Ventured out to the “The Golden State” on Saturday morning, arrived in Sacramento around 1pm and I did not see the sun the entire time that I was there. When I got there, it was a balmy 40 degrees and a warm 60 degrees back in Denver. The first thing that I noticed was how it felt like fall, Sacramento in December was like Denver back in October. Leaves had just fallen on the ground, while others were still changing colors, it was my favorite season and I had two days to savor it once again.

We stayed at the luxurious Holiday Inn Express, downtown Sacramento. Accompanying me on this trip were two college friends, Mark and Nate. Upon getting settled into our Hotel, we made our way over to the Sacramento Convention Center for the Expo. The Expo was your typical Expo, we walked around, picked up our numbers and cruised on over to The Streets of London Pub to kill a few hours. We each had two pints, carbo loading for the big race that next morning, while practicing our cockney rhyming.

Downtown Sacramento left a bit to be desired, for a town of 2.1 million people, it felt small. Regardless, that night we went out looking for dinner, hoping to find some Italian. Instead, we walked about a mile and settled on the River City Brewing Company. I had some ravioli and then we ventured back to the Hotel, with the lights off by 10pm.

Woke up at 3:30am, with the wake upcall set for 4am, thus I laid in bed for a half an hour before getting up. The three of us headed down for the continental breakfast and I powered up with a few muffins, OJ and milk. The bus that took us to Folsom arrived at 5am, right in front of our Hotel, which was convenient. The only downfall was that the bus was packed and we had to literally sit on the floor of the bus. Riding on the floor of the bus for a half an hour ride to Folsom, was not fun.

Arrived in Folsom, to immense fog and chilly 40 degree weather. We had about an hour and half to kill before the race, so we chatted up a few other runners and took it easy. The race started at 7am, conditions were excellent, cool temps, overcast and a slight headwind, but nothing noticeable.

My goal time was 2:52, I thought this was realistic and within my boundaries. I ran the first two miles with Mark; we took off at a modest pace of around 6:43. I was feeling fantastic and Mark let me go after two miles, Nate was already well ahead of me. I started to pick up the pace, but felt like I was running a conservative race. I am a big believer in the negative split and generally am a smart runner. However, the hard part with CIM was the variables for me, the lower altitude and the faster course.

After about five miles, I was passing people left and right, still on goal pace. I was feeling like a champ and even holding myself back early on. I thought to myself that I was going to hammer it the second half of the race. At 13.1 miles, I came through in 1:25:13, still feeling like a champ. In fact, I told myself now it’s time to pick up the pace. The course has a net elevation loss, but they’re a lot of rolling hills, it’s not flat, but after 15 miles it flattens out considerable heading into Sacramento.

At this point, I’m on top of the world, but perhaps I was getting too cocky? I thought a <2:50 was in the bag, I even thought a 2:48 was possible. I started to pick up the pace, passing all kinds of runners, in fact the last person to pass me was at mile 2. Also, while passing people, I think how did this guy even get in front of me in the first place? Seriously, I passed one kid at around mile 14 running in basketball shorts, I even double checked his bib to make sure he wasn't running the relay.

The pace was dropped, I was cruising. I was powering up on Cytomax, however the one odd thing was that there was only one Gu Station and that was at mile 20. I didn't think about checking out the course before, but had I known that, I would have brought one with me to have taken earlier in the race.

At around mile 20, I noticed that my Garmin 405 had failed me, just like the Garmin stock that I own. Thus, I no longer knew what my pace was, so I started it over and told myself to keep the miles under 6:40. Mile 21 was in 6:43 and it surprised me, I started to unravel. The next couple of miles were in the high 6's, my quads were pretty sore and felt cold. I started doing the math in my head, ok; a 2:50 is out, shoot for a 2:51, now a 2:52, etc. Now I become the one being passed. Someone would pass me and I would try to respond, but I had nothing, I was becoming defeated.

I'm not sure if I would say that "I hit the wall", I hit the wall on a training run before and almost fell over, it never got that bad. However, I was slowing down in a big way. At one point, I pass another guy with a "Team Nebraska" jersey on, he says "You look about as bad as me" well that fired me up, so I picked up the pace, see ya Corn Husker!

Struggling the last few miles of a marathon is one of the worst experiences that one can have. Especially after the strong finish that I have had in my last two Denver Marathons. The last mile was abominable, probably around 7:30 or slower, honestly I didn't check my watch and I am not going to review my splits. I crossed the finish line in 2:54:41, 6:40 pace, a new PR.

I told Mark before the race, that I would be satisfied with anything under 2:55, so I was content. My assumption is that my fitness waned since the Denver Marathon. Plus, the only hard work out that I had done since the Denver Marathon was the 5k race. Regardless, I had a lot of fun; CIM was a great marathon, fast course and plenty of good runners to push you along.

In hindsight, maybe if I came through at the half in 1:27, I probably could have finished closer to 2:52, but that’s all 20/20. Nate ran a 2:51 and Mark came through in 3:18. A great weekend, fun time and a positive experience.

Now I have to start thinking about 2009. I am certain that I will only run one marathon; I just have to figure out which one that will be. I’d also like to shoot for a fast half marathon time, so I’ve got my eye on going to Lincoln, NE in May for that one and probably running a fall marathon, NYC may be on the top of my list.