Justin Park

D-News Half Marathon

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Location:

Sandy,UT,USA

Member Since:

Oct 05, 2009

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Local Elite

Running Accomplishments:

PRs (all aided)
- Marathon - Pocatello 2012 - 2:26:10 (1st overall); St. George 2012 - 2:24:08 (7th overall)
- Half Marathon - Timpanogos 2012 - 1:08:51 (2nd overall); Hobble Creek 2012 - 1:08:27 (3rd overall)
- 10K - Deseret News 2005 - 32:39

Other
- Ran track and cross country in high school
- Did not run in college
- Veteran of 14 marathons and numerous half marathons
- Ran the 2010 New York City Marathon as a charity runner with Team For Kids. Finished 2:33:51 (83rd overall). The entire experience from the fundraising to the race itself was absolutely incredible!

2014 TENTATIVE RACING SCHEDULE:
TBD

Short-Term Running Goals:

Run 6-days a week and maintain a decent base level of fitness. Upwards of 50-60 per week would be great. Adjust to my new work position, use time wisely, and keep negative stress at bay. Hopefully make a good run at Ogden this spring.

Balance family, work, running, and the other important things in my life.

Long-Term Running Goals:

Enjoy running and continue doing it consistently. Stay healthy and avoid injury as much as possible. Have fun!

Continue chasing PRs while I still can, particularly in the marathon and half marathon. Explore new races, improve training, build friendships, and learn from the wisdom and experience of the numerous great runners here in Utah. Run well into my old age.

 

Personal:

I live in Sandy, UT with my wife (Lindsay) and 2 kids. I love running the roads through my neighborhood and near Little Cottonwood Canyon. I also do a fair amount of treadmill running at the Life Centre Athletic Club. Aside from running, I love road and moutain cycling.

 

Favorite Blogs:

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Asics Bandito (Sept '09) Lifetime Miles: 164.40
Brooks PureFlow (Blue - Jun '12) Lifetime Miles: 1070.40
Adidas Aegis 2 (Jun '12) Lifetime Miles: 708.90
Asics Hyperspeed 4 (Sept '11) Lifetime Miles: 114.85
Nike LunaRacer (Aug '12) Lifetime Miles: 148.60
Nike Free 3.0 V4 (Jan '13) Lifetime Miles: 383.45
Adidas Energy Boost (Jun '13) Lifetime Miles: 872.10
Saucony Ride 7 (Oct '13) Lifetime Miles: 943.80
Brooks PureFlow 3 (Apr '14) Lifetime Miles: 603.10
Saucony Kinvara 4 (Apr '14) Lifetime Miles: 251.75
Nike LunaRacer 3 (Jul '14) Lifetime Miles: 174.05
Saucony Zealot (Jul '15) Lifetime Miles: 300.75
Asics Nimbus 17 (Jul '15) Lifetime Miles: 258.95
Adidas Adios Boost 2 (Jul '15) Lifetime Miles: 264.65
Race: D-News Half Marathon (13.1 Miles) 01:11:43, Place overall: 4, Place in age division: 2
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
4.3013.100.000.0017.40

D-News Half Marathon

Third half marathon in less than 3 weeks. Probably not the smartest thing to do. Especially for a guy like me who has a propensity for injuries when I overdue my running. However, I wanted to be part of the atmosphere of the event, was able to get half off on the entry fee, and was planning on getting 15 miles today anyways. I figured this would be a good way to get some quality miles.

After having run a half marathon (Timpanogos) just this past Saturday (5 days ago), I knew I wouldn't be at full strength today and shouldn't have too high of expectations for myself. I resolved to try and run hard, but not take it to redline. Mainly just try and keep things smooth and even and get in a solid effort. In the end, I feel I accomplished just that.

Aside from the recent 2 half marathons, one other thing I didn't have going for me was that at work yesterday afternoon we had a "storage room organization party" which basically was ~3 hours of lifting and totting a lot of heavy file storage containers. This probably had more of a mental impact than anything. I suspected it would sap some strength and cause me to wake up with a sore back. I took 200 mg of IB last night just as a preventive measure. Fortunately, the back was perfectly fine this morning and no noticeable fatigue from last night's moving exercise. So that was good.

Woke up at 3:50 AM and left the house pretty quickly. Just openning the garage, you could feel the warm breeze out of the south and is was apparent that it was going to be a warm one. On the bus ride up Emigration, the wind looked pretty fierce. Just as my bus got to the top, there as a quick bout of light rain that quickly passed. Spent about 15 mins in the potty line and then did a light warm-up up the canyon (~1.5 miles). Pretty soon it was time to roll.

The gun went off and the big dogs including Brett, Steve S, and Jason quickly took to the front. There were 3 or 4 others right up with them too. I quickly settled next to Clyde and Steve A. I really didn't not want to push the early miles, especially the first mile too fast. I was content to let Clyde and Steve pull a few seconds ahead. I went through the first mile in 5:07. Fast, but the effort didn't feel hard and the course was really conducise to a fast split. It ended up being my fastest of the race.

