Salt Lake City Half Marathon

Marisa and her husband

London, Monte, myself and Camille

HALF marathon number 21 was awesome! Nothing to do with what I accomplished but totally from what I saw and heard many others do in the race. So many people knocked minutes off their previous times for new PRs or equaled times that they had accomplished in easier races.
THE day started early. 4am my alarms woke me up, a quick shower, breakfast and I was out the door and to the train station in Daybreak by 5am. I was the first of our group to show up but London and Monte were soon to follow with Marisa and her husband coming along within seconds. Sitting on the train I just made a comment Camille was supposed to be with us and then she showed up. 5:11 the train departed the station.
A few stops along, we got a text from Meridith and Shelley, they were on the train but on a different car. I sent a text to let them know we were on the rear car. At one stop I tried to get off and rush to their car to let them know but I was trying to open the door on the wrong side and the train moved on. The next stop they did jump off and run back to our car.

Meridith and Shelley

THE closer we got to SLC the more full the train became until it was standing room only. Jonathan called and said they were at the Moran Eye Center waiting to get a group picture. We were a few minutes out. Including Hilary's husband there were 11 of us for the group picture. We got that done quickly as Jonathan was organizing the pacers and needed to get to the start area to give out the signs.
ONCE we got to the start area I tried calling Wanderley, a guy I had got to know from California. He was at the gear drop area. I tried to find him there but failed. A few more calls back and forth and the noise was just too great to hear anything so figured I'd try to meet up with him on the course or at the end once he was done the full marathon.

Our group picture at the Moran Eye Center

BEFORE the start gun I would meet some from our group, Marsha Monson was first, but I would quickly lose track of them, but then meet up with some others a few minutes later. A few of us finally got together at the port-a-potties, where Josh, Kasie, Becca and Nate also met us. From there it seemed we scattered. Everyone I believed was making their way to the start line. I tried to work my way closer to the front where I knew Jonathan would be with the 3:55 sign for the full marathon. I wanted to be ahead of him throughout the first 9 miles.  LAST year I did this race in 1:52:45. They had changed the course quite a bit and I didn't know if it would be a faster or slower course.

Waiting our turn

My goal was to try to beat last years time, but with the course changes and a problem I had been dealing with in my left leg behind and above my knee since running down Little Cottonwood Canyon a few weeks prior, I knew the odds weren't in my favour.
SOME guy sang the US national anthem, we had a count down and the crowd of over 6000 people surged ahead. About two minutes after the gun went I crossed the start line and weaved my way through the crowd moving closer to the front.

Looking towards the back, about 6500 people participated

Wanderley Reis and myself

My leg felt fine to start, I had taken 3 ibuprofen's hoping to stave off the pain if it did flare up. Shortly after the start there was a bottle neck where we almost came to a stop with everyone trying to get through it. I haven't really figured out what the purpose of that was. Then there was a short hill to climb. First mile was 8:25, not bad considering the crowd and the bottleneck. Into mile 2 we came on another longer hill. 9:33 pace. Figured that was fine and I could make up that time. The next three miles were wonderful downhill. Pace for each mile was 8:08, 8:21, 8:13. I was on track for my goal! I had passed London and Meridith and some others in that stretch and on a loop saw Jonathan not that far ahead of me. I figured if I caught up to him, I'd be well into my goal of an average of an 8:30 pace for the whole race.  To this point I had been feeling a slight pain in my leg but nothing that couldn't be ignored. Sometime in mile 6 the pain got worse. I had caught up to Jonathan and visited with him for a few seconds, but was struggling to keep up with him with the pain I was feeling. The next two miles I did a 9:15 and 9:01 pace. I had decided before the race if my leg created a problem I was going to just run through it no matter what and keep my pace, but there was no way I could. Around this time I felt a tap on the shoulder and it was Wanderley! He had recognized me and caught up to me. I must have passed him at one of the aid stations as I knew he was ahead of me somewhere at the start. We visited for a bit. He was struggling on the hills which he wasn't used to. Got a picture taken of the two of us and kept running. I told him I was behind my needed pace and if he wanted to go ahead to do that. I'd see him when he finished his full marathon.
AT this point of the race there was a long uphill climb. It seemed like it wasn't ever going to end. Meridith and London both passed me on this stretch. London is incredible going up hills so for her I'm sure it was a breeze. We turned a corner to the right and finally it looked like a long slightly downhill stretch but even that didn't help my pace enough. From then on my pace was in between 10 and 11 minutes per mile until the end. Janet Huffman caught up with me and we ran for a bit, until an aid station, slowed down for water, she kept running and it took me longer to get going. About a mile and a half from the end Marissa past me, she was saying nothing had gone right for her, but she was plodding on anyway.

