This week I had a “Kelli age moment” at work. (See Kelli’s blog last Saturday). A friend asked me how old I was. I asked “why?” He said that a neighbor of mine who he knows insisted that I was 60 years old! My friend thought I was in my 40s. (I’m almost 53). Later some BYU-Idaho students came into the room and my friend still joking with me asked them how old they thought I was. The first guess was 55. I groaned. I thought I looked young. I guess not.
OK, So I’m feeling old. My results so far this year at the short distances (marathon and under) have been disappointing, no PRs. I was starting to believe that age is finally catching up with me and after six years of running that I was finally plateauing and getting slower.
A couple weeks ago, I decided to give the half marathon distance one last try to break 1:30 for the first time on a fair course. I contacted the race director and he let me in the full race because I had won my age group last year. It was cool to see my name listed in their marathon magazine as an age group course record holder. I had no expectations of winning this year because Daniel Kerns, the fastest runner in the state over 50 was entered. So, I would just concentrated on breaking 1:30 and not worry about placement.
After being bused up to the start in Provo Canyon, I saw a huge cloud of smoke around the crowd from the fire barrels. I had no desire to get anywhere near that smoke so I took a run up the canyon. I left the road and ran up a faint overgrown dirt road that took me to the top of a ridge with a nice view of Deer Creek Reservoir down to the east shining in the dawn light. It was nice and peaceful away from the crowds allowing me to focus. It was a nice three-mile warmup climb.
The race was away at 6 a.m. We would run the highway down Provo Canyon and then run on University to downtown Provo, a nice fast course without sharp turns. Right away I noticed Daniel Kerns in front of me. He sprinted away doing a 5:45 pace. I knew that it would be impossible for me to keep up, so I didn’t try and just concentrated on my own pace, realizing that he would probably be a half minute faster than me on every mile.
I struggled the first four miles as I tried to not to red-line my heart rate and respiration. I think the elevation up there was getting to me. My goal was to keep every mile in the canyon under 6:40 pace and then keep every mile out of the canyon under 7:00 pace. If I could do that, a sub-1:30 would finally be mine.
Miles 1-4 were 6:17, 6:12, 6:56 (hill), and 6:46. This was encouraging. After that my heart rate seemed to settle down as I warmed up. The temperature was a little on the warm side as I started to sweat. I didn’t stop at any aid station, just drank from my handheld water bottle.
I kept it going for the rest of the canyon with splits of 6:30, 6:37, 6:47, and 6:52. I became concerned as those splits started to get closer to 7. Could I hang on for the last five miles? I started to feel even better. A runner passed me going fast and I concentrated hanging with him for awhile.
I knew that a 1:30 would be close to a 6:52 pace average. I really worked hard to stay close to that. I was pleased that we were still running in the shade as the mountains blocked the rising sun. We were now running on a very gentle downhill or uphill to the finish. Miles 9-12 were 6:53, 6:57, 7:03, and 6:57.
With a mile to go, my worry was distance error. It looked like my Garmin had the course 0.2 long, within an acceptable margin of error. But would I have enough time cushion to make it in time? The finishing area came into view. I could tell that sub-7-minute pace was nearly gone from my legs. Just one more, please!
Mile 13 was 7:01. I reached 13.1 on my Garmin at about 1:28:14. Now could I reach the official finish in time during the overtime period? Yes I did. I crossed in 1:29:13! I was very pleased to finally reach this goal and for some reason I didn’t feel old at all as I looked at all the young finishers around me. I finished in 39th out of 1,949 runners. I sure like this distance better than the marathon distance. I can keep my speed for the entire race.
Keith Barton, who should have beat me but didn’t run today because of a sore foot greeted me at the finish and we had a great talk about last week’s Squaw Peak 50. He also told me that Daniel Kerns finished in 1:22. Wow! That is one fast old guy.
For the next hour and a half, I ran the course backwards to watch the race. It was great fun to watch the marathon leaders come to me at mile 24. Paul was only about 50 yards behind the leader. (He would finish right behind him in 2nd.) I was impressed that he recognized me when I called out his name and cheered him on. There was a huge gap between the first four runners and the next one. Sasha was running in 6th.
I continued running backwards and decided to try to help the marathoners by asking the half walkers to make room for them by moving over to their right. Most of them did as I asked, but a few ignored me. I tried to help the marathon runners know if they were in the top 10, top 20, top 30, etc. as I counted them. I was very surprised to see several runners on a sub-3-hour pace start to walk or run slower than 11-minute pace with three miles to go. Wow, they had such a good race going and they were letting is slip away! I tried to encourage them to keep it going and it seemed to help a couple. Further back, it seemed like the runners had a more manageable steady pace and at least were keeping a 9-minute pace going. I had turned around and started to run with them in order to get back to the finish in time for the Half Marathon awards.
Finally I ran into Dan Varga from Lehi who was carrying the 3:20 pace sign. I joined in with him and ran the last couple miles with him. It was great to finally get to run with him. He is a very fast and talented runner. We had great conversation. As we neared the finish I peeled off the course and bid goodbye.
At the awards, I was surprised that I finished in second for my age group. I was also third overall for masters (age 40+). I received a very nice plaque again this year. It was a deep honor to stand next to Daniel Kerns. I was a gushing fan and told him he was one of my heros. It was fun to finally meet him.
It had been a fun morning. It was a great tempo run. I came away without any cramping and felt great. I should be ready to go for Bighorn 100 on Friday. | 