Toby Guillette

This weekend I ran the Diamond Valley Lake Marathon as my final training run for the Sedona Marathon on 2/7. The conditions during the race couldn't have been better: cloudy skies that slowly cleared to dry the soft dirt trails around a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains... my favorite!


Before the race

The theme of the day for me was consistency. I wanted to average an 8-minute mile pace to finish in 3 hours and 30 minutes. I knew this was a doable training pace that wouldn't jeopardize my chances to run well in Sedona so I cruised with the following splits:

1. 7:37
2. 7:55
3. 8:01
4. 8:10
5. 8:00
6. 7:53
7. 7:52
8. 7:53
9. 7:38
10. 8:01
11. 8:00
12. 8:02
13. 7:50
14. 8:02
15. 8:09
16. 8:22
17. 8:20
18. 8:18
19. 7:36
20. 8:00
21. 8:00
22. 8:14
23. 8:12
24. 8:05
25. 8:05
26. 8:01

Finish Time: 3:29:40
Overall Place: 20 of 136
Age Group: 2 of 14
Results






Amanda, Austin and me post race, 2nd place age group award

I'm right where I need to be to bounce back and throw down a faster effort in Sedona in 10 days. As I mentioned in my last post Pulse Check I'll be running alongside my brother who is in peak marathon shape and will push me to dig deeper and hold a mid-to-low 7-minute mile pace. In the 2008 Sedona Marathon, a sub-3:30 was a top 10 overall finish. I've got the motivation to make it happen so stay tuned to see if I pull it off :)



On the drive home from the race