I ran the Death Valley Trail Marathon yesterday as a training run for Boston.  I almost pulled out at the last minute because I strained my calf muscle Tuesday morning and as of Friday morning was still in some discomfort doing an easy 2 mile run.

I went to Death Valley Friday night not knowing if I would run, but figured our family would have a fun trip even if I didn't run.  Saturday morning I got up early and went for a quick test run and to my surprise, my calf felt great.  

They started the race and I was looking for someone running a nice steady pace to run with.  I had no goal time or pace, just run, have fun, not get injured, and hopefully run easy enough that I would not be sore the next day so I could keep up my Boston training without having to take recovery time.  

I ran with a guy from LA who runs ultras and is a very experienced runners.  We had a good rhythm running together.  Time flew by and before we knew it we hit the halfway turn around spot in 1:32:00 and were tied for 4th place.  We picked up the pace a bit as we turned back and were feeling good.  At the 20 mile aid station I missed grabbing my cup and went back to get some water.  By the time I got going again, I was a good 50 yards behind my running buddy.  I felt good and thought about speeding up and catching him, but then my mantra for this race, "Training Run", popped into my head, and I decided this was a good time to pull back and coast in.  I took it easy over the last 6 miles averaging over 8 minutes per mile and coasted in at 3:08:53 feeling great and very happy with my decision to back off the pace.  

I ended up getting 5th place overall and 2nd in my age group.  

It was fun to run a marathon without pushing myself to my limits.  That was a first for me.  Today I feel great and accomplished my goal of not being sore at all.  Hopefully I'll be back to Boston training tomorrow morning.