my makeup may be flaking

Woke up with a little bit of a scratchy throat today. That combined with my allergies led to a certain amount of misery. I felt a bit better after my AM run but then worse after teaching (ahh, chalkboards).

I had been planning on a four mile tempo run but 45 seconds into it I decided to just slow down as I wasn't feeling good at all.

AM Woke up feeling sick again. Definitely sick, not just allergies, and this made me feel better. I waited until after teaching to run.

PM Two loops of Sugarhouse Park with a short detour to Allie's new place.

Wow, what a race!

I was just hoping to use this race as a confidence booster because I've been having trouble with my half marathons.

The start of the race was a little bit of a mess. There was a guy mumbling ready set go and that seemed to be a good indication for me to start. Riddle me this race director. Why have chip times if you aren't going to have a timing mat at the start? I hate it when races do that.

I'm not sure what my first mile was because I didn't start my watch in time but I think it was something around 5:35. This didn't feel very fast (it was a bit downhill) but no one was around me. Mile 2 was 5:41 and and I took a glance behind me to see that there was one guy trailing after me. After 3 miles there was a turn off Wasatch Blvd on to a pedestrian bridge. I managed to find it because I had reviewed the course before hand. Yes there were a lot of volunteers, yes I asked them if that was the right way to go, but none of responded to me.

Anyway on the bridge I could see there was one guy about 30-40 seconds behind me and I was starting to feel kind of crappy. Mile 3 had only been a 6:11 but that was ok because it had a pretty big hill. Mile 4 was 5:46 with several sharp turns. Miles 5 and 6 were the worst for me. My legs were starting to seize up and we were making these interminable turns through this neighbourhood (a lot of up and down). I did 5 and 6 each in about 5:55-6:00, which was more a function of the terrain than me slowing down.

I knew I was going to get caught from behind but it took him so darn long. Mile 7 had more climbing before finally getting to some nice downhill and I did 5:46. Mile 8 had a ton of down but did include a big uphill. This is where I finally got passed by the eventual winner,even though that mile was 5:17 for me. My legs were seizing up like crazy at this point and there was just nothing I could do about it. The next couple of miles were straight downhill and should have been super fast but evey step was painful for me. Somehow I was managing to stay just about ten seconds back.

I got to ten mile in about 57:30, the lead now up to maybe 20 seconds. This race ended in Sugarhouse park. The course had done some sharp turns so I briefly lost sight of 1st place. There was a sign pointing me left when I got to the inner road so I followed it and started to run downhill. It was then that I saw 1st place guy (and the lead cops) had gone the OTHER way. I cut through the grass to get back on to the correct course. Then before I knew it I was finishing, about 30 seconds back of the leader.  Despite going the wrong way I had managed a sub 7:30 final 5k, but amazingly it wasn't enough to catch the leader.

It was a tough day, but it ended up being a huge PR for me.

Seriously though. This was ridiculous. This race was terrible I'm guessing around 11.2 miles and then the people at the finish line acted like it was my fault.

I'm annoyed at this race for a couple of reasons. 1st) they did a terrible job. I payed $60 which should be enough to ensure some kind of competence. 2nd) I don't understand why I keep crapping out in all of my recent half marathons. I tried my best today, but that doesn't even remotely resemble what I am capable of on a "good" day. I know this because last weekend my 10K didn't feel this bad and I was running faster over terrain that was just as hard.

Legs felt very odd today. On both runs, started out running ok, then started to feel terrible then felt better by the end. My legs just felt hollow, as if they have no real strength. It's not an unfamiliar feeling for me during high mileage and I guess it shows that Saturday's half took more out of me than I'd like.

AM 4.7

PM 9.5 This one was very hard. I ran in Sugarhouse park and the first climb up the "hill" from 1300 E to 1700 E was extremely difficult.

Didn't feel great today. I didn't feel terrible either, just normal. In the past I've been able to come up with great performances after only one easy week. I feel like I'm kind of taking a big risk here, hoping to go from zero to hero in the span of 5 days.

AM 4

PM 10

In the afternoon met my teammates for WBR. After eating dinner with them, I'm really looking forward to it. Just one other blogger on the team, Weber State Alum Jace Nye. I'll try to get some converts though.

Actually felt...good! Such is my training that running 28 miles in two days actually helps me recover. That's got to be a good sign.

AM4

PM9 On the shoreline trail. Before doing this run I watched Galen Rupp and Kara Goucher do 20*400m with 90 seconds rest. They were doing the workout at the U of U track (they are staying in Park City at the moment) . Kara (with Adam pacing her) ran 68-69 sec 400m. Galen was crazy fast. He was 57-58 until the last one was in 55. The man must be in 3:50 mile shape right now. Mo Farah claims he is in 26:40 shape, which seems quite believable.

This race was an important confidence booster for me. As a background here is a quick list of my half marathons.