Janet Huffman finishing strong!

TURNING the last corner I could see the finish line arch in the distance, it seemed so far away. I was realizing the course was going to be longer than it should have been but I was so glad to be finished. There was no sprint or dash left in me for the end but at least I was still running crossing the finish pads. I knew my time was around 2:07, way longer than I had planned.
WANDERING around I slowly came across people I knew. I had hoped to take pictures of people crossing the finish line, but a lot had already crossed it. I had glanced around a bit for the first aid station after crossing the finish line to get some ice for my leg but didn't see it anywhere so thought I'd try and walk it off while looking for people.

SOME of us finally got together on the grass and shared our stories. It was awesome to hear of peoples accomplishments. Becca had tied her Riverton time even though this course was 2 tenths of a mile longer. I heard later, Camille knocked off a lot of time from her previous half record. Monte got a PR with a 1:36 time. London got under the 2 hour mark which is what she was targeting. Meridith was within seconds of the 2 hour time. I'm sure there were many others!
WHILE Jonathan looked around for the pacing signs and waited for the final pacers to cross the finish line, I waited for Wanderley to finish his race. He crossed within minutes of his previous SLC finish time and we got to visit again for a bit. I also had the privilege of meeting his wife and kids. I look forward to meeting him again at a future race. He did not like the hills for sure, but neither did I.
Great memories of the day. Not the finish time that I had hoped for, but I was sure proud of my friends. I believe I will do this race again.

Me, Jill, Josh, Meridith, Shelley, Hilary, Becca, Nate and Kasie.

Riverton Half Marathon, 2013 (Half #20)

What a fun morning! Plans were I was to pace Becca Wood and see what time we could get her in this looped course - half marathon. Our goal was for a finish time of 2:15:00. I hadn't run much the previous week as I was still trashed from that fast downhill training run we did the previous Saturday. I really wasn't sure how my legs would stand up over 13 miles.

It was so nice the race didn't start until 9am so plans were I could get a decent sleep after work before the race. It didn't quite work out that way as I spent my time from 3am till about 6am on the phone dealing with a broken down bus in Wendover. But 7am I was up and at it. Got to the parking lot at the city of Riverton around 8am and walked over to the starting line to meet up with the others. Met Dave a fellow runner I've seen at a few races and first met on the bus with RunGr8 going to Farmington last year. Josh and Becca were at the City Hall parking lot so walked back there to give Josh his packet, also rounded up Camille. Slowly before the race we were able to meet up with everyone, Christy, Elvia, Quesnel, saw Jonathan from a distance with his 1:50 pace sign, Jennifer was pacing the 2:00 group.

Was introduced to a few new people before the race, Cathy Twitchell and also Victor pushing his son. I asked about Marsha Monson, but nobody had seen her.

Got a few pictures taken, then they moved everyone to the west side of the starting/finishing line. A few antsy moments and the horn went and we were off and running. 60 seconds after the gun we crossed the starting pads and everyone started their Garmins and such.

It took a few minutes to get into our pace. I was hoping to keep a pace under 10m/m to bank some time for us later in the race. We did that with the first mile at 9:52. I listened to my music with one ear piece and listened to Becca not talking much with the other ear ;) The second mile we also did a pace of 9:52, then had some downhill into the river bottom on mile three and did 9:29.

Just after mile 3 we crossed the Jordan River and headed north, passing people who were already closing in on the 5 mile mark, the speedsters! High fived a lot of them as they headed south with us going north. Jonathan, Jennifer, Quesnel etc. That was a fun part of the course. Did a loop at the north end and then headed south again. We then passed others who were a little behind us, Josh, Elvia, Christy, Camille...

The first 5 miles we averaged a 9:49 pace. Pretty solid in my opinion!

From that point it was pretty flat until about mile 7 where we climbed what I've been told is Beaver hill. There's a pond on the west side of the trail that's filled by a very hot spring. Before that, I pointed out to Becca a place where a young girl was murdered about a year and a half ago.

Becca did awesome on the hill! It wasn't until very close to the top she decided to take a short walking break and then were were coasting down the other side.

Our pace for miles 6 - 12 averaged 10:44, so we slowed down some, but there were two hills and it was the toughest part of the course. Later we heard the second hill is called Satan's hill. Very good name! Overall I was surprised there was over 1500' of gain throughout the course. Didn't think it was that much, but my Garmin and Becca's both showed a huge climb.

