Las Vegas Marathon...a 1st

"Don't give up, don't ever give up. That's what I'm going to try to do every minute that I have left...." a quote from Jimmy Valvano in his famous speech on ESPN many years ago. When I reflect back on this past weekend and the Las Vegas Marathon this saying encapsulates Timmy Picciott's attitude, conviction and overall performance. When Timmy asked me to help pace him for this event I gladly agreed, not really appreciating what responsibility that I was going to take on. As I have often said, as you grow older there are very few "firsts" for most people. This weekend however I experienced several "firsts". On Saturday I ran the Death Valley Trail Marathon...a first...On Sunday I ran the Vegas Marathon with Brian, Francisco and Timmy...another first....and on Sunday evening I was able to pace Timmy who had never ran or attempted a marathon, albeit, and wanted to finish in under 4 hours....a heady task by any measure.

The marathon gun went off at 4PM PST. Timmy, Francisco and I were in corral #3, which was for runners attempting to finish with times around 3:45. With 44,000 runners, the course was jammed packed and not particularly friendly for those runners wanting to achieve a PR. When the gun went off we tried to manage our overall pace for the first 13 miles at an 8:45/min/mile pace. We actually came in at 8:40 for the first half of the race. I knew that we'd need to build a bit of a cushion...and this paid dividends when the half marathoners merged with the marathoners on the course and brought our pace to a screeching halt. It forced us to essentially run on the side walks and zig zag through the crowds for the remaining 13 miles, requiring a lot more energy to be expended. Overall hydration was good for the two of us as was nutrition through at least mile 17. It was at this point that Timmy started showing signs of fatigue, which is normal for a marathon. I decided that he needed more glycogen (gel packs) and water as he was laboring quite a bit and losing a lot through sweating. I had him double up on gel packs and began getting him water at every aid station as he continued to run, I'd grab water and catch back up with him. This seemed to work. He took a tumble somewhere around mile 16. Between mile 19 and 20 he took another fall, this time not so graceful and cramped up in the process. Admittedly I was more than a little concerned about his ability to finish the race in under 4 hours. At mile 22 we needed to average a 10 minute mile pace to the finish....I stretched the truth a bit and told him that we needed to average 9:15's. At this juncture, the goal was to focus only on grinding through the next mile. I told him that he was going to be REALLY pissed off at himself if he finished in 4:02 and needed to focus and just knock out each mile. This seemed to work...although time was not our friend at this point and he began to slip from miles 22-24. I knew that once we got to mile 24 that he'd begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel and there is something that "clicks" in a runners mind that provides a great lift. At our current pace we were going to finish between 3:57 - 4:01...it was hard to tell as I was using my watch which was the unofficial time and there is always a difference between clocked time and watch time, so I was concerned. As we approached mile 25 my watch said 3:48...meaning we had 12 minutes to finish the last 1.2 miles. I knew that the last mile was going to be "easy", relatively speaking. There is something that happens, mentally, physically and emotionally that carries a runner through the last mile. It was actually the last 2/10's of a mile that Timmy shifted into another gear and I decided to film it on my IPhone and take it all in. When he crossed the finish line the race clock said 4:01...and I knew that because we had begun in corral #3 that our official time was probably 3-4 minutes under the 4:01. I was thinking, oh man...Timmy probably saw that clock and figured he'd missed his sub 4 hour marathon goal. I managed to find him and show him my watch, which I stopped as he crossed the finish line in 3:58....a remarkable achievement.

The night was cold and a bit windy and we grabbed the heat shields, some water, our finisher medals and had a photo snapped to capture the moment before heading back to the hotel to hook up with Brian and Francisco. Brian finished the half marathon with a time of a little over 2 hours...which was pretty sporty and in the top 1/3 of all participants. Francisco finished the marathon just about 15 minutes after Timmy and I, which was a great time given the fact that he'd run the Death Valley Trail Marathon the day before with me a few other friends from Texas and Colorado. The Vegas marathon was simply a great experience shared with good friends and great results. To see Timmy bonk at mile 20 and pull himself out of it to finish in under 4 hours was nothing short of impressive. He never gave up on his goal that day. He persevered and achieved his objective against all odds. To share that with him, Brian and Francisco made for a pretty special day. Hopefully there are many more of those to come. I want Timmy to think now about putting a 2.4 mile swim and a 112 mile bike ride in front of a marathon...wrap your mind around that and you have the Ironman experience. Lot's of work to do for the young bull...but for the time being he should enjoy this accomplishment...and as a pacer i will do the same.....Cheers!! PT