Utah Valley Marathon
After finding out about this race and realizing that it came on the same day as a scheduled 21 miler, I decided to give it a try. Since it was an inaugural event, I knew that you can expect some glitches. The organization was great. My only complaint would be that there were a few spots that the course was not marked as well as it should have been. Even though I planned to run this as a training run, I have a real hard time not putting in a full effort. There were only 100 people entered in the marathon so I thought that I had a good chance of placing in my age division so my main goal was to go home with a plaque. I caught the first bus up to the start with 9 other people. It was so much more comfortable than the usual bus ride to the start. It was a lot colder than I thought it would be so I put on a long sleeve shirt under my singlet. In last week’s half marathon, I opted to run with just a singlet under similar conditions and regretted it.
The first part of the race is run down Provo canyon and I imagine it is very beautiful. Unfortunately it was pitch black and I couldn’t see a thing. Splits coming down the canyon were:
Mile 1: 6:17 – Ran the first quarter mile in front with Dane and knew that it was going to be too fast. Was caught and passed by a couple of fast looking dudes (found out later that one of them was Steve).
Mile 2: 6:46 – Right were I want to be. Settled into fifth place.
Mile 3: 6:42 – Passed by 4 more runners and was sitting in ninth. I kept telling myself to run my own race and not to worry about the runners ahead of me. Most of the guys ahead of me seemed like they were younger so my hopes of an age division place where still intact.
Mile 4: 6:38 – Just letting the terrain dictate the pace.
Mile 5: 6:48 – After exiting the canyon we came up on an intersection and two of the runners ahead of me stopped to try and figure out which way to go. I started to worry that this was going to be an issue for the rest of the race.
The next section of the race is run through town. This is the urban portion of the race:
Mile 6: 7:03 – A little climb here (I think) or I just fell asleep. I was hanging behind a group of 3 runners.
Mile 7: 6:43 – Right on pace. I surged a few times to wake up my legs and catch the runners ahead but every time that I caught them, they would pull away. Decided to stop trying to play games and just run.
Mile 8: 6:44
Mile 9: 7:10
Mile 10: 7:06 – Somewhere during the tenth mile six runners ahead of me made a wrong turn. It was on a loop section so running the wrong way didn’t have an impact on the distance, just the route that was run. I think that they ran a tougher route because of a nasty uphill that they had to tackle. Me and 2 other runners were pointed in the right direction. These two guys decided to make a pit stop and I moved ahead of them.
Mile 11: 6:53 – This is where I passed the runners going the wrong way. I’m not sure if they knew that they were going the wrong way.
Mile 12: 7:25 (but really 6:25) – Passed another runner and could tell that he was struggling. Unfortunately at the end of this mile, I had to make a pit stop. This was incredibly frustrating and it always hits me around mile 12 or 13. I forgot to turn the auto pause off on my Garmin so I am guessing that it cost me 1 minute based on what my watch said at the end and what my official time was.
Mile 13: 6:37 – A little faster because of the frustration from the pit stop. This also included a 5 second stop when I was trying to figure out if I was going the right way.
At this point we made our way onto the Provo River trail and started running along the river for several miles. There were a couple of drawbacks to this section. First, the winding nature of the trail doesn’t allow you to see anybody ahead of you or behind you so you have no idea were you are or if you are on the right track. The other problem that I had was that there were a few underpasses that I was too tall for and had to watch my head. I also didn’t like the short but quick drops and rises.
Mile 14: 6:45
Mile 15: 6:54
Mile 16: 6:53
Mile 17: 6:19 – Not sure if this is right. I don’t remember going faster here but I think that I remember my Garmin losing it’s signal.
Mile 18: 6:53 – This is another point in which I felt lost. We dumped out of the trail and into a parking lot. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to continue on the trail or go on the road. Luckily I guessed right. As I approached the 18 mile marker I downed a GU a little too fast and started dry heaving.
The next portion of the race are on the worst section of any marathon that I have run. This section consists of running between Utah Lake and the Provo airport on a washed out dirt road with major ruts and exposed rocks. Finding decent footing was impossible and easily cost 20 seconds per mile.
Mile 19: 7:10
Mile 20: 7:16
Mile 21: 7:17
Mile 22: 7:06
We are now back on the city streets and I have made the decision to just coast in to the finish. I can’t see the runners ahead of me and there is nobody even close to me from behind. Thinking that I am locked into sixth place and a decent placing in my age division, I don’t want to do anything to jeopardize my preparation for the Ogden marathon. The remaining miles are run through neighborhoods. There were a lot of turns and looping around the neighborhoods to make up the distance.
Mile 23: 7:19
Mile 24: 7:10
Mile 25: 7:07
Mile 26: 7:07
Mile 26;2: 6:15/mile pace
Final time was 3:02:30. I was hoping to get under 3 hours but considering my struggles on the dirt road and the pit stop, I’m not horribly disappointed. I went back to the hotel to shower and check out and grab some breakfast. Returned to the race to check out the results. Much to my dismay, I was fourth in my age group. I was so upset. I took sixth overall which means that 3 of the 5 guys that beat me were in the 35-39 age division. Technically, I was the first runner to cross the finish line that ran the loop through miles 10 and 11 the right way so I will take that as my moral victory.
Aside from the terrible section by the lake and a couple points of confusion on the course I think that it was a great race and will be a great event for years to come.
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