This was marathon number 4 of 5 of the Utah Grand Slam series. I ran Park City 4 weeks ago and will finish the series in St. George in 2 weeks. I started getting a little achy and my stomach was a little unsettled a couple of days before race day and feared the flu was coming on. I wasn’t overly stressed and figured if I did get sick I would just run this one easy and have extra energy for St. George. Went to get my usual pre-race meal at Fazoli’s only to find out that it had gone out of business. I had to settle for some nasty pasta dish at Ruby River. Got up at 4:00 a.m. on the morning of the race and after getting everything together realized that I couldn’t find my Garmin. After looking for 10 minutes I finally gave up and went with the old fashioned Timex Ironman. The stars weren’t lining up like I had hoped they would. It was very cold the morning of the marathon – about 26 degrees at the start. The first 14 miles are run down Blacksmith Fork canyon. It is a gentle downhill with only a few uphill bumps. Starting at mile 18 the course flattens out with a few climbs. I expected to run a slightly positive split because of the nature of the course. I ran this as my first marathon in 2004 where I went out way too fast and ended up walking quite a bit the last 6 miles. I planned on holding back a little in the beginning so that I didn’t have a repeat performance. Averaged 7:08/mile the first 4 miles (so much for holding back). I felt good but mentally I thought it was a bit too fast. I made a conscious effort to back off and averaged 7:27/mile for miles 5-7. My pace was all over the place the next 5 miles (7:10, 7:05, 7:25, 7:27, 7:17). I’m not sure how much of this was due to terrain and how much was from my inability to hold a steady pace. Somewhere during the 12th mile I started experiencing a little intestinal distress. I decided that at the start of the 13th mile I better address the issue. Hit the POP and lost 1 minute. I was frustrated that this happened and started running angry (not a good thing this early in the race). Started moving up quickly on the group of people that passed me and got even more frustrated realizing that these are people that I had already passed earlier. Mile 13 split was 7:59 but actual running time was 7:00 (half marathon in exactly 1:36:00). Ran mile 14 in 6:45 and caught the runners that I was with when I made the pit stop. I made up the lost time in 2 miles which was probably a mistake. I was still feeling good so I continued pushing it a little and ran mile 15 in 6:59. We were now out of the canyon and running through rural towns. Miles 16 and 17 were both run in 7:07. This was the last of the downhill and about where I started to fade in 2004. Saw my wife and son at mile 17 and tossed my long sleeve shirt to them. It was still a little cold but I was afraid that I would overheat if I left it on. Was still feeling good and continued to push. Splits for miles 18-20 were a little slower but were dictated by the terrain (7:17, 7:23 and 7:19). I felt strong and wanted to push harder but felt that doing so would be a mistake (I started to push at mile 18 at Park City and paid for it later). I was constantly moving up on other runners and picking them off one at a time. It was fun to feel so strong at points where I felt near death two years ago. Started doing some quick math to see how reasonable a PR was. Felt that with the upcoming hills I would miss my PR by about 2 minutes. Mile 21 was a little fast (7:03) and I’m not sure why – I think portions of it were downhill. Miles 22-24 were slightly uphill and it shows in my splits – 7:28, 7:37, 7:29. I knew that despite the slower times, I was still in good shape because I was still moving up on other runners. As I would approach them, I would notice how slow their stride turnover was and knew that I could get by them. Mile 25 was a little slower than average (7:27) because there is a short but nasty climb and also because it is mile 25. For some reason, my mile 25 splits are always slow. I think that this is where I start to give into the pain. I really need to work on being mentally stronger. With 1.2 miles to go I realized that a PR was within reach. It would take a little work but it was definitely doable. Ran mile 26 in 7:06 and the last 0.2 in 1:21 (6:45/mile pace). Finish Time: 3:10:43 (a 53 second PR). Overall Place: 74/2,005 Gender Place: 69/1,071 AG Place: 8/123 (my first day in the new 35-39 age category having turned 35 the day before the race – I would have taken 11th place had I run the race 2 days earlier) Grand Slam standing: Maintained 7th place overall and extended my lead over 8th place. Even though I had already qualified for Boston, I felt as though I had gotten in through the back door. I qualified at age 34 with a 35-39 age qualifying time because I aged into the higher category. I really wanted to qualify for real before running it. I have no idea how much running I will do between now and the St George marathon in 2 weeks. Most likely will shoot for 40 miles this week and 20 miles the week of the marathon. If I can recover fast enough, I will be shooting for another PR in 2 weeks. Mile splits were: 1 0:07:03 2 0:07:07 3 0:07:12 4 0:07:10 5 0:07:27 6 0:07:31 7 0:07:22 8 0:07:10 9 0:07:05 10 0:07:25 11 0:07:27 12 0:07:17 13 0:07:59 (bio break) 14 0:06:45 15 0:06:59 16 0:07:07 17 0:07:07 18 0:07:17 19 0:07:23 20 0:07:19 21 0:07:03 22 0:07:28 23 0:07:37 24 0:07:29 25 0:07:27 26 0:07:06 26.2 0:01:21 | 