Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow

Ran up Dry Canyon Rd a little ways, looking for a trail that connects into Birch Canyon. I ran up and down the fields for a while, and then found what could have been it, but it was fenced off. No posted sign, but barbed wire is a sign enough for me that I'm not wanted. So I turned back and went back down Dry, east on Hillside Dr. and onto the canal trail, then turned left onto a gravel road that intersects the trail that I've been wanting to explore. Ran up it a ways, and then turned right on what I assumed to be the Bonneville ST. Took the BST to Hyde Park Canyon. There is a dirt road that goes up Hyde Park Canyon that will be worth exploring later, plus the BST looked like it kept going south, but for the sake of time and distance I turned off into Hyde Park onto the roads again, and ran through all the ridiculous stupid houses that people build up there. Honestly, who needs a 5-car garage? Found the canal trail, and ran home on that. 7:09/mile for the run, not bad for all the climbing.

Ran up Canyon Rd to Birch Creek, and ran up the dirt road to the start of the single track. Scoped out parking for tomorrow. It's a great road, no one on it, not too steep, and a nice dirt surface. Fall colors are great too. Averaged 6:51/mile for the run (8.25 miles total)

Did a trail run with Jon and Cody. We ran up Smithfield Dry Canyon and down Birch Canyon. See their writeup for more details. In general, Dry was hard going up, and Birch was delightful going down. Snow and mud from 6000' on up.

Did a new route today: my house out to 200N, which turns into Upper Canyon Rd., down to Canyon Rd, back into Mack Park. Then I cut through the cemetery, up to the golf course, where I found another paved trail that I didn't previously know of. Took the trail for a few blocks until it ended, and then headed home. 6:55/mile average pace.

Canal Trail. 8 miles averaging 6:15/mile. Brisk run for a brisk morning.

Ran from work, Planet Walk - Landfill Loop, 8 miles. No watch.

Did a Amalga - Benson loop. I ended up on some road that I didn't know, and went about 3 miles farther than I wanted to. Did sort of a tempo for the first 9 miles, and then cruised in. Averaged 5:59/mile for 13 miles.

Ran up Birch Creek a little ways. Tired from yesterday. 7:12/mile average pace.

****

Man, I miss the old cross country days. Just found a really old XC result from 1999. I ran 25:15 for 8K on grass...good for 71st place at an invitational. Running balls-to-the-wall in a huge pack for 8K, clawing for every spot, was just so...FUN. I don't get that anymore at road races, and I miss it. On a side note, if you look a few spots below me, note that I beat Jim Spivey by a few seconds. (Spivey coached for U of Chicago and would jump in races as an open runner...despite being over 40 and retired, he still had a kick to recon with). :-)

https://www.athlinks.com/results/78269/112376/14616961/The-Notre-Dame-Invitational-1999.aspx

Was feeling kind of blah today in terms of energy, so kept it a little shorter than usual. 11 miles on the canal trail and in some North Logan neighborhoods, averaged about 7:15/mile.

Easy 6 miles on west side of town and lower canal trail.

Did a bit of a tempo up Canyon Rd and back. Averaged about 6:15/mile on the up part and 5:25/mile on the down part. 5:50/mile overall for 8 miles. Fall colors were gorgeous today.

I forgot to blog this earlier, so now it's the next week and I'm struggling to remember. I think I ran birch creek with Cody. Fall colors were amazing, and we kept the pace slow, something like 7:30/mile average. 8 miles total.

Canal trail. Leave to Moab today.

Ran up Pack Creek Rd from the cabin to the picnic area and pack. Thankfully, there was a pit toilet at the picnic area, which I badly needed. Saw lots of deer during the run. The Fremont Cottonwood trees were all lit up bright yellow too, and I love the LaSalle Mnts.

Ran down Pack Creek Rd from our cabin. Very very slow. Like yesterday, saw lots of deer, beautiful scenery, yada yada yada.

Today was The Other Half near Moab, UT. I ran this race last year, loved it, and wanted to come back in better shape and in better health in order to really attack the course and see what I could do. I like this course because it is very beautiful, and it is also quite challenging, as there are lots of hills during the second half of the race. The first half of the race is along the Colorado River in a canyon, and just has some small rolling hills, so is fairly fast. In the second half, the landscape opens up into Castle Valley, and there are a series of large and rather unrelenting hills. Thankfully, there are also some nice downhills on the lee side of each uphill, so that makes it manageable. The final hill ends around Mile 11.5, and then it's a very fast downhill into the finish. Course profile is here.

