I'm retired from racing. Really.

Run with the work club plus some of the guys.  Started at mile 3 of TOU, ran up to mile 1, potty break (why do I only have 1 on training day but 5 on race day?), then waited for the other guys to do 2 more miles.  Rejoined them at mile 1 on the way down, doing a moderate pace until mile 7 of TOU.  James and I ran together the rest of the way, and I wanted to be 6:00-6:10 pace.  We were around 6:05 pace for the first 5 miles or so, then dropped to 5:55-6:00 pace for the last 5 miles.  Good run.  Immediately drove to my grandparent's house, 7 hours away.  Boy, my legs get stiff in the car when I can't stretch.  Gorged on peaches from James the whole weekend.

Elite- 219

13 miles around Cedaredge, Colorado (my grandparent's house).  Lots and lots of deer and rabbits, with lots of mobile homes and dogs along the way.  Very nice to sleep in a bit (6:15 am) and still be able to do a decent run in the morning.  My job stinks for that.  By the way, mapmyrun.com showed my route to be 12.89 miles, meaning my internal calibration is still pretty dang accurate.

Planned to do 6 miles in the evening, but didn't get home until 10:15 pm (after stopping by Provo where my sister is moving in and taking her husband to SLC).  That essentially scrubbed my evening run, plus my morning run Tuesday.  My plan to get most my miles M-T of this week just went kaput.

Elite- 232

Working from Pfizinger's book, it was time for a "shake out the legs" VO2 max workout.  4 easy miles warmup (7:00 pace), then ran 3 x 1.03 mile.  I wanted to be sub-5:30 pace.  My times were 5:34, 5:35, 5:31 (these were 10-12 second longer than 1 mile), so all were sub-5:25 pace.  String them together and I would have a 5k PR!  4.5 miles home, with an extra .5 mile jogging between the repeats.  Legs felt pretty good, nice to get some blood flowing.

Elite- 244

12 easy miles- 4 on TOU, then got the kid and stroller, ran to planet walk, met Cody and Paul, twice on planet walk, ran to Cody's, then home plus a hair.

Ascend- 160

River trail- I wanted to work up a sweat.  Started at the nature center parking, ran hard all the way up.  Reached the Guinavah Malibu campground at 35:50 (5 miles, 7:07 average uphill on trails).  Fastest ever.  Fast run down, but didn't push too hard- 32:27 down (6:30 average).  Finished with 1 mile cooldown running to meet my wife and parents, who were hiking.  Good run.  Foot didn't hurt too much.

Ascend- 171

5 days...

8 medium-easy miles.  Ran to planet walk and arrived exactly the same time as Cody (not planned).  Ran to the end, then to his house.  Ran back to planet walk, to the end, then ran into Paul about halfway back (also not planned).  He ran the rest of the way home with me.  Nice to run into 2 guys on one run without planning it.  That is what happens when we all have the same easy run that is almost exactly 4 miles for all of us (Paul, is it 4.25 for you?).

Elite- 252 

4 days...

Last real workout of any sort.  8 miles- ran from my house to just past TOU mile 21, then turned around and ran the last 6.2 miles of the marathon.  Wanted the last 2 to be marathon pace.  First 4 miles were 6:40-7:00 pace.  Picked up the pace at the mile 24 marker.  First mile was 6:00 (dead on!  No GPS needed here when I have my Jon internal calibration!), second mile was 6:05 (got stopped at 2 stoplights, messing up my pace).  Crossed the TOU finish line, envisioning the next time I would do it.  Ran 2 miles home.  54:32 for 8 miles.

Elite- 260

3 days...

6 easy miles, twice along planet walk.  Saw something I had never seen before- a train on the tracks by the end of planet walk, heading towards the golf course.  First time I've seen a train there in my 5 years in Logan.  Have any of you other Logan guys ever seen the train there?

Elite- 266

2 days.  The pressure is building, especially given that there will be a Jon pacing club.  This may be a fastrunningblog first...

5 easy miles, no time, planet walk with the jogging stroller.  Ran into Paul, ran with him for a bit. 

Elite- 271

1 day!!!

4 easy miles with the wife and kid on planet walk, including 4 short striders.  Now I am just eating, drinking, and resting for tomorrow.

I guess my pace group even made it in the Logan newspaper today- we're famous!

