So, this is where the pain starts:
Jadyn and I decided we would work together as much and long as possible until it was time to “be our own man,” as we knew there was a strong group of various sponsored runners coming in from the Huntsville Alabama area along with a strong Rock/Creak sponsored runner, and did I mention one 2012 US Nationals Team Marathoner... Yeah, maybe I didn’t see that “one” coming. In fact, the field was STACKED with studs but really as best I could tell Jadyn nor I really thought twice about running equally as strong if not stronger than everyone there. That's the best feeling in the world! As the race started J and I fell in to a slightly faster pace than discussed but within our abilities as we were pushing between 7 and 7:10’s. As expected Rock/Creek runner Owen Bradly took off with several of the Fleet Feet and Inov-8 sponsored guyz from Alabama. We settled in around 5th and 6th. Things were uneventful for the first 5 or 6 miles when some “chick” blazed past us. Jadyn and I kind of laughed and said “yeah, we'll see her again very soon.” I’ll get back to “her” later in this post… The country side was beautiful and the weather was picture perfect. We were very lucky to have our wives Julia and Catherine handling for us on bikes along with the crew chief Matt “The Dean” Vest backing us up in our crew vehicle. As the miles started to tick by 7,8 then 11, 14 we were running strong but it was evident to me that the course was far more demanding than I really thought it would be, and I swear the elevation map I snagged from the SJ40 Facebook page was a hoax. J and I got to 20 still feeling good and ahead of pace, so we decided to work hard from 20 to 30 as opposed to settling in till 30 then starting the heavy lifting. There is a series of 3 huge hills in the first 28 miles then you hit the infamous “Walls” which are a series of sharp rolling hills for four miles. By this point on the course if it’s not your hammies, it’s your quads in full revolt. But I digress. I knew that I was pushing the downhill abit faster than I should but sometimes you need to take what the course give you. Somewhere around mile 25ish J-Dog pulled away from me on some massive hill that just blended in to what started to seem like every hill. I knew at that point on this day, it would belong to J as he seemed to have the edge on me. Jadyns movements appeared to be more effortless than mine and was just running with power.
At mile 26 I passed crew chief The Dean and laughed saying HEY, I qualified Boston again this year at around a 3:08. Man, wish the rest had been that easy. Still I felt pretty good but the hard and fast downhills were starting to wear abit on my legs as I started to feel the first bite of fatigue setting in. By this time J was starting to build some distance on me but I was ok with that. Next stop the “Walls” then 50k… At around mile 28, I think, I took a left and there was the white house on the left that introduced the section of the course known to locals and former competitors as the Walls. This four mile section is where you find out if you have raced smart, if so, a runner should be fine. If you made mistakes, well… Notably my only real mistakes was going out just a tad too strong but really in retrospect I hit the downs too hard. However, I made it through the Walls. There was a period in that section that I was passed by Fleet Feet Race Team member Blake Thompson. At that point I was forced to lie to myself in an effort to convince these old bones to stop the BS and move. I soon fell back in to a tight 5th were we battled abit but ultimately overtaking Blake at the bag drop section never to see him again. By the 50K mark in the race I came in at 3:53ish which was VERY late as my plan was to be around 3:45. By now I knew that going under 5 was starting to slip away, and at this point in the race my stomach started to say; Ashly, I’m tired of this crap you keep shoving down your throat. This is however abit typical when running this fast for this long. No matter how solid your nutritional plans are you just never know exactly when you’ll reach the dreaded flavor fatigue that is destined to come. From here I just ticked off the miles ready for this thing to be over. As I approached mile 38/39 I became aware of Fleet Feet racer Eric Schotz was closing in behind probably 800 meters. When Catherine, on her bike, and I turned our last right out on some highway for the final 1.2 mile stretch to close this one out, as the race is actually 41.2 miles, I saw The Dean running toward me to pace the final stretch. I was very happy to see him as by now mentally I was starting to numb abit. When I closed in on The Dean and grabbed on all I said was “take me home baby!” BUT my race was far from over. I, at this point, had no idea that Eric had closed in to around 3 feet. As The Dean and I crested the final hill I had dropped to around a 7min pace. Still there was more fight left in these tiring legs as the last mile is a slight down grade. By this time I was clocking in at around a 6:20 pace to finally pull well ahead of Eric to ensure a 3rd place male finish but 4th overall. Now let’s get back to the overall winner. No one informed J or I that Leah Thorsvilson showed up, or better yet who the heck is Leah Thorsvilson. Well all I’m going to say is that she’s a sub 2:40 marathoner who happens to be on the 2012 US National Olympic Marathon Team…And that's all I have to say about that. Final time 5:12:22. I didn’t make my goal of sub five, but that’s how things go. Congrads to all Strolling Jim 40 finishers on such a competitive day especially my homboy Jadyn Stevens! All in all I’m happy with the race. Thanks to Swiftwick, Endurance Sports and Recreation, and Fitness Wave TN for all your support so far in 2011! Now it’s time to pick up the miles in prep for Rock/Creek Chattanooga Mountains Stage Race but more importantly TRT100!
Mert Don’t Give ah F
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