Last year I won the race and ran 1:14:02, despite having a shin injury and not running for 2 or 3 weeks before the race. It was an excellent race given the circumstances, but it left me wondering how fast I could run the course if healthy. Also, the course record was a low 1:12, and I knew I could get that if things went well. So my goals for the 2009 race were (in ascending order of difficulty):

1. Win
2. Run faster than last year (sub-1:14)
3. Break the course record (sub-1:12)
4. Break 1:10:00
5. Set a PR (sub 1:08:12)
6. Break 1:08:00

I knew the first 3 goals were pretty likely to happen, goal #4 was also a good possibility if the hills didn't eat me up, and goals #5-6 were fairly unlikely, but why not dream a little?

My parents flew in from Indiana last week, and all 3 generations of Petersen piled into a rental SUV (Forester not big enough), and headed down to Moab on Thursday. We hiked around Arches and Canyonlands and generally ate terrible during Thursday - Saturday. So it was a fun time, but not the greatest pre-race activities (good for the mind and soul, but not the body).

Fortunately, Sunday (race-day) was a yet another beautiful day. Chilly in the morning, but not too cold, and not a cloud in the sky. No wind either. I got dropped off at the middle school in Moab, and then they bused us all out to Dewey Bridge, about 30 miles from Moab, along the Colorado River. Ate 2 bananas and 2 larabars for breakfast along the way, also had a couple cups of weak coffee. Did the usually pre-race things, like chit-chat, stay warm by the fire, and potty stops (2-star race). I warmed up intermittently about two miles along the main road, and also up a dirt road to the side. Did a couple strides, but nothing much.

At the start line, I knew Bernie Boettcher but did not recognize anyone else. Due to its proximity to the fall marathons (TOU, StG, Denver, Chicago, etc), the lack of prize money, and also the fact that it's a Sunday race, this race is usually not the deepest in terms of competition, since most regional-class Utah runners do not run it (in fact, only 4 of the Top 10 were from Utah this year). I don't know the Colorado runners well, but I imagine most of them ran the Denver event, which is the same day. Interestingly, 2/3 of the participants this year were women. The point is, I expected to take out the race pretty hard, and not have anyone try to go with me.

The race started right on time (it's very well organized), and I took it out quickly, as I planned on doing. Sure enough, by 100m I was by myself and couldn't hear anyone behind me. Fortunately, I would have the beautiful landscape to keep me company the whole race. It was a beautiful Sunday morning in God's creation.

A side note: once again I was without a real sports watch. Seth had hidden my watch before TOU, and I couldn't find it, and then I forgot to look for it before leaving to Moab, so I ended up having to choose between my everyday watch than won't take splits, or my honkin' huge beast of a Garmin. Once again, I chose the split-less watch. I was able to remember my first 5 or 6 mile marker times, but after that it is foggy. I do not have the memory for numbers that Sasha does.

Anyway, I hit Mile 1 in 5:05, and was feeling great. This got me pretty excited and I thought maybe a PR was possible. After all, if one 5:05 mile felt this easy, why not 12 more? Obviously, that's kind of a silly thought, but it was my thought nonetheless.

Mile 2 was the reality check, and I went through in about 10:25 (5:20 split). That would be too much damage to recover from for sub-1:08, but sub-1:10 still looked okay. Mile 3 was at 15:37 (5:12). Mile 4 was 20:48 (5:11). Mile 5 was 25:57 (5:09). Mile 6 was 31:08 (5:11).

So after 6 miles I had established a really good rhythm, and was feeling strong too. I was averaging about 5:11/mile, which is pace for sub-1:08...but I knew I would have to spot myself more than that to account for all the hills in the second half. But maybe I could defy physics and physiology, and not slow down on the hills?

By Mile 6, the course opens up to the gorgeous scene of Castle Valley, and the hills begin. The first hill during Mile 7 is not too bad, with a downhill recovery, but then all of Mile 8 is uphill, and not an easy uphill at that. I lost track of my running time in here, so I can't remember Mile 7 at all, but it was probably in the 5:20-5:30 range. But Mile 8 was the deal-killer: 5:57 for the split. I remember that quite clearly, thinking that just a little bit slower and I would have been over 6:00. At this point I knew that I had lost all of my padding from Mile 1-6, and sub-1:10 was in serious jeopardy.

It was also getting a little warm by now, and I was dumping water on me at every aid station (and drinking water too). I don't remember what Mile 9 was for split. I don't know the Mile 10 split either, but my running time was 53:24. Doing the mental math, 53:20 is exactly 5:20/mile, and 5:20/mile is pretty much 1:10:00 for a half marathon, or slightly under. So I was on the cusp of keeping Goal #4, if I could just stop the bleeding.

Thankfully, the biggest hills were done, and if I could just keep 5:20 or faster for the last three miles, I could do it. Easier said than done, at that point in a half marathon. I don't remember my Mile 11 or 12 splits, but they were close enough to 5:20 to keep me encouraged. But definitely no faster. I was hitting the downhills as fast as I could at this point, to try to get back time. The final hill ended around Mile 11.5, and I was greeted by the drummers, who are always good for a boost. And then I hit the downhill, 1.5 miles and into the finish. I hit Mile 12 at around 1:04:25. I knew to get 1:10 at this point, I would basically need a 5-minute mile plus a sprint to the finish.

