Rob Murphy

Got up early this morning and was out the door at 5:45. Jeff Shadley and his family stayed with us last night after the UVM na we had plans for a big breakfast this morning at Ruth's Diner.

So I ran 15 miles, generally easy, but with the last mile in 5:50. When I got home everyone was up and Jeff gave me a slight hard time about not waking him up to run with me. Said he would have been good for five! I told him I was trying to encourage responsible behavior the day after a 2:42 marathon. There are some hard core runners on this blog.

Anyway, we had a great time with the Shadleys. Jeff and I took the kids to our local pool yesterday afternoon, grilled burgers and hot dogs last night, and a big huge breakfast this morning. After breakfast at Ruth's I was going to show Jeff the fir5st few miles of the Deseret News Marathon course and was surprised to see the road is still closed going up to Big Mountain.

am: Went to the gym this morning for an easy jog on the treadmill plus some weights and core stuff. Nice workout.

Ran into Fritz at the gym and tried to convince him not to be too despondent over his 1:09 half on Saturday three weeks after his win at Ogden. It will be fun to see if he can get in several consistent training months and go sub 2:20 at Chicago. I think he can.

pm: Last real workout before the race Saturday...

1 mile warm-up

3.25 miles starting at 5:45 pace and working down to 5:39 pace for the last quarter.

.75 mile jog

1 mile in 5:24

1/4 mile jog

1/4 mile at 5:00 pace

Cool down.

Just did an easy three mile walk whis morning. We had some thunderstorms blow through overnight and it's absolutely beautiful out now so I really wanted to run. I normally take the day off two days before a big race but I think I'll rest today because I'll be in Mineapolis on Thursday and I know I'll want to do a nice run around Lake of the Isles and Lake Calhoun - my old stomping grounds.

6.25 miles around Sugarhouse Park on another perfect day for running. Six fast striders after.

Now off the the airport for 13 days in Minnesota.

Six miles around Lake of the Isles and Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis. This has to be one of the best urban trails in America. The only one better I think is City Creek Canyon out of downtown Salt Lake.

Rode the roller coaster and experienced the Paul Bunyan log flume in the M of A. Took the kids by the house where Ann and I lived when we got married. Lots of fun today.

Easy run in North Branch - farm country about 60 miles North of the Twin Cities at Ann's uncle's house.

Checked in with the "elite athletes" at the Canal Park Lodge in downtown Duluth. Lots of free food and drinks for me and the kids. Now off to hang out with Steve Anderson and his girls.

Had quite a day at the Gary Bjorklund Half Marathon after a night with zero sleep. This is something that I really need fo figure out and it just keeps getting worse before every race. I can't seem to switch my brain off at night. Just once I'd like to run a race after a decent night's sleep.

Ann dropped me off at the bus pick up at the U. of Minnesota Duluth. The course is point to point along the Lake Superior shoreline.I was supposed to hitch a ride with our friend's next door neighbor who was running the half as well, but he called at like 4:30 AM to say that it was raining too hard and he wasn't going to run.

Rained hard right up until the 6:30 start time. I got to huddle under a tent with the other ELITE ATHLETES and laugh at the masses of ordinary runners as they got soaked and froze their a**** off. Also got to make extensive use of the ELITE ATHLETE POP's which were nice and dry. Dropped my bag off at the ELITE ATHLETE bag drop right on the starting line about 30 seconds before the race.

Seriously, I felt a little self conscious hanging with all these Kenyans who were going to run 62 minutes for the half marathon. Clearly there is a wide disparity in what qualifies as "elite". But I really appreciated the fine treatment and I highly reccomend Grandma's/Gary Bjorklund to all of you considering an out of town race. And it's on a Saturday which I know is important to a lot of Utah people.

Gun went off. I was wanting for once in my life to avoid going out too fast and this was the perfect race to succeed at that as I didn't know anyone and so felt free to run my own race. Good racing weather - cool, light rain, nice tailwind.

Here are my splits: 5:48, 5:42, 5:42, 5:51, 5:48, 5:38, 5:55, 5:52, 5:48, 5:43, 5:42, 5:45, 5:46, and 5:24 pace for the point one.

I ran too conservatively, and looking back, I realize that if I had run more aggresively that I could have run a really nice time. But I wasn't sure how the zero sleep would affect me in the later miles and I wanted to finish strong. I just got into a nice comfortable groove. Nobody passed me after the first mile and I must have passed twenty people over the last couple miles into downtown Duluth.

Off to the awards ceremony now.