There is Hope! American Fork Half Marathon 2014-06-21

The American Fork Half Marathon last year was my favourite race all year long and I hoped this year would hold up to the same standards again. The previous year it had been the Timp Half, but with free photographs and excellent everything else it was a winner in 2013. The Timp course and AF are about the same route with slightly different starts and endings so for speed they are very similar, fast, but not as fast as Mt. Nebo and maybe Run Elevated. 

In 2014 I ran AF in 1:51:51 and was hoping to better that this year by a little bit. The last number of races I've done I've been quite disappointed, some I've been sick, others I just couldn't get the speed, always something it seemed.  It also seemed like I was slowing down since my first year of running. I decided I would try a few things different in this race. I did a lot of 3 mile downhill speed runs on the treadmill the weeks before the race, I didn't carb up the day before, but did the carbing two days before the race, I wasn't going to carry any fluids with me, and would walk through the aid stations when getting drinks. I also would try to spend some quality time in the porta-potties prior to the race.
Once again it was a crazy early start. I ended up leaving work around 11:30, was in bed and I think sleeping by 1am and two hours later was up getting ready to head out the door.
Got to the American Fork High school about 3:58, my friends were going to meet at the tennis courts but I had no idea where they were so figured I'd just get on the bus and meet them up the top.
I was on one of the first buses and visited with a guy Jonathan Robertson who I thought was my age, but turns out he was in the 60-69 age group and is 68 years old, but has run tons of marathons. I think around 150 and at least two in every state. It was interesting visiting with him and learning a bit from an experienced runner. Saw Paula getting on the bus but couldn't find her

when we were at the start area.
I wandered around a bit, used the porta potties, then by scanning the heads in the crowd was able to find Josh and the others. He's a head taller than most people so easy to pick out of the crowd. We visited in an area that confused a lot of people because they thought we were lined up for the toilets but weren't, well, until we decided we were.
I was hoping to win one of the prizes for being on the early buses but once more failed with that. One of these years I will! 

While we were visiting before the race Ty asked me if I was going to race it today, I said I have a month before the next race so I don't care if I hurt myself in this one as I've got time to heal so I will be pushing it.
Used the toilets again, and within a few minutes of doing that the gun went and we were off. I had my virtual partner set at 8:00/mile and was going to try to keep that pace for as many miles as I could. hopefully 9 anyway, and if I slowed to a 9:00/mile pace for the final miles I'd be very close to beating last years finish time. I had worked my way up to the 1:45 pacer and thought I'd try to stay with her and Rendi who was also using that pacer.
The first mile is usually a little slower as there's shuffling for positions, dodging slower people who were too far up the start group, and trying to get out of the way of faster runners trying to get around me but it went pretty good for mile 1, a 7:41 pace. Mile two and three were a bit slower but still okay at 8:02 and 8:05 even though there was an aid station that I walked through. I passed Jonathan Robertson before the first aid station, and again shortly after it. He was confused how I could be passing him again, but there was an easy explanation. Soon after mile three I was getting pains in both my knees so popped 3 Ibuprofens which soon fixed that problem. Mile 4 was 8:39, I had fallen behind the 1:45 pacer and lost track of her, but then we got into some nice downhill portions where I seemed to fly.  7:37, 7:31, 7:29 and 7:52 minutes per mile. I had covered 8 miles and only used up just under 1 hour and 3 minutes. This race was flying by and before I knew it it would be over with!

A classic Josh picture!

I didn't know if I could keep this up and knew the last 5 miles were going to be hard especially seeing there's very little downhill after mile 8 and even a bit of uphill.
Coming out of the canyon we were now in the sun and I did another thing I've only done once in a race. I pulled my shirt off and tucked it into my belt and ran the rest of the race shirtless.  Something I'm going to do a lot more of in the future.  I find when I'm running in the sun I get over heated very fast so figured it should help me stay cool, even though it was only about 7:10 a.m. by this time.
I had slowed to a walk in every aid station through the race and drank either water or water and gator aid every time. Something I hadn't done in any other race but was still keeping a pace I was happy with.  I had 48 minutes left to cover 5.1 miles, I needed to keep a 9:25/mile pace and I would beat last years time.

Every now and then I'd get a glimpse of the 1:45 pacer sign ahead of me so I knew I was doing okay. And the 1:50 pacer wasn't passing me! The miles were hard and I kept pushing hard, mile 9 was 8:27, mile 10, 8:49, I was slowing down but still doing (for me), a great pace. Mile 11 was the first mile over 9 minutes with 9:06, the last two were going to make or break it for me but I still walked in the aid stations thinking that short rest may help give me strength to keep kicking at the time.

