I ran the Utah Valley Half Marathon and kind of also ran the marathon too (we’ll get to that). I decided to run the half marathon, instead of the marathon, because I have Bighorn 100 next week and didn’t want to do anything stupid just six days before that race. But, I also was determined to race this half marathon hard. I knew it would be a fast course and that a PR was possible.
I had two goals, break 1:30 and place first in my age group. I had looked at the entrants list and didn’t see any of the top distance runners in the state faster than me in the race, so I thought there would be no reason why I shouldn’t push for the win.
The course starts up in Provo Canyon near the tunnel before the turnoff to Sundance. It followed the highway all the way down the canyon, with one of the lanes closed off for the runners and then went straight down University to the Provo Town Mall. It was straight and fast. There were a few hills, but the most significant one was at mile 2.
Rain was the big concern. At the start it looked like we would get lucky and race during a lull in the storm. To warm up, I ran up the canyon and a little way up the Sundance road. I then positioned myself among the top 30 runners near the start, looking at all the fast, skinny young Sojourner runners. The start was late, it waited to start at exactly the same time as the marathon, 13.1 miles behind us, further up the canyon.
It was still somewhat dark as we started, dark enough that I had a problem seeing my watch clearly for a few miles, but I could tell I was doing fine. I started running right behind Maryann, but before the end of the first mile she kicked it in gear. Going down the canyon I was passed by quite a few runners as we settled into our pace. My splits in the canyon (miles 1-5) were 6:13, 7:15 (hill up), 6:22 (hill down), 6:37, 6:53. I knew that I needed to keep my splits under 6:50 to reach my goal. All was going pretty well. I was breathing hard as usual but the legs felt fine.
However, the weather turned bad around mile three. A soaking rain started to fall. I had to slow in order to put my phone/mp3-player in a ziplock bag. Thankfully, the soaking only lasted about a mile, but we had great fun avoiding puddles. The course would be wet the entire distance.
I don’t remember any runners passing me for miles, probably the last one did around mile 4. But ahead of me a large gap got longer and longer. I could see one of the Sojourner girls far ahead. The gap probably got as wide as 1/3rd mile or more. I never stopped at any aid station along the way, just used my handheld bottle with Ensure and that worked great, giving me the energy I needed.
By mile 8, I finally felt warmed up and felt super so I pushed the pace a little harder. I could see that the gap was closing ahead of me, especially on a long gentle hill. My splits for miles (6-11) were 6:51, 7:00, 6:56, 7:05, 7:08, 7:00.
With a couple miles to go, a guy (Kerry Brock) finally caught up with me. His first question was, “How old are you?” I didn’t want to tell him, so I asked how old he was. “49.” I let him know I was 51. He was relieved and so was I, we were in different age groups so didn’t have to really race against each other to the finish. We both felt confident we were leading our age groups. He said he had been working very hard for the past several miles trying to reel me in. (At the finish another runner said he tried and tried for many miles to catch me, but couldn’t and he finished about 40seconds behind me). We had fun talking for awhile and he was interested to hear that I was un ultrarunner and doing this race as a long tempo run. I pushed ahead again, feeling energized from the conversation, but by mile 12, he caught up and passed me. I was watching my watch carefully and could see I had a very realistic chance of breaking 1:30, but then I saw the steep overpass ahead and knew that would slow down my last mile. We were reeling in the girl ahead but never did catch her. At the top of the hill I almost caught Kerry but he pushed ahead strongly and I didn’t really want to sprint.
My final two mile splits were 6:59 and 7:07. The last hill slowed me down too much. I crossed the finish line in 1:30:14. I crushed my half-marathon PR by over 4 minutes! My friend was about six seconds ahead of me. Close enough, I was very pleased. The finish area was pretty deserted because I finished 26th overall. I indeed did win the 50-54 age group by over five minutes. In fact, Kerry and I were the top two finishers for all those age 35+. Not bad for a huge race with 900 finishers.
I rested and warmed back up in my car for about 40 minutes and then decided to head back on the course and run it very slowly backwards to cheer everyone and see friends. North of the bridge I was able to watch the winning marathon runner cruising to his finish. I said hi to Sasha who was in 6th place. It was great fun to clap and cheer for hundreds of runners and many recognized me. I planned to run back until I found Smooth and company, but somehow I missed her. I did stop to help a couple runners who were cramping and maybe missed her during one of those times. But that was OK. At times I reversed course and ran awhile with friends.
I ran clear back to the mouth of Provo Canyon and then turned around when Mark Sanderson arrived. (It was about at the 4:00 mark) I calculated that my total miles were now more than the runners around me. So now it was time to finish my marathon. I kicked it into gear to finish the final 6.5+ miles. It did look rather odd that I was running 8-minute miles while the others around were running 15-minute miles or walking. People gave me lots of cheers, I felt rather embarrassed. At each aid station, I stopped and feasted. I figured since I didn’t use them during the half, why not use them now? I had great fun and finished my marathon+ at about 4:55.
I congratulated some ultrarunner friends at the finish. I had missed the half/marathon awards, but went up and they gave me my plaque. It looked nice.
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