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After my successful debut at the Boston Marathon, I wanted to do something a bit out there. I don't remember what marathon it was, but a while back, I received a postcard advertising the Lake Tahoe Marathon. And in reading the back of it, I though, hmmmm, that would kinda fun race to do. So, I signed myself up.

I prepared myself mentally for the challenge. I knew the course would be at high altitude and hilly. I also realized that I would have to run a lot slower than normal. I incorporated lots of hill training in my preparation for this marathon, unfortunately, it's hard to duplicate the thin air.

This was going to be a quick turn around for me, leave Friday morning, check into the Expo and pick up my stuff, have an easy night Friday night, get up early on Saturday, race, head back to the cabin, winterize it, then head back to the Bay Area for a "Margarita" party we bid on and won.

One of the nice things of heading up by yourself is not waiting on anyone :) plus, I tend to drive just a bit north of 65 miles per hour. To me, it's always a race or challenge, even when the GPS tells me the car drive is suppose to take 3 hours and 45 minutes, I am pushing it!

I arrive Friday around noonish, and head to the Horizon Hotel which was race central. I checked in, and picked up my race bib. I wasn't expecting to see my name on the bib, but there it was, in a rather large font, Joseph Dito, and in the upper right corner, "marathon". The bib actually, was quite nice, the background of the bib was the lake, with runners in the foreground. Very artistic! Which led me to my other thought, I've never been at a race where they print your name where your number is suppose to be. This must be a very small venue as how many crazy people are out there running around the flippin lake?

I found someone affiliated with the marathon and asked them how many marathoners have signed up? The gal stated at least 500 have signed up. Yep, a really small venue, that's why my name was printed on the bib!

The marathon wasn't the only event though, the advertising calls it "marathon week' so, there were many events being held simultaneously. Thursday was the beginning of the Triple Marathon as well as the 3-day triathlon. Fridays events included the 2nd day of the triple marathon, 72 and 35 mile bike race and 72 mile course and lake tour. Saturday, was the busiest day with the 3rd day of the marathon triple, the 20 mile power walk and run, the half marathon, 10k, marathon relays - 2 & 5 person teams.

I met some good friends (Rebecca and her husband Ken) for dinner Friday night, and they were kind enough to treat me to a carbo load fest at the new Montblue hotel. After dinner, we strolled over to Fire and Ice and hung out by the outdoor firepits. Around 8:45 pm, I headed back to the cabin and watched the rest of "Without Limits", the Steve Prefontaine story, on DVD.

Going solo to Tahoe did have its advantages, I didn't need to sleep in one of the bedrooms, I was able to spread all of my running gear out on the kitchen table and counter tops, the only mess I made was the pot of coffee. I slept on the pull out bed in the living room with a blanket and I was just fine.

The alarm went off at 5:00 am and I proceeded through my usual routine. I drove to the Horizon Hotel and arrived right at 6:20 am. Lines were already forming for the shuttle buses to take us to the starting line. I picked one and slowly made my way onboard. In line, I struck up conversations with my fellow marathoners and the gal right next to me was attempting her first marathon. Wow, I was impressed, Tahoe for her first. I know I would have picked something a bit flatter without the altitude, but in talking with her more, she was going to school in Reno and her parents live in South Lake Tahoe. She had a really interesting name, Targhee Orr, I later found out that her Dad is a local orthopedic surgeon for the US Olympic Ski Team. We sat next to each other on the bus, and exchanged stories. She later mentioned she was featured on the front page of the local Tahoe newspaper.

I remember the lines to the bathroom being really long, and the race was soon starting. Talk about cutting really close, I got into line for the race with less than 20 seconds before the gun went off. Since the Marathon started in Tahoe City, I was going to be on familiar terrain. Back in July, I ran the Reno-Tahoe Marathon and one of my legs covered it to Homewood. Back in July, I pushed my pace, so I fought the urge to go too fast. The first part of the marathon is relatively flat, but at 6200 feet!

The last few marathons I've run have been huge with thousands of runners, so it was really nice to be out there basically on your own. Running is a solitaire sport, and this provided me the opportunity just to run and check out the beautiful scenery. I really wanted to push myself, but for me, the prize would be to finish in good form with plenty left in the tank. I told all of my running pals, that I was planning on a 4 hour marathon, even though I can comfortably run a 3:30. The altitude and hills really concerned me and I wasn't about to blow myself up.