Katheryn crossing the finish line.

Mile 12 I was back into a faster pace at 8:20, I was thinking I'm going to do this! I was passing a lot of people who were walking by this time, the crowds were getting thicker cheering the runners and you could hear the announcer at the finishing line calling out names and such a few blocks to the east. A few more corners, and there's the High school. Cow bells clanging, people lined up on both sides and finally the finish line, I gave a final kick and passed 4 or 5 more people going down the finish chute glancing up at the time I knew I had done well!

I heard my name being called by someone as I went under the finish arch, glanced around and saw Christy and Delphinea so stumbled over to them, they wanted my picture so I said I'd get the medal first, then be right back. It was great seeing those guys. They asked how I had done and I said pretty good, showed them my watch which was showing a finish of 1:46:55. My second fastest half marathon ever! I had beaten last years time on this course by almost 5 minutes and was within 3 minutes of a PR on a course I never thought I'd get that close on. I was so excited, finally I had a finish time I was happy with. In 2013 my two fastest times were both 1:48 at Mt. Nebo and Big Cottonwood, five minutes away from my 1:43 PR in Mt. Nebo in 2012.

Johnny wanted a picture with me,
but he had to take his shirt off first!

What a great group of friends!

 I've been worried the last while that I had peaked in my short running career, my age had caught up to my training level, but today gave me hope that I will get a PR this year, either in Run Elevated in August, or Mt. Nebo in September and if I don't, I'll know I gave it my best shot at least!

Also next month I'll be able to do this course again and see if I can trim my time a bit.
My placing in the race was excellent, in my age group I was 6th out of 33, overall I was 452nd out of about 2300 people. Not too bad for an old guy!

After the race was over a lot of us got together over the following hours took pictures and just visited. I finally got to meet Nick Bernard. Also met Lisa Loosle for the first time.  When I'm with these people I feel like I'm in awe of their speed and accomplishments, maybe, just maybe a bit will rub off on me! 

Utah Valley Marathon, 2014-06-14

Another race weekend has come and gone, well, almost. I worked on the Friday night and left work around 10:30 to try to get some extra sleep as my alarm was set for 2am. Was able to get to bed by 11:30, fell asleep around midnight, and was rudely woken up by my alarms at 2. I had all my racing clothes set out so I could get out the door as quickly as possible, but was still a bit behind my schedule.
Driving south on I-15 a car with a bunch of running stickers passed me, so figured they must know where they are going, I’ll follow them. That decision worked out great as I followed them into a parking lot across the road from where the marathon buses were lined up. Got onto the first bus around 3:10 and within minutes we were heading to Wallsburg. I was too tired to visit with anyone on the bus but enjoyed the ride in a Prevost which our company has gotten away from.
Getting off the bus at the start line, I turned to the driver to thank him and it turned out I knew him, Randy Gerber. He used to drive for us and recently his wife passed away. She was also a bus driver.
We had 2 and a half hours before the race started so I navigated my way into my non-snuggie blanket and lay down on the grass next to a fire pit and tried to nap. I was unsuccessful and after an hour decided to wander around.

Elsha and Jonathan

First person I came across was Elsha Stockwell and her pusher Jonathan Moss. It was great visiting with her for a few minutes. She was doing her first full marathon and very excited about it. I told her I’d try to find some of the others in our group, but it was getting too close to the start time.
Met up with David Crawford for a few minutes and then found Josh, Monte and Becca near the bus taking the drop bags to the start.
We made our way to the start and the gun went! Crossed the mats and realized my garmin had timed out! Took about 1 or 2 minutes for it to find the satellites so my time wasn’t going to be synced with the chip times.
The temps were perfect, not cold enough to need gloves, but cool enough to not overheat.
I had decided that this race I wasn’t going to push my time, just run relaxed, say around a 10:30 to 10:45 pace and make up some time on the downhills.

Josh, Becca and Timothy were slightly behind me the first mile, but I slowly pulled ahead of them going through Wallsburg. By the sounds of all the dogs barking, it seems like there are more dogs than people in the town!
Looking north towards the mountains they looked inviting to us as we knew there was some downhills awaiting. The first 6 miles were slow and easy, around a 10:28 pace. Passed two girls and thought one looked familiar, she said hi, so I asked her if she was Joycelyne and she wasn’t. I was going to see a lot of those two throughout the race. Mile 7 was torture! I hadn’t spend enough time at the porta-potties so by the time I got to the aid station at mile 7 I was desperate. I had been eyeing bushes and trees but nothing suited my fancy. Saw one that might have worked way in the distance and had seen a few guys heading there.  But by the time I got there another guy had it occupied, glancing that direction I sort of noticed he had his shorts down around his ankles and was facing the roadway with his bare buttocks in full view while he tended to his post cleanup.