2008:1:19,1:13

2009:1:19,1:11,1:11

2010:1:11,1:16,1:14

2011:1:15,1:16,1:14

Basically I had run 5 straight half marathons 3 minutes+ slower than my PR. There was an excuse for each of them. For the first one, I was recovering from a Sinus Infection. The 2nd one I was inexplicably sore (to the point that I couldn't sit down) for a week prior to the race. The 3rd 4th and 5th were since injuring my knee in December.

Today was the first day that I had actually felt good on the day of a race in a very long time (probably 8 or 9 months) and I was not really sure what I was capable of. I knew that the course would be aided and that I might be able to run a monster time (like a 1:07 or a 1:08) and I also knew that the downhill might make my suffer through a 1:16. Honestly, anything was in play.

My prerace plan was to run with Justin Park, who is a very smart runner, but I didn't have enough confidence to follow that plan. At the start the leaders went out very conservatively and I tucked in behind them. A pack of 4 (Kyle Perry, Brandon Hebbert, Brad O. and Fritz) picked it up after a half mile and I was content to watch them dissappear into the distance. I had another runner with me: a 14-year-old called Connor. To begin with I thought he was being an idiot but he looked increasingly comfortable throughout the first couple of miles.

Anyway, my first couple of miles were 5:21 and 5:19. In the 3rd mile there is a sizable hill and it was here that I began to gap Connor and gain a little on Fritz who had fallen off of the front group. That third mile was only a 5:39 despite making up ground. As we crested the hill I was only 1 or 2 seconds behind Fritz and it seemed like if I could make contact with him, then it would be good for both of us.

Those last couple of feet to Fritz proved to be Stubborn however and my legs started to object. It was the same dead, weak feeling that has been creeping into my legs on all my races this year. All of a sudden I was losing ground again and I was bracing myself for a full scale meltdown. I hit the 4th mile in 5:08 (a BIG downhill) and that made me feel much better. That should have felt hard for me. The feeling in my legs continued to worsen however and I I was losing more ground on Fritz. I could tell that my legs would be gradually tightening up between here and the finish and it was just a matter of holding on. Mile 5 was 5:11 (more downhill craziness) and then we settled into some flatter (but still aided miles).

The next few miles were fairly uneventful, but that was good. I kept a good pace going running 5:23,5:25,5:27,5:26 for miles 6-9. I was really starting to hurt in these miles and it was during the 9th mile that Justin finally passed him. I gamely decided to try to stay with him, but trying to run his pace was too much of a shock to my system and I was already very paranoid that my pace was going to stray over 6 minute per mile. He dropped my very slowly (putting less than 10seconds a mile on me over the last 4 miles) but there was no energy left in my legs at all.

Over the last couple of miles I tried to remind myself that even though I was slowing down, I was still running a great race. I first became convinced I could break 1:15, then 1:14, then 1:13. I thought I had an outside shot of sub 1:11, but a 5:36 followed by a 5:43 (slightly uphill) torpedoed those thoughts. I pulled it back a little with a 5:35 to avoid a blowup. The last mile seemed to take forever and I actually underestimated myself as I found I had a good deal left in the finishing straight. My last 1.1 was 5:58 (5:25 pace) to barely miss my PR by 2 seconds.

Clearly this was a big, BIG comeback for me. I finished much better relative to other guys than I had earlier this year. I still feel that I have more in me and I think I can absolutely smash my PR on July 4th. (That will be a very aided race though). Given that this race is aided I think it is still 1.5-2 mins off my best half marathons (which have been hilly beasts). Very pleased with the result though.

AM 1loop of sugarhouse

PM Ran Glenwild loop in Park City

This year I did the Wasatch Back Ultra Relay as part of the Wasatch Running Center Team. They were the defending champs and I would be taking the spot of Nate Hornok (a bit intimidating).

It was a bit surreal at the start as I remembered the areas we were going through so well from three years ago. I've been running competitively for over 11 years now but 3 years ago I was a totally different runner, I could not have imagined doing what I did this weekend. That was also in the Hey Day of the blog as a running community I think, with people us forming two full men's teams that year.

Anyway, I had a van of myself, Brick Bergeson (an All-American mid-distance runner from USU) Trent Jensen, and Allie Scott (we graciously allowed her to stay up all night driving us around).

I had made a pace chart using elevation data to give use a schedule and also to give each leg a goal. The pace chart had us finishing in 22:20 to give us an average pace of 7per mile. At the start we were informed that last minute changes had made some of the legs longer (more on that later).

The first Van came in about 10minutes ahead of schedule at around 8:15pm and Brick managed to put us a couple more minutes ahead in his first leg. I figured that Brick and I would need to make up quite a bit of time on our legs as we were the strongest runners. I was also not super confident about my final leg (more on that later too).

My first run was pretty lonely as I only got 3 roadkill (I had a prerace goal of 200). The leg was pretty uneventful as I ran 42:40 or so for 7.1 miles. I felt pretty good about that as I had picked up more than 5 minutes over the form chart and I didn't feel like I had exerted myself very hard. At this point were 20minutes up total and I began to think that we could place pretty high overall.

