I love the Top of Utah Marathon as it is run in cool temps and what a great course and some amazing runners, FRB runners, and friends show up to run this race. Grats to Jake for the win - he did awesome!
Meet Karen Smith at the bus pick-up area and we rode the bus up together, and just had a great time in the tent talking with everyone before the start. Got close to the start of the race and I went to turn on my watch and it would come on and turn of right away, NOT GOOD I know I charged it but I also know that I should have looked at it to see if it turned on when I pulled it from the charger before I left home. Oh well this was the first time I will be running a race with out a watch.
Meet my friend Glen at the start line as I told him that I would run with him to better his BQ time but what good am I with out a watch right, LOL. We got beside the 3:25 pacer and talked some but we never really talked about strategy, pace or anything and just thought we were going to hang out with the pacer.
The race started and for the first 2 miles we ran with the pacer and worked our way through runners and we had got in front of the 3: 25 pacer and was just there for another mile and got to the first aid station and the pace felt alittle faster and we were pulling away from the 3:25 some and I asked Glen if he was ok with the pace and he said yes and we kept going. At mile 5 I had to stop and use the bathroom for pee stop #1 which some times this is normal and did not think nothing of it, and told Glen I would catch up to him. Ran past the pacer and caught up about .25 mile ahead of the pacer, and pace was around 7:35 or so still and was ok by me but asked Glen if he was ok and said yes. I felt very comfortable running this pace and felt like a Z-1 run. We ran through some more aid stations and at mile 9 I had to stop and pee again and now this was not normal and did not know why as I was drinking the same fluid as I always do and told him I would catch up to him again. Got done and now the pacer was still behind me and caught up again and now we were about .25 mile ahead of the pacer still.
More aid stations and the same fluid intake as always and had to stop to pee again at mile 12, now this is not good and it dawned on me that I was running at a much lower HR and not needing as much H2O and just had to pick the pace up. Got up to Glen just before mile 13 and just had to keep going, felt bad but I think it was the best for the both of us, got to the half with a time of 1:41:50 and just got into a good comfortable pace that I felt I could hold for the rest of as I didn't have a watch to tell my pace or time and you know it was kinda nice to run like that but was scared to death about it up at the start.
Now hitting aid stations with the same fluid intake and no problems and never had to stop to pee again. (humm) I was passing alot of runners and felt good as we were running the rural area of the course and hit the rollers and some up hills and alot of right and left hand turns and felt the pace slow some but not to much. Around mile 23 I felt my hamstring just alittle bit but would come and go and didn't think to much about it. Got to mile 24 and felt good and pace was just a bit slower then a few miles back but I was still passing runners. Got alot of energy off of the spectators the last few miles that help alot and turned the last corner heading for home and I could not beleive it, I seen the the clock turn 3:18 ish and just couldn't beleive it as I finished with a time of 3:18:34 and just 30 seconds slower then last year.
1st half time was 1:42:30 - 7:49 pace
2nd half time was 1:36:04 - 7:20 pace
Felt good about the second half of the race and pleased with the pace and my overall time. Not my best OA time but it is my best 2nd half effort.
Grats to all my friends, Jake, Allie, Steve, Glen with a new PR great job, Karen with a new PR, | 