I saw there were about 40 people between me and the aid station and figured the more people I passed before that point, the less wait there’d be for me. So I raced those 40 people, passing most of them in my 7:00/mile sprint. The spike of this sprint is clearly shown in the garmin chart lol. While I was waiting my turn, Angie found me and we were able to get a picture taken of the two of us while I did the pottie dance. I told her I’d try to catch up after I was done.

This added a couple of minutes to my time, but I wasn’t worried. There were some nice downhills but some mile long uphills too as we passed the lake.
Sometime around this point I passed a group of firefighters dressed in their gear who were doing the marathon. Not sure why, but I’m sure it was for some fund raiser. Awesome guys.
Got to the half way point around 2:21. I thought I doubt I can do a negative split on the last half so knew my finish time was going to be around 4:40 to 4:50 if I kept strong through the race. Was very surprised to see Christy at the aid station, it was like having a breath of fresh air seeing her.
Shortly after that as we were climbing more hills I had another surprise. I came up behind a runner that I thought looked very much like Loan O’Brian, and it turned out it was her! I had never met her, but had tried to help out her and her husband about a year prior when they were having flight troubles getting into SLC in time to get their bibs. We had been friends on facebook since. We walked for a bit and visited which was one of the highlights of the race.
The last hill of the race is tough enough on its own, but we also had to contend with a bad wind coming up the canyon. It was a struggle, but I’d done worse hills.
Back to the girl who wasn’t Joycelyn, with her friend...by this time of the race they had passed me about 20 times and I also kept passing them. It became quite a joke as we leap frogged throughout the race. In their walk breaks I’d pass them, but then they’d pass me once they started running again.  But they encouraged me to make my walk breaks as short as possible.

The final stretch of 26.2 miles

Coming out of the canyon around mile 21 we got to the worst part of the race flat, straight and difficult. The crowds were awesome though, cheering and encouraging the runners. A group of firefighters had a huge hose spraying onto the road for those who wanted to get cooled off. I took advantage of that. A few other places they had sprinklers set up like a car wash that you could run under to once again get cooled off. Even though the temps were around 60F it felt a lot warmer but NOT as warm as it was in Ogden.

Around mile 23 those two girls passed me again and I told them, “You guys are killing me!” but shortly after that I was able to dig deep, took my shirt off and passed them and not see them until I had finally crossed the finish line and got a photo of them finishing a couple of minutes later.
No PR for me today, but the finish time was about 22 minutes faster than the Ogden marathon 3 weeks ago and I was happy about that.
Now to train and look forward to my next marathon late September. That is, unless I switch up another race before that...

Official Time: 4:50:54. Pace: 11:06/m. Overall 1075, Gender place 633, Division place 44
Interesting note, my rank at 13.1 miles was 1155th. 9 miles later my rank had improved to 985th, so I passed 170 people. 4 miles later my rank is 921. Shows I was stronger in this race at the end compared to other marathons I’ve done even though I was 15 minutes short of my PR.

After the race was done, I was able to meet up with some of my friends. See some of the pics below...

Angie and Galen

Josh, Becca and myself

Loan O'Brian and myself

Ogden Marathon May 17, 2014

 

The 2014 Ogden Marathon was my 4th road Marathon, and 6th Marathon. It’s an amazingly beautiful course. Last year’s race was cold and wet. This year was the opposite - extremely hot, probably about 85’F at the finish line.
The weekend started off with the expo in the afternoon. Met up with a few people at it, then a large group of us made our way over to Roosters Brewery for an evening of eating and visiting. Two groups were there, The Run Aways and Run4Fun making up about 30 of us for supper and it was a fun evening. I left around 8:30 and headed to my sister in laws place to spend the night there before the race. While with them I found out I was wrong about the bus departure times and had to reset my alarm to 3:30am so that I wouldn’t miss the bus.
Visited with the Mason’s and around 10pm I headed to bed. Woke up around 2:30 worried I was going to sleep through my alarm, stayed awake and finally got up just after 3am. After a quick breakfast of half a bagel and oatmeal I drove downtown Ogden, about a 15 minute drive. Drove around for awhile trying to find a parking place where I wouldn’t get towed and ended up parking just west of Gold’s Gym.