I was already flooring it at the 12-mile mark, but tried to floor it even more. It was a great downhill, perfect gradient. With about a half mile to go, I made the only turn on the course, into the Sorrel River Ranch, which serves as the finish line venue. The Sorrel driveway is still going toward the river, and is therefore downhill, but only slightly so. I tried to keep the pace as hard as I could go, ignoring the blisters, chaffing, and other discomforts associated with racing this distance. But my legs were responding, so I kept rolling. I turned the final corner and could see the finish line clock, and saw that I would get 1:10 pretty easily. I got to break the tape (always fun), and ended up at 1:09:50. So I met goals #1-4. 2nd place was about 1:17, and 3rd place was 1:19.

It took me quite a while to catch my breath. After most half marathons, I can get my breath back pretty quickly, but this one felt more like a 5K. I worked really hard the last couple miles, and it was fun to push myself that hard. I love the feeling of being in shape, challenging my body to work hard, and having my body respond. There is no feeling quite like it. I'm quite happy with this race. Given the terrain, I feel that it was as good as some of my other half marathons this year. Not a breakthrough or anything, but I wasn't looking for that, just a good way to cap off my year. I suppose that I can say that it is a PR for non-aided altitude course, and the first time I've broken 1:10 on a non-aided course in Utah. So there you go.

Afterward, we hung out at the finish for the awards. It's a really nice spot, at Sorrel River Ranch, and it even had a playground for Seth. The first place prize was a really nice laptop bag with stuff embroidered on it, the bag also had some race merchandise in it, like a stocking cap, socks, water bottle, etc. I can always use socks.

We drove back home after the awards, with a stop in SLC to drop off my parents at a hotel near the airport (they fly out Monday morning). Seth only cried for a solid hour. Ha. Turned out he was sitting in a huge mess in his diaper, so I don't blame him. Car trips with babies are always fun like that.

As far as what's next, I expect to jump in a local 5K in a few weeks to see what I can do, and also do a local Turkey Trot 5K later in the month with Seth in the stroller, but I am pretty much through for formal training and races. Until next year.

Did a loop to Summit Dr with Seth. Not much soreness from the race, and was feeling pretty good.

Didn't run today, but went for a walk with Stacy and Seth up Birch Creek.

Did some trail exploring today.Ran from my house up Dry Canyon Rd, to the trail head. Then I turned right, and started going up a trail up the ridge. This was an old 2-track road, and in decent shape, but pretty steep, so I hiked most of it. But I was greeted with plenty of good views, and got up to 6200' before starting to descend. Running down was okay (again, a 2-track jeep trail), but got very rocky in places, and rutted, so it was slow going. Eventually I dropped down into Hyde Park Canyon, which was surprisingly nice. It was a dirt road, and good for running. Ran down out of Hyde Park Canyon, and then down to the canal trail, and back home. 9:11/mile for the run/hike (8.25 miles). Not bad for a Thursday morning though.

Feeling just slightly under the weather today, and legs were tired from yesterday, so I'm taking the day off. This is nice. Who knows, maybe I'll take the next few months off?

Ran up Smithfield Canyon. It was a fairly warm day, and kind of a misty rain at times. Very nice run, and I enjoyed it. 6:32/mile average pace.

Did a loop into the west side of Smithfield. Looks like snow tomorrow, so this might be my last run for a while...

Did a loop through Hyde Park. It had snowed overnight, but weather was fairly decent during the run, with lots of purdy trees and mountains to look at. 6:48/mile for 6 miles..

Did a little loop in town, and then ran the path in the cemetery to see how long the loop is (it is 0.6 miles, close to 1000m). It will be a great spot for intervals, if I ever get around to doing intervals again. 6:48/mile average pace.

Did a loop up to the north end of Smithfield. Ran hard to relieve some work-released stress.6:07/mile average pace.

Did an out-and-back on the canal loop. A very grey and misty morning. Averaged 7:03/mile for 5.25 miles.

Cody met me at my house, and we drove up to the Smithfield Canyon campground, parked, and started running up the dirt road. The dirt turned to mud, and then turned to snow (which is better than mud). After about 2 miles, we got to single-track, and kept going up that for a while. The snow was pretty shallow, only about an inch deep and crusty, so it slowed things down a little, but not much, and footing was decent. There were a few spots that were just beautiful, with the snow on the cliffs and trees, and a few fall colors still out there. Eventually, we turned a corner and the aspect changed, so the snow got deeper, so we pretty much gave up right there, and headed back down the trail. Going down the trail was quite fun, as the snow made it soft and covered up the little rocks. We made much better time. When we got back to the car, we added another mile or so on the road to get an even 10 miles.