Trent's leg was a very tough climb (over 1000ft elevation gain), he was able to make up another 2 minutes or so.

It was time to go sleep.

I took a brief nap and when I woke up I knew that I was going to be having bathroom issues all day. We were hoping that Van 1 would again pick up some time so we were up at 1:45 AM in case they came through at 2:15 or so.

It turned out that they didn't come in until 2:51 just 55 seconds ahead of the form chart. It was clear that I was going to have to put in a pretty serious effort on my leg to keep us on schedule. I didn't anticipate us picking up any ground on the final Van (those last few legs are brutal) so I figured we would need about 20 minutes buffer at exchange 24.

Brick once again picked up a lot of time (7 minutes in 10 miles).

My leg was already the longest of the whole race, but for some reason (probably high water) they had to add .7 miles to it bring me to a nice 17.6. This meant that the leg should have taken about an extra 5 mins.

The second leg is an eerie one, as it takes place in the dark. In this case a large portion of it was on a trail and there were a lot of times when large boulders or gates would come out of nowhere. In addition to that, there is no Van support on this leg so it is just you and the other runners as flashing beacons of light.

During the first section (leg 21) I passed 46 runners. I completed the 10 miles in about 1:01:20 and then took a 40 second bathroom break. I didn't have to go very badly but I told myself that if I was under 1:04 (which was my projected finish for 9.3 miles) then I was allowed. I also had a stone wedged in the bottom of my shoes which I didn't want to become an issue.

I covered the 7.6 miler in about 47 minutes to give me a finish time of 1:49. I had picked up 9minutes on the leg, but it was really more like 14 as it was .7 long. I passed another 48 people to bring my total to 97.

I was very happy with my overall pace, although I definitely started to cramp up the last couple of miles. I hadn't taken water at any point during the leg which probably contributed. Also there was the fact that this run took place from 4am to 6am.

Trent picked up another couple of minutes on his leg (another toughie) to give us the 20 minute buffer of so we figured we needed.

I didn't bother to sleep before my next leg figuring that it just wouldn't be worth it. I curled up briefly in the front seat of the Van while waiting for Trent but that was it.

Van 1 finished up again at 10:27 AM putting us 4 minutes ahead of schedule (actually 9 minutes of the real goal: sub 7 pace). Brick saved his best for last picking up 10 minutes in his 10 mile section and passing 115 people.

Now it was time for Ragnar (or Ultra Ragnar if you will). The pace chart call for me to run 1:03:23. The course record just so happens to be 1:05:58 by a certain Mr Nate Hornok. In addition this leg combines to things which I'm not very good at (very steep hills and elevation running). I was thinking that I might lose quite a bit of time here but I just wanted to limit the damage to 7 minutes.

I could already tell I was in trouble about 1 mile in. The hill was proving to be way to steep for me. I thought that it might better for me to start walking but I decided to keep trucking at my very slow pace. Whenever the hill flattened out, even a little, I used to opportunity to get into a faster rhythm. To my great surprise I was only down a minute or so when I reached exchange 33. When I passed through this exchange pretty much all the vans started to cheer me and I had 5 or 6 people pass me water or spray me.

The last couple of miles were pretty much impossible for me. I have difficulty running when I get over 5000ft, so the 8800ft that I was facing felt like someone had stuffed a sock down my throat. Somehow I finished this leg in just under 38 minutes to give me a total time of about 1:07 flat. I had passed another 95 people to give me 192 total. I had also lost less than 4 minutes.

Trent's leg was another one that is harder than the profile would imply but fortunately we had 16 minutes to spare and we finished 6 minutes ahead after over 190 miles and 22 hours.

Two loops of Sugarhouse, surprisingly didn't feel very tired.

AM 4

PM Des News Finish Loop

1:07:24 (6:01 pace/5:48 adjusted)

Splits (16:00,37:30,52:05) very even.

One loop of Sugarhouse

In the evening I ran in Deer Valley. Towards the end of this run my knee started to bug me.

Mile	Split	Pace	Total	Total Pace	Notes
2.1	15:17	7:17	15:17	7:17	From  Little Dell Bridge to Bottom of Little Mt
3.6	10:00	6:40	25:17	7:01	Little Mt
5.33	9:46	5:39	35:03	6:35	To turnaround
5.63	2:03	6:50	37:06	6:35	Up
5.93	1:49	6:03	38:55	6:34	Down
11.93	33:53	5:39	1:12:48	6:06	Emigration
14.4	14:45	5:58	1:27:33	6:05	To Foothill
16.7	13:43	5:58	1:41:16	6:04	To Sunnyside
18.9	13:21	6:04	1:54:37	6:04	5S and 13E
20.4	8:43	5:49	2:03:20	6:03	South Temple
22.5	12:34	5:59	2:15:54	6:02	Downtown