For the next 2-3 miles I trailed shortly behind Steve. Clyde was maybe 5-7 seconds up. There was definitely a headwind. Gusty at times. It certainly was making us work harder. Still, I wasn't pushing to hard. Just tried to run comfortably and let the wind do its thing. Splits 2-4 where 5:18, 5:20, and 5:30. Was a little concerned that the split times were climbing pretty quickly, but I wasn't going to worry about it. The wind and the rollers were definitely playing a factor. It was also quite warm, though at no point during the race was I particularly bothered by the heat.

Somewhere during about mile 4, I pull ahead of Steve. Clyde is still maintaining a steady gap of a few seconds on me. There is another younger guy who is slowly coming back to us. I eventually pass the young fella around Ruth's' Diner. Legs and lungs are feeling strong. I'm running just 'good' but not fantastic. I could probably go faster, but not much more so. I was content to maintain the same gap behind Clyde for a while longer. Mile 5 is 5:32. Definitely some rolling terrain and modestly strong headwind. In my mind I'm thinking today is probably going to end up 1:11 something. Maybe 1:10'ish if I can get something good rolling.

We hit the six mile just before exiting the canyon. About 6.3'ish I take my Gu. As you go by the zoo, there's a modest incline. I pull up along Clyde and start chatting with him. The headwinds are mostly non-existent at this point. I feel the Gu kicking in and next 2 miles are probably when I feel the best/strongest throughout the race. Mile 6 and 7 are both 5:24. I pull a little ahead of Clyde, but he sticks with me for a while. I definitely could have gone faster here, but I was intentionally slowing here a bit thinking to myself that I wanted to save some gas for the later miles.

During 8, you round right onto Foothill Blvd. My pace slows a little bit, but I'm still feeling fairly good. I stop hearing Clyde's breathing behind me. Mile 8 is 5:33.

Okay, less than 10K to go. Most of mile 9 is sceaming down past the U and Rice Eccles. By the stadium, I spot Brian Sommers watching the race. I ask him why he's not running and he's says something about breaking his ribs(?). Later, I also see him down at Liberty Park. The course turns north onto 13th. Mile 9 is 5:15.

10 starts on a slight incline, the a big dip and an up toward South Temple. The rollingness slows my pace and I was refusing to push very hard up the hills. Mile 10 is a 5:33.

Now on a nice straght gradual stretch down South Temple. I wanted to try and get a nice pace going the rest of the way, but my body seemed to have different ideas. Again, I was never pushing the redline, but I didn't/couldn't muster much speed. In retrospect, I wish I would have tried to push harder these last few miles. I think my splits could have been a little faster.

On a tangent thought, on these downhill half marathons, maintaining a decent speed for the last few miles has really been a challenge for me. It seems like that's been the case many years. Even 2012, my best year. That year, it wasn't until mid-August that I seemed to start doing a better job holding a more repectable pace to the end. Today, may have been a good day to try and practice that (i.e. really try and push hard at the end). But conversely, maybe its a good thing I didn't. At some point, if I want to improve, I need to do something that's going to help me build speed for the late stages of races. I think I view myself as a guy with a good aerobic base, but when it comes time to go over threshold, I really have a hard time holding it for any length of time. Given my training routines, I know I shouldn't be surprised by this.

Miles 11-13 end up being 5:27, 5:29, and 5:43. 1:09 for the last 0.19.

After crossing the line and getting some water. Clyde finished not too far behind and we cooled down for ~2.8 on the chipped trail around the park.

I think I ended up finishing 4th overall (Brett was 1st, Steve 2nd, and Jason 3rd). I haven't see the results yet though to confirm that. For a while, I was disallusioned that I had finished about 1:09:45'ish . I should have looked at my watch, because it turns out the race clock had started about 2 minutes late. Oh well... I'll take the 1:11 and change today. Nothing spectacular, but mission accomplished for the day.

Fritz dominated the marathon with a ~2:26.  Josh E had a good race given the conditions (3rd). Cotter (2nd) looked pretty beat up. The heat and wind definitely impacted the halfers, but even more so for the marathon folks.

 

P.M. - Big Cottonwood ride to Brighton (~40 miles).

Nike LunaRacer (Aug '12) Miles: 15.90Brooks PureFlow 3 (Apr '14) Miles: 1.50
Comments
From jtshad on Thu, Jul 24, 2014 at 12:35:47 from 141.221.191.225

Nice race! Impressive strength in finishing 3 back to back to back fast Half marathons! Time to take it a bit easy to avoid injury...great work!

From Superfly on Thu, Jul 24, 2014 at 16:30:34 from 71.195.247.88

Great plan and execution today. It was great to get to run some with ya. I wanted so bad to stick it out from 8 in. Next time:)!

435-632-2459

text me to set something up for Saturday morning.

thx

From Steve Shepherd on Fri, Jul 25, 2014 at 09:35:24 from 168.180.136.164

Nice race/workout! That should make you stronger in the long run especially because you ran it so smart. Good luck with your training over the next couple of month and I'll see you at STG. You said you're planning on running STG right?

From Steve on Sun, Jul 27, 2014 at 06:32:52 from 66.87.127.220

Pretty cool seeing you go after the 10k knowing you'd probably keep the pace up the whole way. Running strong!

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