June 10, 2017
Its 4am and I am sitting in the dark on the ground in the
bullpen of a mountain ranch outside of Provo Utah waiting for daylight. This
wasn’t the start of a horror film but the beginning of the Utah Valley marathon
and I was trying to stay warm for a couple of hours until we could begin
running down from the mountains toward town. A ranch was the staging site for
the start of the race. Porta potties were set up in a field and behind a wooden
fence was a bullpen with small fires burning in metal canisters that runners
could huddle around for warmth. The high temperature in Provo would end up in
the middle 80’s but at this higher elevation and before morning, it was chilly.
I had my trusty yellow sweatshirt on but that wasn’t much help so I pulled in
my arms and huddled near a group by one of the fires. A couple of hours later
and were lined up and beginning the descent down the road outside the ranch and
toward Provo.
I didn’t know exactly where to line up so I hung out between
the 3:30 and 3:45 pace groups. What I should have done was go further back to
the 4 hour pace group but there was a slight overestimation of my ability judge
the proper pace on this course. My plan was to run the first mile at an easy
pace and go from there- probably too general a plan in retrospect.
The first few miles were in ranch country and soaking up the
scenery. Huge farms, mountains, and horses that looked like they wanted to run
with us dotted the landscape. A few smaller turns and then a left turn onto
route 189 all the way into Provo.
Miles Splits: 1-8: 8:09, 8:06, 8:06, 8:27, 8:24, 8:18, 8:25,
8:57
It was really around miles 8 and 9 where I started the
process of slowing down. I felt a little tug in my left calf and then some
soreness in my left knee. It didn’t amount to much but since I had never felt
anything in a calf that I could recall in any previous race I was monitoring
for any worsening of the sensation.
I think the course during these miles went from being
largely downhill to net downhill with a lot of uphill segments mixed into each
overall downhill mile. I didn’t run enough hills in training was a thought that
kept coming into mind. Regardless of these thoughts, the run was beautiful and
I was having a great time running at least faster than I had in the last three
marathons I had run in. No injuries (yet), Mountain Goat course, or need for
snow shoes here.
Miles 8-16 Splits: 9:10, 8:39, 8:46, 9:15, 9:08, 9:02, 9:08,
9:45
At the midway point of the race we passed the half marathon
start area and then later went through a mountain tunnel. There was a park near
the Canyon that I made mental note to tell Beth and the kids about since it had
a playground as well as views of the Canyons. The slowdown escalated on mile 16
and beyond as the repeated ups then downs took more out of me- but again the
road was so scenic that I didn’t really mind. I knew that 3:30 was out the
window from the start of the race and 3:45 and even 3:50 had since lost their
status of reachable target finish times. It was late in mile 21 when I saw a
shadow behind me and knew that the 4 hour pace group was about to pass that I
mustered my one and only surge and had 2+ pretty solid miles putting space between
myself and that group.
By now I was in the outskirts of Provo and more crowd
support was lining the streets near BYU. My surge ended with a thud on mile 24
and the 4 hour group finally did go by shortly thereafter. By now it was warm
but not truly uncomfortable, the citizens of the city were out enjoying their
day and I was thinking about how I was going to keep up with the kids once I
finished the race.
Miles 20-26: 10:10, 10:10, 9:50, 10:29, 9:47, 8:59, 8:59,
10:31, 11:00, 10:39 (Final
A little over a mile from the finish line was a CVS store on
the right side of the road. I had watched a video of the course a couple of
times and new right where it was and was relieved to catch a glimpse of it-
although I noted that Coke was on sale but not Pepsi- so sad. I began to scan
the side of the crowd for Beth and the kids. Usually this isn’t too hard but
picking out a blonde family in Utah is a bit tougher than in many other places.
I finally spotted them a block or two from the finish line and worked my way
back to them as soon as possible. Both kids with bibs pinned to their shirts
for the kid’s race.
Tasha did run the kids 1K and did a great job as usual. She
now has medals from 3 states in her collection. Mitchell didn’t want to run and
asked for his number to be taken off as soon as I saw him. I obliged since I
don’t want the kids feeling like they are ever forced to run races…this is
meant to be fun.
After the kids run the kids jumped in a bounce house for a
bit and then we drove out to Wyoming to see some Bison and Prairie dogs and
finish our family vacation.
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