There were awesome inspirational signs throughout the course. My favorite was "The next best thing to running is talking about running!" So fitting for our chatty group on Facebook.

One thing that concerned us through out the course was our Garmins were showing the mile markers were out by about 3 tenths of a mile which would make the course about 13.5 miles in length, WAY too long for a half. I thought if they can't get this right, I won't be back next year unless they fix it. Reminded me of Sojo. This created a huge problem for the pacers as they still had to finish at the proper time even if the course was too long, so they were playing catch up all the time. We had a nice surprise at the end though.

When we got into the final mile, I wanted us to push harder, use up all the fuel we had left and Becca did it! We did fartleks for a bit, passed a few people then partway through the final mile we realized there's no way we are that far from the finish and knew they had corrected the distance in the final stretch. The course would be the proper length, Yay! By this time the pacers had realized the same thing so were too fast and had to waste time walking so they didn't cross the finish line too soon.

Our last mile was at a 9:35 pace and we crossed the finish line at 2:13:50 chip time according to my Garmin. Only about 4 minutes short of Becca's PR which she got in a canyon race which are always very fast. She did awesome and will easily break two hours in the next downhill race. Maybe even 1:55! I think she was pretty excited about how well she did on a difficult course. Although she said she was too tired to show it lol.

For the next hour we cheered others running down the chute, met up with the rest of our group and entered a draw for a free pair of running shoes from RunGr8. Pictures were taken of people crossing the finish line, getting massages and of our little group together although a few were missing from it. We also visited with a girl who had a small dog which ran 11 miles of the half with her. Turned out later we found out she was the missing Marsha Monson from our group!

Overall it was a fun day with wonderful friends. Very successful if you ask me!

Official Results: 2:13:53.2 Age Group: 7/10. Overall Men: 154/199 Overall: 290/458

Awesome Group Run down Little Cottonwood Canyon

After a lot of logistic calculations on where and when we could all meet, so we'd have vehicles at the end of the run, at the mouth of the canyon and at the start, we were ready to go for the next morning. With Terri making it 13 people we were all pretty excited!
My alarm went at 5:30 giving me about 4 hours of sleep, which I think was about what a lot of others also had. Becca, Josh and Cindy met at Dan's store at 39th S and drove together to the Mouth of little Cottonwood Canyon. They left two vehicles at 39th so we'd have a ride back to the mouth when all done. The rest of us, (Me, Meridith, Shelley, Christy, Vince, Katheryn, Terri, Jonathan and Susette) met at the midway point which was the Park at Ride at bottom of the Little Cottonwood Canyon. I arrived there about 6:40 and it was cool seeing the full moon setting in the west. Ty was supposed to be there also, but we figured he either slept in or things got in the way. We all packed into two vehicles and drove up the canyon. The further up we drove the more it looked like winter. The wind was blowing, snow blasting across the road, ice, slush, everything. It looked absolutely miserable. We drove all the way up to Alta but the road conditions just didn't look safe for running so we drove about 3 miles back down the hill and parked just south of Snowbird. 

After a short debate of maybe not running, we jumped out of the vehicles, some used the bathroom and we got a couple of quick group pictures kindly taken by Shelley, we then headed down the hill. The wind was cold and blowing into our face as we were descending the canyon, I wanted to get this part over with so it encouraged me to go faster. A few of us didn't dress properly for the weather. Josh was wearing shorts, had no hat, just a bandana, but someone had an extra Touque (as we call them in Canada) and it saved him getting brain freeze. Becca was also wearing kapris which must have been very cold on the legs. I was fine below the waist, but had a short sleeve tech shirt with a long sleeve thin hoody and thin gloves. I was cold! I headed downhill passed a few of the ones who had headed out before me and then I could see three runners way ahead of me, I knew Jonathan was planning on about a 7:30/mile pace and knew Vince was also fast and would be ahead of me. I could see a third person but it wasn't until I got quite close I realized it was Susette.

It was too cold for small talk, she was busy listening to her music so I passed her and kept my eyes on Vince. I soon lost sight of Jonathan, but until mile 4 I was keeping about the same distance from Vince so knew I was doing a pretty good pace. Glancing at my watch I saw some pace times flash up which looked pretty impressive for me. The road flattened out around mile 4 for a bit and my pace dropped to about an 8 minute mile and Vince was soon gone like the wind. 
By that point I realized the wintery conditions were also done thankfully. The scenery running the canyon was impressive, especially the snow covered trees and rocks!

