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Provo City Marathon

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Location:

Portland,OR,

Member Since:

Nov 02, 2005

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Other

Running Accomplishments:

5K: 15:41-Portland Track Festival 2010

10K: 31:34-Linfield College (Track) 2012

10 Mile: 51:57-Pear Blossom 2009

1/2 Marathon: 1:10:42-Foot Traffic Flat 2010

Marathon: 2:29:35-Newport 2013

50K: 3:48:06-Weiser River 50K 2021

Short-Term Running Goals:

Next Race:

12-hour race, sometime in 2021

100 mile race, sometime...

Long-Term Running Goals:

Sub 1:10 Half Marathon

Sub 2:30 Marathon

Favorite Blogs:

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Race: Provo City Marathon (26.2 Miles) 02:34:44, Place overall: 4
Total Distance
27.00

I ran the Provo City Marathon this morning.  It was pretty windy yesterday and when I woke up at 4:30, my phone said 28 mph winds.  What a buzzkill.  I looked out the window and the trees weren't moving too bad though so that was good.  Hopefully it would work out to be a tail wind for most of the race.

Ate a bagel and banana for breakfast about 4:45 and then stood in line from 5:15 to 6:05 before finally enough buses showed up to take us to the starting line.  Got to the start and stood in line for the bathroom.  Guess that makes for less than an ideal warm up.

I didn't have much of a game plan for the race.  Wanted to keep things in check for the first 2 miles (fairly steep out of the canyon) and then base my pace off of that.  The gun went off and 4 guys zoomed to the lead.  The pace wasn't too bad but maybe a touch faster than I wanted.  Figured I better stick with them though because I wanted to work together in the wind and 26 miles is a long way to run by yourself.  2 of the lead guys a BYU singlets on so I figured they'd be tough competition.

We ran the first 4 miles as a group in 22:00 flat (5:30/pace).  Shortly after the 4 mile mark the eventual winner(s) broke off, leaving Jordan Perry and I to 'battle' for 3rd place.  We just chatted along for the next 15 miles.  It was fantastic.  The pace felt casual enough and the company made the miles fly by.  Mentally, it was one of the easiest marathons I've run and I was really enjoying myself.  We hit mile 8 in 44:51 (5:36/pace) and mile 12 in 1:06:23 (5:31/pace).  Again, it was great to run side-by-side with someone and talk about who knows what for over 2/3rd the race.

After making the turn West off of University around mile 14, the wind became a huge bother.  It must have been blowing from the NW because for the next 6 miles, it felt like a constant headwind.  The course ran west for a while, then north for a while, west again and north again.  With each turn in direction, I expected the wind to die down but it just didn't happen.  I couldn't wait to turn around and finally have it at my back.  Mile 16 in 1:30:37 (5:39/pace) and mile 21 in 2:00:27 (5:44/pace).  I couldn't hang with Jordan around the 19-20 mile mark.  My stomach was cramping up pretty good and I wasn't breathing well.  As a result....I slowed down.  Haha.  Mentally I was doing ok but I knew it was going to be a little rough to finish the final 5 miles alone.  So it goes though.

I saw my family at mile 22 and I walked about 6-7 seconds to grab a drink.  By no means did that break fix my situation, but I did feel better once I started running again.  I'm sure the pace didn't improve at all, but for the first time in 5 miles, my stomach felt better as my cramps subsided slightly.  Got to mile 23 in 2:13:19 (5:48/pace) and slowly made my way back to University Ave, up and down the overpass (rough way to finish) and across the finish line in 2:34:44 (5:54/pace).  Miles 19-21 were a little rough and that seems to be where things went south for me.  Oh well.  I felt fine once I finished and stopped running.  Not exhausted or overly tight/stiff/achy.  Just could't go any faster.

It was a pretty cool course--I especially enjoyed running down University Ave for 6 strait miles.  No complaints really.  Glad to get another one under my belt.  And as always, lunch at In-N-Out Burger makes the drive to Utah well worth it.  We'll see how things look for Newport in June.  I figure I'll run it regardless, but it may not be with a PR goal in mind.  We'll see how these next few weeks go.

LunarRacer (Red) Miles: 27.00
Comments
From Seth on Mon, May 07, 2012 at 18:16:46 from 174.145.167.92

Smokin time man, I was wonderin if you were in taper mode this week. Nice work!

From jtshad on Fri, May 11, 2012 at 07:50:17 from 204.134.132.225

Congrats on a strong race. It is nice to have company on the long events. Sorry about the cramps, but you held on for a great result and time.

From Jake K on Fri, May 11, 2012 at 09:41:14 from 155.100.226.54

Nice race man. I had no idea that was you - around the 10-11 mile mark of the race I saw you run by while I was warming up, but didn't put 2+2 together until seeing the results the next day. You sort of just did this on a whim, huh? Not too shabby. The last half of that course is not that easy, especially the overpass hill (x2!).

From Little Bad Legs on Sat, May 12, 2012 at 15:07:17 from 68.186.0.46

Seth- Thanks man. I was hoping to see you there! Perhaps at TOU?

Jeff- Yeah, the company was great. Makes all the difference in the world!

Jake- Yeah, that was me who called out your name and then forgot Andrea's name. I wanted to call her "Allie" but knew that was wrong. Haha. Yeah, kind of jumped into the race with about 2 weeks planning. Kept the wife happy with a trip to see family and I got in a race--killed 2 birds with 1 stone, so to speak.

From Superfly on Mon, May 14, 2012 at 19:16:58 from 74.211.21.81

Finally got to your report... Seems like a pretty solid workout and race. Sorry about the wind. But any marathon that's easy on you mentally will show up physically too. Now in hind sight it shows in your recovery week. Feeling good faster ect.. Too bad the fast guys showed but all things considered a 2:34 up at altitude is pretty solid and I think your plenty far out to still run great at Newport. Three weeks after this race you'll be feeling spunky again and you'll have a solid workout under you belt going into a flat sea level course. You can do it for sure. Keep up the good recovery and again good job!

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