Elite- 275

Finally, the big day arrived.  Didn't sleep too well so got up before my alarm at 4 am.  1 mile warm up to loosen my innards at 4 am.  Ate breakfast, then went to the finish and rode up to the start.  Great weather- probably 40 deg or so at the start.  1 more mile warm up, then met all the blog guys (Paul, Logan, Adam, Steve Ashbaker, Sasha, Cody, Kory, BC, plus others).  I had 3 goals of increasing difficulty (sub-2:45, sub-2:40, sub-2:37:12). 

Logan and Paul had generously volunteered to be the pacers for me and anyone else trying for sub-2:40, though we were aiming at sub-6:00 pace, with 5:50-6:00 for the first half (then see what happened from there).  Here is how it went:

Mile	Time	Comment
1	5:54	Nice and relaxed- Paul and Logan jumped out in front to lead the pace group and had to slow us down a bit to stay under 5:50
2	6:05	A bit too relaxed- pace group was Paul, Logan, Steve, Adam, Bill, me, with 7 people ahead of us
3	5:53	Paul stopped to take a leak, so we picked up the pace to try and lose him (just kidding)
4	5:49	Paul caught up (easily)
5	5:59	The leaves were chaning more than I thought they would be- very pretty.  Lots of red and yellow, some orange.
6	5:57	Paul stopped for leak #2.  Something is wrong when Paul had taken 2 bathroom breaks and I haven't taken any.  Bill drops off.
7	5:54
8	5:50
9-10	11:46	Not quite as relaxed- starting to feel the pace more.  10 miles in 59:12, right where I wanted to be, but working hard.
11	5:55	Awesome scene- sun came up behind us creating a picturesque shadow of 5 runners from behind, 3 in front with 2 heads in between.  Pretty.
12	5:44	Picking up a tail wind out of the canyon.  Now Logan stopped for a leak.  Did the pacers have a drinking party this morning?
13	5:44	Logan caught up (easily).  The group has passed 3 runners, with the other 4 far ahead.  We relax for the the next few miles.  Half marathon time of 1:17:14 (or so)- right on pace.
14	5:51	First crowds.
15	5:56	I dropped behind a few seconds, definitely feeling the pace.  Steve and Adam slowly pull away, Logan and Paul drop back to my pace.  My innards wanted a pit stop, but I decided to run through it.
16	6:01	First 6:00 mile
17	6:00	Leaving Hollow road.
18	6:07	My least favorite mile of the marathon- running on a busy highway, flat and straight.  Quite the contrast to the beauty and tranquility of the canyon.  Slowing a bit- legs tired.
19	6:18	Uphill in Millville.  Just hung on behind Logan and Paul.  Not feeling too good, but surprised to see a 6:18 mile.  It felt like a 6:30 mile.  Ran a great tangent across some dirt to close 10 feet on the pacers.
20	6:20	Felt more like 7:00, so that was good.  20 miles in 1:59:12, but pace was hard now.
21	6:11	Tried to pick it up to sub-6:00 on the downhill, but didn't have it left in me.  Laboring very hard.  Realized 6:00-pace was gone when Logan and Paul kept looking at the pace on their garmin's every 10 seconds and whispering amongst themselves.
22	6:26	Ran by my house to cheering crowds (my wife and kid, plus some of Cody's family).  For some reason my stride changed at this point- my turnover rate dropped off and I just could not get it going fasterer.  Never happened before.  No particular leg pains, just fatigue everywhere.  Compensated by taking longer strides.
23	6:31	Long strides continued.  We closed the 10 second gap on Adam and passed him- hoped he would stick with us, but he didn't.  Doing everything I can to stick with Paul and Logan.  I was now running about 5 meters behind them, rather than right on their heels.  I think it was their way of trying to get me to go faster.
24	6:31	Really feeling the miles.  Nice bit of a downhill from River Heights.  Tempted to "take a wrong turn" towards the finish line (cut off 2 miles) but couldn't shortchange my effort or my pacers.  Stride length increases even more.  Paul tells me I look good, a bad sign.
25	6:41	Crawled up the main street hill.  Know I can finish the race.  Little bit of brainpower available tells me 2:40 is doable.
26	6:32	Stride length is now about 10 meters per step (or so it felt).  Crowd stares in wonderment, trying to figure out why in the world the very relaxed Paul and Logan aren't able to pull away from the guy who is very obviously struggling behind them.  Nice downhill.
.2	1:15	Finish line is in sight.  Motorcycle cop pulls up to escort us in- Logan tells him that he and Paul are going to let me go ahead of them.  After a quick glance at me, cop asks Logan, "Do I need to push him in?"  Cop takes nap while waiting for me to cover the last 0.2 miles. Crowd stares in wonderment, trying to figure out why in the world the very relaxed Paul and Logan aren't able to pull away from the guy who is very obviously struggling behind them.  I finally, happily finish.  Paul sneakes in right behind me, beating Logan by 0.04 seconds.  Group hugs all around.  Second 1/2 marathon of 1:22:07- 5 minute positive split.

