What a wonderful day of running. Got up bright and early and headed to Provo to catch the buses up to South Provo Canyon for the Provo 1/2 marathon. I took one of the first busses so I could get in some trail miles in the hills far above the start to get away from the chaos there. Dawn arrived as I was running up the Great Western Trail. I also did some laps around the massive field up there. As I came down I stopped at the top of the hill and watched the total chaos with a couple other guys laughing and the sights down below. As happens every year a guy with a bull horn tells people the wrong place for the start location and people go up and down the road as busses keep trying to come into the very tight dropoff place. It is sadly very funny to watch. You just have to wonder why they don't learn from the mistakes and just repeat them over and over again every year. I need to remember to never do those races again. They are just too silly. The awards are silly, the shirts are silly.
I started out fast as usual hoping for a PR, but the hill they added last year and this in the middle of the race just saps the energy and at that point I backed off, knowing that I still had big miles to do the rest of the day. Still I did fine. The cyclists going up the Parkway were pretty rude. Some were determined to ride as fast as they could in their lane dispite the flow of runners coming down. I tried to let then know that hundreds were on their way. One guy who almost hit me screemed at me. Strange that they just couldn't realize that something was different today and they needed to be more cautious. Bikers get a bad rep at time and many times it is justified. I hope they changed their ways once the entire parkway became clogged with runners/walkers.
I reeled in a guy that looked like he was in my age group, caught and passed him on the last mile. My splits were: 5:54, 6:22, 6:22, 6:44, 6:23, 7:23, 7:30, 7:48, 7:19, 7:55, 6:44, 7:51, and 7:55 to the finish. Had fun seeming friends there. They do a nice job at the finish, loved the pancakes. Results were posted very fast. I was 60th out of 1,395 runners. Finished in the top 5%. That is now my goal for all road races.
Well, from there I drove straight up to Hobble Creek canyon to join in with the ultra race, Katcina Mosa 100K. I ran in 7.4 miles (big climb) to the Little Valley aid station where I was to meet Mark Ellison and pace him 22 miles to the finish. I first spent a half hour resting there and trying to help Heath Thurston continue his race. He ended up DNFing there. It was great fun though as many other friends arrived. Mark still wasn't there so I ran backwards on the course about 1.5 miles until I found him. He was running OK but was having stomach issues.
The rest of the day was a complete blast! I love pacing during ultras because you are fresher than your runner (I had run 14 fewer miles). I just played all day. Sometimes sticking with Mark, helping him and other runners near him, and I made some new friends. Other times I blasted up and down trails. My energy level was very high and I felt very strong and fast. At the aid station I could camp out there and feed my face like crazy, again giving me plenty of energy. I had no stress of racing, just the fun of serving others, sight-seeing, and running like crazy. Mark finally found his second wind with ten miles to go and I was able to get him to run pretty fast on the wonderful single track in Dry Canyon. I love that section and at times blasted along the rolling trail then waiting for Mark to catch up. When we dumped out on the pavement, I discovered that I could run at a 7-minute mile still if I wanted to. It was funny finishing the 48 miles I felt much better than I did finishing the half marathon in the morning. At the finish, were so many ultra friends, I knew practically everyone. We had fun swaping a few stories before I had to leave. The weather turned out to be perfect. A thunderstorm rolled in during the early afternoon that really cooled things off and the cloud cover and breeze kept in nice and cool. Usually this race is blazing hot and uncomfortable. So ends a perfect day of running. It feels like I put in a great training day, tempo run, hills, and trails. | 