Boulder Marathon

     I went into my first half marathon on a short nights rest and the day after a full day of tailgating with delicious home brew and enough artery and colon clogging food to feed a small army.  Despite all of that, I was feeling great and I had a lot to look forward too.
    Kayleigh and I hung out together at the start/finish line and cheered on the marathoners for their start.  It was only 46 degrees so I was trying to stay with her for as long as possible so I could keep my warm clothes on as long as possible.  I knew that if I wore them on the run I would burn up as it warmed up and I hate running with crap tied around my waste.  With about 10 minutes before the start, I stripped down and moved to the starting chute.  I placed my self in the back third and waited for the start.
     I need to find confidence in my running ability and begin to associate as a runner.  I found myself pinned in at the start and stuck behind a sea of slower runners.  It took me a good mile or so before I finally maneuvered up with the crowd that was running a similar pace.
     I took the run easy and monitored my heart rate for the first half of the race.  I focused on keeping my heart rate below 159bpm's and nothing else.  At the four mile mark I realized that I was having a miserable time.  My pace and heart rate were fine, but I realized I was staring at the ground and my feet, focusing on every hill and concentrating on every little muscle twitch in my body.
     That's not why I wanted to get into endurance running and sports, so once I realized I was being a bum I snapped out of my funk.  I started looking at the scenery, smiling at photographers, and thanking the volunteers.  Basically I started acting like myself.
     It was crazy what happened.  I was lighter on my feet, my pace quickened but my heart rate stayed the same, and I was smiling and enjoying a great day in Boulder. With my newly discovered happiness, I reached the half way turnaround and discovered that I still had a good set of legs underneath me.
     I decided that I was going to try to push the return as hard as I could and set an amazing PR (it was my first half so any time would have been my PR).  I was in my element, I would pick someone 50 meters up of the road and try to pass them.  As soon as I did I would find someone else and repeat the plan.  Before I knew it, I was at mile 10... then disaster struck.
     My left left calf started to cramp.  If I kept moving and focused on flexing my foot, the cramp would go away.  I ran about a mile like this until my right calf began to cramp too, probably from over compensating.  The people around me probably thought I was crazy because I was yelling at my legs to "act right" as well as other things (all PG I swear).  Despite the cramping I was still running under 9 min miles.
     With about a mile to go, my toes felt like they were being left out and they decided that they wanted to cramp too.  They were curling in my shoes under my feet, I was fighting calf and foot cramps at this point, but I refused to slow down or stop.  Through pure resolve I fought my way to the finish with nubs for feet.
     I ended up finishing in 1:56:30 with an avg 8:51 min per mile.  I placed 24/36 in my age group, and 253/720 overall.  Not to shabby for my first Half.  I learned that I need to increase my salt intake on long runs and not drink a butt load the day before a big race.
     Boulder doesn't have anything on the hills found in St. George, but with very little distance training I finished under 2 hours.  If I keep up the work, in 6 or so months I feel I can run a sub 4 marathon at St. George.