Well, the Ogden Marathon was a pretty good experience for me overall. When I signed up for Ogden the main goal was just to get my year started off with some good training. For the most part my weekly mileage was decent and should help me be able to transition into a good summer of training. I knew going into Ogden that I wasn't in good enough shape for a PR, but I figured I could be in the 2:50 to 2:55 range, which turned out to be correct. For me I really have had to find a balance between training, work, family and church time this spring. I've been working lots of extra hours trying to raise as much money as I can so our family can do some fun things this summer. Anyway on to the race. The goal was to go out no faster than 1:25 for the half, and then hope to pick it up on the downhill miles later in the race. Got up to the start and sat around the fire for an hour. I really wish they would start this race at 6 or 6:30. 1-6:29 Holding back 2-6:28 Still holding back, Wildbull is running with me 3-6:27 Feeling good and running with James 4-6:18 5-6:25 6-6:30 7-6:27 8-6:24 Start running with a guy I think his name was Dave, he just bought a second home in Ivins. James picks up the pace a little on me, which was fine. I knew he was going to have a great race, he has been training really good so I was excited for him. 9-6:17 10-6:32 11-6:59 Had a bathroom break here cost me about 40 seconds 12-6:14 Passed Bill Cobler and Bill Mandler here I think 13-6:29 Half 1:25:04 right on pace 14-6:26 15-6:51 this is the mile with the hill, but I did ok on it. 16-6:22 17-6:30 18-6:39 Think to myself ok I'm ready to really pick it up, however the legs just weren't responding 19-6:19 Body was actually feeling pretty good at this point. 20-6:27 (2:09:42) Still on sub 2:50 pace, so feeling pretty good about that 21-6:31 Not hitting the fast miles like I was hoping to 22-6:36 I think I met up with Sasha here at the aid station. He made sure I got some power aid and dumped me with water
23-6:33 (2:29:23) Still working on that sub 2:50 pace, but I really starting to heat up 24-7:19 least favorite part of the course the bike path weaving in and out of half marathoners 25-7:49 Worst mile, but didn't lose it completely mentally which was good 26-7:18 Felt like I was trying to pick it up, but nothing was happening .3 on my Garmin 2:06 I kept looking at my watch and figured I could probably pull off a sub 2:54 if I pushed hard to the finish. I was very surprised when the announcer said I was 11th overall, I had no idea what place I was in, especially running the first half behind so many people. It turns out I was actually 13th overall, which is still fine.
I guess the most disappointing thing about my race aside from the last three miles, was the fact I placed 4th in my age group and awards only went 3 deep. When I ran St. George in 2006 division awards went 10 deep and I finished 11th in my age group. In 2007 in St. George they changed awards to like 8 deep and I finished 9th, so I guess I should have known that would be my luck today. Anyway overall a good experience. Bill ran great on a bad foot. James had a great new PR as did Scott. Mike also ran very good for only training for a few weeks. I'm glad I did the marathon, but now I'm ready to mainly focus on training until St. George. I plan on doing some more shorter races between now and then to try to increase my speed. | 