I start by saying congradulations to all the fast, fast, and super fast blogger that ran the race, very impressed with the team work, unselfishness, etc. Awesome group of runners.
I don't know what to say when in the posting a blog as compared to the great runners on the blog.
The arrival in Logan did not go as planned, we got there in time to attend the pasta party, but, Sylvia had some issues we needed to attend to.
The race, great weather, started out at a 7:15 pace for the first 5 miles. At that point, just didn't feel like I had it in my legs to hold that pace to mile 16. Decided to save it for St. George. Ran a very smooth race to mile 18, then the work started. If you have not ran TOU, one of the toughest hang on courses I have ran. The last 8 are constant up or down, or so it feels. Very tough when your legs are tired.
My last three marathons, St.George, Salt Lake and Ogden have been hampered with injuries and sickness with a result in over 4 hour marathons. I was very happy today to finish under 8 minute miles, BQ, and 4th in my division (120th out of 1915 finishers). Received a moose trophy, cool, Sylvia (4:01) also took 4th in her division and got a moose trophy. Sylvia was also concerned about St.George and did not give it everything. It was fun, we had our pictures taken together and had a grand old time watching all the fast bloggers get big moose trophies.
One kind of funny story, when I was about 50 yards from the finish I raised both arms in the air with excitement in breaking 8 minutes miles all the way to the finish. (This is now a tradition for me and Lybi when we run races) When I crossed the line, a young lady volunteer said she thought I was going to do cartwheels.
I have not looked up the predictor for St. George, but, I am confident that I can give 3:15 a shot.
thanks to the well wishers on the blog, Sarah, Lybi, James, Clay, Maria, Kerry, James, Michael and others. It really helps to have the support.
One last kind of weird note - I ran my first marathon in 1982 in the exact same time, to the second. Not bad, for an old time runner.
Stay cool, B of BS Rools out.
Garmin stats: 2272 feet of ascent, 3290 feet of decent - interesting, only a little over 1,000 feet of decent. It tells me the course was a little tougher than I expected if this is right. Also, the Garmin had me running 26.41 miles. Darn, where did I run the extra distance? It really says how important running the tangents can be.
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