Walked to the finish line where lots of buses were lined up and I entered the front bus, which was almost full. Within about 20 minutes we were heading up the hill towards the start, more than 26 miles away. I fell asleep for a bit on the drive so it went pretty quick.


 

 

David Crawford and myself

We parked and as I got off the bus David Crawford, a guy from church, greeted me and I ended up spending the time before the race visiting with him. It was cool, but not bad at all. I was realizing it was going to become a warm day. I had my warm clothes on and they had fire pits going all over the field.

Fifteen minutes before the gun started people put their drop bags with the warm clothes into the receptacles, listened to a short speech by Jeff Galloway (He joked, folks, you are 26.2 miles away from the beer) and we made our way to the start. I looked for the 4:00 pacer as some of us were meeting near him. When I got there I found London, Glen and Hilary. I was going to run with London but had told her I needed to bank time in the initial downhill. She’s very good at keeping an even pace the full length of the course, I’m not. My goal for the race was to get close to a 4:15 finish. Last year I did 4:39.



 

Screen shot from a video of Hilary and I running together. 

Close up from the video showing Hilary and me

 

Hilary and I started off running together with plans on doing a 9:00/m pace for the first 9 miles. The first mile was almost too easy, we pulled away from the 4:00 pacer and kept a fairly even pace for the first six miles. 9:00, 8:45, 8:40, 8:37, 8:43, and 8:51. A few times I got a side ache, but it would slowly work out. Around mile 7 or 8 Hilary had to use the portapotties and I told her I’d just walk until she caught up to me. I walked for about 3 minutes and then we kept running together again. The next three miles were still right on the money.
I got to the half way mark, which was the half marathon start at 2:02. The three miles coming up to that point had seen me eat away some of the banked time. 10:08, 10:50, 11:33 splits. I was slowing down!
As one finishes going through Eden the course follows the lake and starts to climb on the west side. Two long killer hills to contend with during that stretch. They go on for about 4 miles or so. I was drinking the 40+ oz of fluids I brought with me plus was drinking at the later aid stations. I was also trying to fuel with the banana, skittles and Cliff chews but I was draining fast. Around mile 14 London had caught up with me. We ran together for a very short stretch but she is amazing on the hills and I soon lost sight of her. Glen was supposed to be behind me a short distance, but I never did see him pass me although I know he must have. During these miles the 4:00, 4:15 pacers passed me. Including someone dressed up as Gumby! Talk about demoralizing!
Around mile 18 we crossed the dam and at that point someone in a beard pointed at me, called my name and came running out to give me a high 5, I told him I don’t recognize him, and turned out it was a triathalon guy from church named Andrew Buehner. His beard was longer than it had been in the past!
From that point there’s a steep downhill and last year I was able to gain some speed going down there but not this year. It became a struggle to keep running. Saw one guy in white without a shirt on, he was struggling too and a few miles later turned himself into the medics and he was taken to the start. The 4:30 pacer passed… At each of the aid stations I would take two cups of water. Drink one. And let the other drip onto my head to cool me off. About this time I was thinking to myself I’m done with racing, no more. I’ll only do casual running and runs with my running friends to keep healthy. I had decided…I thought. I was thinking I hate pacers when the 4:45 pacer went by.


 

I was keeping within the goal for the first 9 miles. 9:17, 9:47, 9:15 even with the walking break. The heat was taking its toll though. For the next 9 miles my goal was to run at a 9:45/m pace. If I could do that, London would catch up with me sometime in the third portion of the race which was supposed to be done at a 10:30/m pace. Mile 10 was still okay, but at that point we were going through some rolling terrain before entering Eden and I told Hilary its time for her to head out as I was going to back off on my speed. She was hoping for a sub 4:00 finish and off she went and I took a short walk break. That was probably the most fun and productive part of the whole race running with her.

Marisa and me.

Sometime near mile 20 Marisa joined me. She was struggling and didn’t know where her husband was, whether he was behind or in front of her. She was also talking about no more races, she was done with this stuff. She wanted to get in ANY vehicle and be taken to the finish line, but she didn’t and she kept going. We kept each other going for about two miles running from one traffic cone to another, then walking to the next, increasing the running stretches when we could. While running with her we were passed by Kasie and Brook. Had a great picture taken while with Brook and Marisa. It was so awesome to see those guys on their first marathon doing so well.



Meridith and Sonja.