Got to the parking lot at the mouth of the canyon and looked for Jonathan but didn't see him at all. Someone was in what I thought was the men's bathroom for a long time so I used the other one.
That's when I noticed they weren't marked mens and ladies, not that that would have made any difference for me at that point! From there I went back down to the road to wait for the others to show up. Susette was first and we decided to walk up the hill towards the rest.

We probably walked 1/4 of a mile and met up with Meridith and Shelley. They were going to go south on Wasatch to get some extra miles then run back to the Park and Ride, so they headed downhill and we continued up. The others came along soon after and we ran back to the Park and Ride. Terri decided she was done and was going to drive back up the mountain to get her bag which we had hidden under the front bumper of one of the vehicles. The rest of us headed north on Wasatch Blvd. 
We should have had 8.5 miles by this time but because of the bad roads at the top we were short 3 miles. At that point I knew we wouldn't get 17 miles and it would be more like 14.

Wasatch had some nice downhills, but then it became rolling hills. After about 4 miles we could see someone walking towards us on the opposite side of the road. It looked like Jonathan. Apparently he had gone as far as I-215 and didn't know where to go from there and was lost. He decided to head back to the Park and Ride but was seriously dehydrated and had issues he was dealing with. He said seeing us was like being in a desert and seeing a caravan of camels or an oasis! He really though he wouldn't see any of us again that day, had no phone to try calling anyone and had no money. He had tried hitch-hiking but nobody would pick him up. Would you pick up someone wearing tights? At first he said he wouldn't be running with us but would head back to the cars. I told him its a longer run to the cars than what we would be doing to 39th South plus there's more uphill going back so he decided to go with us.

We had no idea where Vince had ended up. I figured it was probably Jonathan that had been in that other bathroom at the Park and Ride and we had barely missed each other. He said Vince kept going past the parking lot and didn't stop there. Later he was able to call Katheryn but he had no money, no credit card and not much idea of where he was, other than there was a Smiths there.   

Everyone was doing well the last half of the run, I think we all took turns running with each other and visited. then watched Becca and Cindy killing the last few miles which were wicked hills. When we got to the mall Katheryn, Cindy and Becca were already there but were wanting to get the full 17 miles done. They headed back down the road we came up. Jonathan, Susette and I we done and we walked over to Subway as Jonathan was dying for food and we watched Jonathan devoured a foot long in about 30 seconds. While there we saw a post on Facebook by Vince that made no sense at all. We wondered if he was delirious or it was his auto correct. At this time I also found out I had done one mile in 6:54, my fasted mile ever! Two other miles were in the mid 7's. Pretty awesome for me I think.  
Josh and Christy wandered around Dan's taking selfies of themselves and food. I found them coming out of the store and herded them into Subway. The others showed up about a half hour later, Becca continued to run around the parking lot trying to get those last needed tenths of a mile. OCD of course ;) She was already overdue for her babysitter but was determined. She did her longest run ever, way to go Becca! Susette, Katheryn, Cindy, and Jonathan headed out to try to find Vince. They must have found him as he soon posted comments to that affect on Facebook. Christy did way more miles than she had planned so she was pretty tickled about her accomplishments too. Way to go Christy!

Josh drove Becca, Christy and myself back to the park and ride. They amused themselves by trying to guess what my middle name was, which brought me to the end of an amazing morning of running with amazing friends. Its strange there is such a huge age difference between all of us but we get along so well.
Love all these guys.

My First Thirty Mile Run

  Yesterday I accomplished a run that I've been wanting to do for a long time. My goal was to run the Jordan River Trail from our house in Bluffdale to downtown SLC. Pretty much the full length of the SL Valley. I thought if I did that I could take the train back home, but the end of the lines are still 7 miles away from our house and I knew I just couldn't run another 7 miles plus I didn't have the time. So adjustments had to be made and I ended up parking the car at the Daybreak station and started the run from there just after 8 a.m. The fog or smog was really thick to start, I could barely see the sun through it and it was cold! About 22'F. The first five and a half miles along 114th south were quite easy as it was a nice gradual downhill. About 100' drop for each mile. I think I was averaging about a 10 min/mile pace. Once on the Jordan River Trail I knew there were washrooms but could barely see off the trail as the fog was even thicker along the river bottom. As I progressed along the trail I was finding they were all locked up for winter! So, as I ended up using another means to an end...like I've heard others say, my whole world is a toilet!

