AM Deseret News Marathon Today. This is a race that started me running I first ran it when I was 12. Untrained and found out about it the day before the race, registered for it and jumped in the next day. First marathon 4:20 and had to be carryed to the car after I sat down. My claim to fame is that I did my first marathon before my coach did his. However, his first was also Deseret News the following year, but he won the overall and repeated 9 times. I was dreading todays race. I looked back a couple days before at my last years time and place on the blog. It added some unneeded stress. I felt like I ran good last year considering the fast start and the worst blister problem I had ever encountered. I was 5th overall, first master with a high 2:48. I wanted to run as well as I had but like I always say, it's a marathon. You train for it but never know what can happen on race day. Bob Wood, the race director, told me they had the best field of elites running that he could remember. So I knew it would be hard to place as high. So I would work on the little goals, time and Masters placing and things worked out. I was 10th overall, but really 9th, 1 Kenyan didn't run up the Pinecrest turn around and was a DQ, I don't know why they listed him in the results. 3rd overall LDR circuit points behind Sasha and Seth, I thought I could catch Seth when I heard he was having trouble, but could never see him until the turn off of 800 S. and made a push to catch him and fail short by 19 seconds. I was first master again 5 years in a row, and don't know if I can do that again there are a lot of good master runners out there that don't run this race because of low prize money and it beats you up so bad. It is always the hardest marathon for me to recover from and can screw up your plans for running good times in other marathons later in the year. Happy with overall race effort and time. I'm not going to list all my splits, but first half was 1:19:24 and finish time 2:45:45. So a slower second half, but ran the race alone with no one in sight. Never could get info on gaps in front or behind to know if a push was necessary so I don't know what I could have done with some late pressure. No one passed me after mile 4, and I did't start to crazy and was with the group of Kenyans at that point. Ice bath and recover is the game plan before ramping the milage back up. Have a great holiday. I might even start my garden tonight, heck (is that family friendly) the pioneers started their gardens when they got here and raised a good crop. My bishop said, procrastination is the work of the devil, but think of all the weeding I have missed to this point. Happy 24th. |