At the half way point of the marathon, I came in right at 1:50, felt really strong and I toyed with the idea of maybe opening up the pace a bit. That didn't last long as soon as I hit mile 15, the first major climb of the course presented itself. The race organizers called it Damnation Hill and I soon discovered why. Nothing like a little 15 mile warm up run right before your first major hill to climb!

All I could think about was my cadence. I shorted my stride, but kept my legs moving. I wasn't exhausted, but the lack of air was starting to mess with my mind. I didn't want to look up, so, I kept my eyes on the pavement in front of me and churned my legs. There was no way I was going to stop on the hill, I've done too many hill runs to quit and I wasn't going to start today. As I was running up the hill, I was finally catching up to the 20 mile walk/runners. As I passed them, I gave them words of encouragement, congratulating them.

We hit the summit at mile 17 and I let out a big yea baby! I did it without stopping! There was a water stop there, I grabbed a couple of cups, threw one over my head and drank the other one. I was really glad that was over, I was slightly dizzy and a bit light headed, but all in all, I survived. The course took a slight dip to mile 18 and I was able to stretch out my legs a bit. I passed a couple more walkers and I overheard their conversation, yea that was the tough hill, but wait until we get to mile 19, that one is really hard!

Great, I knew there was a climb from 19 to 20, but I didn't need to hear that, not after that climb.

The West side of Lake Tahoe is just beautiful, we've driven it many times and visited many sites along the west shore, so all of the road had a familiarity to it. The only difference is instead of pressing the gas accelerator to climb the hills, I am pressing the pavement.

Mile 19 approaches, and it's near the Vikingshome parking. From the vantage point on the course, you can look up and see the climb to the top of the hill. Damn that's steep! My only saving grace is I know once you get to the top of mile 20, it's all down hill from there. The road up is again, very picturesque. On your left, you have Emerald Bay, and on your right, you have the majestic Sierra Mountains glistening in the sunlight. However, in front of me, was just steep pavement!

Nothing worse than getting passed as you are running up a hill, I take offense, but I had to keep tellin myself the marathon wasn't the only race today, they had 10k's and marathon relay teams, and they have different colored bibs. I made a point to check out each of the bibs as they blew by me and made sure none said "marathon" on it.

After running basically by yourself for most of the race, crowds started to appear on the road and it got a bit challenging to maneuver around them. The walkers were sometimes walking 5 or 6 abreast, and I had to go into oncoming traffic lane to avoid them. My only other complaint was the pounding my legs took on miles 20, 21 and 22. If any of you have ever driven Highway 89 around Emerald Bay around those hair pin turns, you know what I mean. One of the tricks of running a marathon is picking a semi straight line that minimizes the turns on the course. This was next to impossible, so, I found myself banking really hard.

Less than a 5k left and I am really looking forward to finish, my legs were tired from the pounding on the highway, and I wanted to stop and stretch a bit, but I took too much time on the second half of the marathon and I wanted to break 4 hours, so, I plugged away. Mile 25 then 26 come and go, finally .2 miles left. As we turned into the parking lot at Pope Beach, there are crowds of people lined up on the left side of the parking lot, and with a rather large smile on my face, I pick up my pace a bit and finish strong. I glanced up at the official time and it read 3:56:03. Phew, just under the wire.

At the finish line, they take my timing chip off my shoe and present my with my medal. One of the largest marathon medals I've ever earned! A light purple ribbon secures the medal around my neck, but I see many other colored ribbons, red, green, orange, ha! Those were the "easy" distances.

All I wanted to do now was jump in the lake and cool off my legs. I stripped down to my running shorts and dived it. Funny thing though, there were many runners in the lake standing with jackets on just up to their waists, here I am diving in and swimming along. One marathoner told me, hey your upper body shouldn't be sore, but I told him I needed a quick shower to clean up and cool off!

I milled around for awhile, I actually felt really good considering what I just have been through. There was a free lunch for all of us runners and I remember having a soy hot dog, more water and other energy bar. Live music was playing at the beach, but I couldn't stick around much longer as I had to head back to the cabin, winterize it and then make it back to the bay area for the party. But before I left, they had the marathon results posted. I glanced at it and to my suprise, I found my name in the 48th position! Wow, a top 50 finish! Considering how I felt, and the pace I ran the second half of the marathon, not a bad result for a training run.

The car drive was good. I only made one stop to fill up the tank, and I picked up a cup of coffee to keep me company. I made it home in 3 hours and 5 minutes including the stop. Traffic must have been really light.

Labels: running

# posted by D-toe @ 10:04 AM