On one turn we came upon Sonja and Meridith cheering us on. We also had Dulcinea there on the side lines cheering us! After about 2 miles of slow going Marisa decided the next run stretch she would keep running, which she did and she ended up finishing around 4:50. Anytime there were course photographers I would attempt a faked run in front of them and would quit as soon as I was past them.
The bottom of my feet were killing me and my legs were done. My brain was saying to my legs, RUN, but they would refuse, walking was all they would do for the most part. I believe my legs had gone on strike for better pay and better working conditions. I really don’t blame them with the abuse I put them through. I was sure I had brought Ibuprofen with me, but couldn’t find it in my hydration belt. Later at home I found out it was there all along. The last miles were so slow. The 5:00 pacer was creeping up on me and sounded way too cheery to me as he encouraged his little flock of followers like the Pied Piper of Hamelin. I tried to keep ahead of him, but there was no way. I finally let him go and just didn’t care anymore. I hated him at that moment, but hopefully he doesn’t take it personally. I’m sure he’s a nice enough guy.

 

Brook, Me and Marisa

One mile from the finish I passed two porta-pottys and one wasn’t occupied. After passing them I thought I have to stop, I’m not going to make the finish line, so went back and was in there about 5 minutes. When I came out, Camille was coming up the stretch. She was pretty tickled to see me and to have someone to run with. She thought I was done the race and had come up the course to meet others but unfortunately I hadn’t. It was a fun, painful final mile with Camille. We could see the finish line way in the distance and it took ages for it to get closer. Its one long straight stretch to the finish line. I was so sore I couldn’t keep running even with 2/10ths of a mile to go, still had to take walking breaks. Running down the chute it was fun getting cheered on by the spectators, giving them high fives along the last bit, Camille shouting to the people her calves were yelling louder than them, seeing Dave and Andrew cheering us and finally crossing the finish line together! I was so relieved that it was over. We had the privilege of having military guys and gals putting the medals around the finishers necks. My finish time of 5hrs 11min and 52 seconds was just slightly faster than my first marathon. Not what I expected, but you never can tell how it’s going to go. There are so many variables that can affect the finish time.


Josh, Becca, Meridith, Sonja and me.

Christy crossing the finish line with Dulcinea

I was supposed to meet the run4fun group for a picture but was way too late for that, but was supposed to get some decals for them, which were in my car. Took ages to find it as I was all turned around at the finish line but I did. I also found a Subway and got a large coke, which I was dying for, as they didn’t have any sodas at the finish line. It was the first thing I asked for after crossing.
Wandering around I slowly linked up with the others. We were hearing some were not far away from finishing. Becca, Josh, Katheryn and Christy. Becca had encountered heat exhaustion and had lain down in the middle of the road at one point. But what a trooper, she didn’t quit and was determined to finish. It was exciting to see the first timers finishing their first marathons. The times weren’t important, but they finished. We also heard Jonathan had BQd. Some hadn’t quite made their goals, most likely because of the heat. Later Vince realized he had also Boston Qualified.
Christy was the last one of our group to cross, her knee was all bandaged up as she had totally messed up her knee, but she also wasn’t going to quit and she finished it! Amazing!
Surprisingly the day after the marathon I went for a run in the evening and did 6 miles at a 10:30 pace. I’ve never been able to do that so soon after running a 26.2 mile race.
Oh, and regarding my quitting races? I had scheduled a half marathon at Utah Valley for mid June. Within 3 days of finishing Ogden I got in touch with the race director, no, not to tell them I wasn’t going to run it, but to switch from the Half Marathon race to the Full Marathon. Go figure. So I’m going to do it all again and don’t have to wait until September to attempt a faster marathon.

 

Provo City Half Marathon 5/2/2014

Its already been awhile since I did the Provo City Half Marathon and I need to get written down the things about it as I'm already forgetting so much. I worked the night before and I believe I got about 2 hours of sleep prior to getting up and driving to the start.

Got on the first bus and Camille was with me, plus Marsha Monson. This was the first time I met Shaylee Hurst.

Monica won a Blendtec in the early bird draw! She was pretty excited and I can't blame her. London won a watch.

Beautiful scenery running down the canyon.

The last 4 miles I was struggling and ended up running it with Angie Pace.

Finally got back to this and cannot remember much about this race at all and its only been just over a month! So, I'm just going to leave it as it is with a brief summary and the picture.

Official time was 2:00:6.34. 9:10/m pace. 455/921 overall, 246/370 male and 10/14 in my division.  Not a great race.

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.