This course was a litter tougher than I thought. The profile makes it look like your standard Utah downhill screamer, but not quite. I read several race reports here so I knew it was hilly. One person mentioned the concrete, I noticed the concrete for sure. Worst surface to run on. My training was a little strange for this one. I was all in for Ogden, trained very well for it. 7 races between Jan 30th and April 23rd. I did both the Salt Lake City Track Club Winter series (missed the 15K) and the Ogden Winter Series. Great training. Plus, I put in monster mileage (for me). I'll have to double check but I think I did 10 80 mile+ weeks. Ogden was a disaster, ended up having a Sherrif pick me up and take me to a fire station somewhere at the halfway point with a raging case of hypothermia. Violent shaking for a good half hour.
So I was all trained up with no place to go. My training was going so well for Ogden I decided at the last minute to do the Grand Slam. So I signed up and paid for the Grand Slam, Utah Valley, Desnews and St. George.
1st race (Ogden) and I'm out of the competition with a DNF. I'm still very upset but I'm going to complete it by using Big Cottonwood as a substitute. I can't compete without doing the "core 4" but at least I can "complete."
So, that's the back story coming into this race. I kind of had a double taper because you really can't do much between May 21st and June 11th except try to maintain what I build from January to May. The fact that I took 6th out of 44 tells me it's not too bad. I'm a little miffed I couldn't squeeze out another minute or two. That was the difference between 4th, 5th and 6th (me). I would have liked to have placed in the top 5, I'm motivated by silly plaques and ribbons but I did leave it out there, all I had. As I was slowing toward the end I kept putting in the effort by telling myself it could come down to a few seconds.
Well, at least I BQ'd, that was my minimum goal.
Even though the course is rather challenging, the staging are was the best I've ever been in. Soft grass to lie down on and plenty of porta-potties. Practically every marathon has a porta potty shortage, but not here. Finally, someone is doing it right.
I messed up a few of my splits. I don't use a garmin type thing, I use the old school timex with a lap button and sometimes I miss the mile marker.
1. 7.29
2. 7.15
3. 7.34
4. 7.26
5.
6. 15.27 (7.33 ave)
7. 7.34
8.
9. 16.28 (8:14 ave)
10. 7.24
11. 7.30
12. 7.51
13. 7.24
14. 7.36
15. 7.33
16.
17. 16.38 (8.19 ave)
18. 7.50
19. 7.37
20 7.41
21. 8.00
22. 10.17 (pit stop)
23. 8.49
24. 7.55
25. 8.47
26.2 9.31 (7.56 ave)
Feel pretty good, I'm actually excited for Desnews. I want to perform well, and place.
Woke up 12:55, on the road by 2:20. I was parked in front of the Busses by a little after 3. Sat in my car for a half hour, then sat in front of the busses for about 10 minutes, boarded the bus at about 3:52, bus pull out a minute or two befor 4. Next time maybe leave 2:30-2:40.
Conditions we probably perfect for this race. Cloud cover, cool. Wore a singlet with my Ogden 2016 long sleeve race shirt on top which I gladly discared at about mile 7. Felt good to throw that away! Still pissed though.
Strong head winds I think around mile 16 and 17. Base on prior reports by others, this is to be expected every UVM.
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