miles this afternoon was a long old poke. The full shocking splits 6:48 6:53 6:57 6:57 7:00 7:08 7:14 7:44 7:29 7:45 7:49 8:00 7:59 8:13 8:20 8:22 8:31 8:58 8:50 9:30 10:47 10:49 10:29 12:19 14:21 12:13 3:01 Guess what a spinning medal !!

Foxy in the USA