 Overall, I was very, very happy with the race.  I set a PR by almost 6 minutes (on a slower course) and broke my 2:40 goal.  I could not have run faster, plus I leave my 6:00 pace goal for another day.  The stride issue was strange, but nothing feels particularly bad on my legs now, just fatigue.  A post-race massage and dip in a cold canal help my legs feel a lot better.

Most of all, though, I cannot say enough good things about Logan and Paul.  They pushed, pulled, shouted at, and encouraged me the whole way.  It would have been ugly if they weren't there.  By the end they were even getting water for me at the aid stations so I wouldn't have to slow down.  They performed the ultimate unselfish running act today, pacing a slower runner the whole way, even slowing down at the end to let me finish first (though I may have resorted to holding on to singlets and out sprinting them if they tried pulling away the last 100 meters).  I wish them the best of luck at St.George- go get em, guys.  And thanks so much for the help today. 

Bloggers ran great today- Sasha took 4th, Steve and Bill won their age groups, Adam, Kory, and Cody set PR's, and we swept the 25-29 age group (me, Paul, Logan, Adam, Cody).  The biggest story was Hobie Call- 2:16 marathon winning time!  Wow.  Congrats to all

Tangent- 91

Planned day off.  Feel better than I ever have after a marathon- I can even go up and down stairs without leaning on the banister.  Some soreness, of course, but nothing bad other than one foot.  Hopefully a bit of rest/easy running will have me fully recovered and ready to train through the winter.

Here is the article from the Herald Journal yesterday.  Paul looks relaxed and Logan is actually smiling.  But I was glad to see those two get the credit they deserve for leading the pacing crew, greatly helping Steve, Adam, and myself.  And now I can forever tease them that they are official members of "my" entourage.  Makes me feel like Tom Brady or something, except with a better looking wife and kid (mine, not his)!

http://www.marathonguide.com/results/browse.cfm?MIDD=536070915

A little bit of interesting info about the marathon.

3 cross training miles- some excellent ultimate frisbee.  It's my first time playing in about a month.  I really missed it, but it was a worthy sacrifice to not risk injury right before my marathon.  If anyone else wants to play, we play every Tue and Thurs evening, plus Sat mornings.

Almost 2 hours of glorious ultimate frisbee today.  Great weather. 

PM- Evening run, 55 degrees, up Logan canyon river trail with the trees changing to their autumn colors, and a light drizzle.  Can life get any better than this?  I propose that it cannot.  There were clouds midway up the mountains, and just as the sun was setting a huge rainbow appeared for 5 minutes, stretching from one side of the canyon to the other.  Wish I had a camera so I could have shared the beauty with all of you.  Days like today are the reason I run- for the love of running and for the beauty of nature.  Perfect.

Ascend- 179

Planned on a sweet trail run today, but that was before I spent all Saturday night puking my guts out.  Laid up all day Sunday- barely got out of bed, forced to listen to 9 hours of football.  Lost 3 pounds.  Not feeling all better today, so scrubbed the run.  Will get some miles tomorrow.  Glad I didn't get sick till after my marathon.

Still not feeling great.

Easy run on river trail, no watch.  Lots of pretty leaves and probably more people than I have ever seen on the trail.

Ultimate frisbee afterwards.

806- 338

Frisbee- cold, rainy, and fun.  I was supposed to run with the guys earlier, but overslept.  I'm taking this whole post race recovery easier than I planned but certainly enjoying it.  But I'm starting up again next week- at least 30 miles.