Fun times on Mid Mountain in Park City. This is a really cool trail marathon, with about 300 entrants or so, 95% single track in some beautiful area going from Deer Valley Ski Resort Area to the Canyons Ski Lodge. Walked out from the condo with brother Oreo and milled around the start area in the cool but not cold air. One loop around some asphalt to thin things out then basically single track. I had it in my mind that this was just a roller trail with a drop at the end but there seemed much more grinding up than I was expecting. Mostly runnable but by mile 15 I started walking any length up, just gassed at times.
The funny thing is I am not sure how much up some of the ups were...the farther into this marathon I got even the gradual up seemed to bust me up and my breathing would get out of whack...anyway powered through two "gu"s along the way but my stomach still has issues with this distance...just cant keep a lot in. Pushed hard when I could. Took one fall in the shrubs, but no big damage. Splits 8:55, 10:33, 10:41, 9:54, 9:06, 9:17, 9:31, 9:47, 10:04, 10:30, 10:33, 9:20, 9:28 ...Thats the first half...pretty consistent and proud of myself given the general root and rock covered terrain. Just grinding it out. 10:09, 10:40, 13:58, 12:13, 13:58, 13:27, 14:09, miles 14 to 20...you can see where the "hills" started really seeming like hills to me..started to get into survival "when is this going to end?" mode. 9:07, 9:07, 12:19, 9:41, 10:04, 11:05 Was able to start pushing it on the downhill then another up just killed me and my slow downhill jog to finish it off. My quads were not going to take going down any faster at this point. Family was waiting at end and that was cool and rewarding. This was my 5th marathon and that alone is unbelievable for me . Props to Oreo on another fine race..just couldnt quite catch up to you...Strong work. | 