  Running is a lonely sport, but most sports I've been involved in have been individual sports rather than team sports. I believe that comes from moving from the UK when I was 11 and struggling to understand the rules to baseball, basketball, football etc. None of it made sense to me. And at that age I had only just begun to learn rugby and soccer in the UK which weren't too popular in Canada at that time. So, to keep me company along the run I listened to KLOVE radio. It has about the best mix of modern Christian Rock/Worship music.
  One of the other reasons I wanted to do a long run was to practice fueling and hydrating properly on a long run. So every 2.5 miles I would eat and have a drink, plus I tried to drink at other random times. I had with me, 2 and a half packets of Cliff Bloks, a banana, bagel, small bag of skittles, 20 oz of water and 20 oz of nuun.
  The miles clicked by slowly. I think I passed only about 5 other runners in the first 15 miles. It was also difficult to keep track of where I was as its almost impossible to see street signs on roads crossing the trail, but around 53rd south I had a call from London saying she was done her field trip and they could come meet me. She knew the area a lot better than me, and I tried to describe where I was. I did find running through Murray they had some street numbers on the trail which really helped. I told her I could see a road away's in front of me. She figured it was 48th south and there was a trail head there with bathrooms and a Maverick. So that was our meeting up point! I looked forward to having some company.
  I got there first and found the men's washroom was locked and out of order. Fortunately the women's was open. I tried to be as fast as I could as the door wouldn't lock and I didn't want to surprise someone while I was in there.
  After a few minutes Monte and London showed up and we continued running north. They had commitments and figured they could run until about 12:20 which was a huge boost to me. So we visited and ran for about three and a half miles together. I did a lot better pace with them than I would have done alone.  We got to about mile 20 or so and then before they left we got a selfie of the three of us taken and they headed back south while I continued north.
  The scenery in this area was nothing to write about, industry, gang tags, and just not a nice area to run in.

  I passed under Hwy 201 and thought I'd check facebook and there were messages from Becca asking if I'd like some food when going around Liberty Park, by this time anything that was edible was going to be great, but a turkey sandwich sounded awesome. By then I was at 17th south and I realized I had this run in the bag. It was an awesome feeling coming off the trail onto 13th south knowing I didn't have that much distance left. I was also realizing by this time I was getting a bit over my estimated finish time so that I could get home in time to make it to work. I had been keeping my goal pace of 12 min/miles but that wasn't including some stops I had made. Going along 13th south I slowed down quite a lot. With all the crossings of the streets, waiting at lights, it was hard to keep any kind of momentum. and it seemed to go on forever heading east. I couldn't remember how far it was from the trail head to Liberty Park. I kept looking ahead hoping it would appear, but each block seemed to be just more old houses and businesses but finally it did show up. I had sent Becca a message I would meet her on the south end of the park, but didn't see her. Looked up her number and it took me about 4 tries to memorize her number and remember it long enough to key it into the phone! My memory skills when tired are definitely lacking! By this time I was also at mile 26.   We ended up meeting on the west side of the park and visited for a few minutes while I ate the sandwich she had brought me. It was awesome she would do that.
From there I headed north to 9th South and then headed west again. It was tempting to just get on the train near the park, but I wanted to beat my old longest run which was around 27 miles and I hoped to get 30 miles done. Continued on and again it seemed to go forever until I got to 6th west and headed north past my work place. it was about 2:40 pm I popped in there and just as I was running across the yard my boss came out of the shop, saw me, and exclaimed, "You ran to work?"  I said "yup", he said, "You're %&#$* me, you ran all the way to work?" I said, "yes, it was the easy part, the tough part will be running home tonight". I then told him the truth, that I wasn't going to run home tonight but just wanted to let him know I'd be a bit late for work as I still had to get the train back to my car, go home, shower, eat and then I'd be at work. I stocked up with some water for the train while at work, then continued north to the train station. I was at 29.2 miles, and although I was totally worn out and I wanted 30 miles so, I kept running.  I ran around the block and then had to start going around it again and back and forth until finally it clicked over the 30 mile mark and I was DONE! Thank goodness! It was so nice to sit and relax on the train even though its a strange crowd that uses it downtown.
  One guy sat across from me, got off at the next station and left half a burger on the seat, which was taken and eaten by two other guys on the train a few minutes later. Strange.
  I was stiff the rest of the day and the bottom of my feet felt like they had been pounded by sledge hammers in some spots, plus I had a slight pain on the front of my left ankle.
  I think I did well with hydrating and fueling. Usually in a long run or race I can lose up to 5lbs but after this run I was pretty much the same as when I left. So for me it was a successful day. I accomplished for me, what was an incredible distance and trained myself to eat and drink better than I've done in the past on a long run.
  So what distance is next? Not sure. I'd like to try a 50 mile race next year but we will see.