Catalina Marathon 2010: Better late than never
April 25th, 2010, 11:40pm by JakeWell, life was pretty crazy in the days and weeks after Catalina Marathon this year. So don’t figure on another epic post like I put together in 2007, 2008 and 2009.
Here goes: I trained hard for the race, but truth is, my secret to success has been fenced off since August. Yup, after walking up & down the dune 40 times to get in my hill training– 4000 feet altogether– for the past 3 races, I couldn’t walk up even once. Even worse, on those weekends (or usually Fridays, on my day off) I used to double up, since I could climb the dune for 2 hours one day and easily run 12 miles the next without anything but tired legs. No can do running, as the pounding of a 12 mile run makes it hard to run 12 the next day. Thankfully, our long effort to Free the Dune is starting to see some success, although it will remain fenced off with hours reduced by 80% and use destined to be cut by 90% or more. But I digress…
This year, I finally convinced my brother Aaron to run the Catalina Marathon. Also, instead of taking the boat over in the morning, we journeyed over Friday morning to Two Harbors and camped out in a borrowed tent. That meant sleeping until 5:30AM! Pretty sweet. We wandered the 1/4 mile to the start line, where we were delayed 15 minutes or more while waiting for the Avalon boat. Turns out, the Marina del Rey boat threw the rope over the wrong side of the boat, and after 40 minutes they were forced to cut their line. Whoops! Meantime, here are the Romes at the start… I wouldn’t see him again for 24 miles.
The race is a blur now, but I’ll sum it up: I did fine on the slow uphills, very good on all the downhills, and walked nearly every big hill. Thus, I had another 4:45ish finish, disappointing as I thought I could run at least 5 minutes faster. But man, what a race! I ran for 5 minutes will Buffalo Bill Mcdermott, saw a green Catalina that few are ever able to witness, and again met many wonderful people. Big props to Vinay for taking the boat to watch the finish again, and Sam of Operation Jack for continuing his quest for 60 marathons in one year on one of the toughest courses you’ll ever see.
So at mile 24 I saw some idiot running up the hill (it’s all downhill from Mile 23 on– you don’t need to trust me, see for yourself) towards me. It took a few seconds to realize that it was Aaron. He had finished in 3:34:stupid, and after a 10 minute cool-down turned back ran up the hill to drag me to the finish. Well, not quite drag me as I ran quite well the last 3 miles– 8:28, 8:35 & 8:45 after averaging 11 minutes/mile– and managed to snap a blurry pic as I raced to the finish. You can check all my splits on Garmin Connect. Suffice it to say that despite walking Pumphouse Hill, I really got my butt kicked on the rolling hills from 18-22. Next year, I’m not walking anything until my legs insist on it!
So catch some more pics on Flickr, I leave you with a few more. Already looking forward to 2011.
