Every Race is an Adventure!

Ran the Tri-City course (Orem, Lindon, Pleasant Grove) with Larry, Wayne, and Kevin. It was nice running at 9am. We're back to running at 5:45am tomorrow...brrr!

I ran the lighted streets of Orem with Larry this morning. The temperature was in the low 20's with a little breeze now and then. I dressed for the mid 20's and no wind and was a little cold now and then, but not too bad.

At lunch time I felt like running a few more miles. I ran a little over 4 miles. Most of it was at 7:30/mi, gradually working up to 6:48/mi for the last half mile.

I bought a new cold weather running suit yesterday and was set to try it out this morning but nobody else showed at 5:45am. I was hoping maybe to run with Tom at lunchtime so I opted to go back home and skip the morning run. I figured back-to-back two-a-days was probably pushing it at this point.

At lunchtime, the temperature was in the mid-30's so I decided to run outside. I decided on a tempo run on Kuhni Road. I didn't have my Garmin, just the Timex Ironman I always wear, so after the run I measured the distance using Google Earth.

Overall I averaged 8:03/mi for 8.6 miles (7:52/mi out, 8:15/mi back).

My legs were pretty tired and a little tight after the run, probably due to the cold.

The temperature was in the 40's this morning prior to the pending storm and colder temperatures, so I decided to run this morning instead of at lunchtime. There was a pretty good wind that cooled things down, but it wasn't too bad. I was hoping at least Larry would show up at 5:45am, but I ended up running alone.

My legs felt very tired. That probably has something to do with the extra miles and faster pace the past couple of days. Today I just wanted to put in some easy miles while trying to maintain a decent pace and good form.

I averaged 8:38/mi for the 5.3 miles. The half mile paces were 9:14, 9:00, 8:52, 9:15, 9:02, 8:46, 8:32, 8:01, 7:54, 7:41. I felt like I maintained a steady effort throughout. The times show that it took a while, but I gradually loosened up and was able to gradually pick up the pace.

Today was a basketball day. I played at 8:00, my son Adam at 10:00, my daughter Emily at 1:00, the BYU Cougars in the afternoon, and the Utah Jazz in the evening. We had 12 show up for my game. It was fun fellowshipping, but I didn't get a lot of playing time (and I'm the "coach").

Driving home after my game I saw Larry, Kevin, Wayne, and Jolene starting their run. I decided to hurry and run with them for a while before Adam's game. Andrew drove me to find them. We were lucky and found where they had gone pretty quickly. I ended up running five miles with them before stopping off at Adam's game.

The run was cold, and snowy/icy in some spots, but I enjoyed it. We didn't push hard.

I ran the Orem course with Larry this morning. We didn't set any speed records, but it was a good run.

I played basketball with my son Andrew and others this morning. Only 6 showed up so we played 3 on 3. I had to (try to) guard Andrew. It used to be much easier when he wasn't 3 to 4 inches taller than me and didn't outweigh me by 40 pounds. It was fun. When I scored on him or stopped him on defense I was happy for me, and when he scored on me or stopped me on defense I was happy for him.

I ran the Orem course again, but this time Kevin joined Larry and me. As usual, Kevin pushed the pace. On the way back he couldn't stand it any longer and left us behind. Since I'm tapering a little for the Painter's 1/2 marathon on Saturday, I didn't feel the need for too much speed. I'll save it for Saturday (I hope). We did still manage to average about 30 secs/mile faster than some other mornings recently.

I had a basketball game this evening. I was 2 for 2 on 3 pointers and 2 for 3 on my other shots for a total of 10 points. I think this may be a career high for me. It's definitely better than I normally do. We still lost by 4 points, but at least I achieved my goal of not getting hurt. We only had 2 subs (instead of 7 like our last game) so I got some good exercise.

When I registered for the Painter's 1/2 Marathon in St. George I was hoping for a little break from the cold weather. The normal temperature in St. George in January I think is around 50 degrees. I believe the temperature this morning was around 19 degrees. Nevertheless, it turned out to be a very enjoyable run.

I ran into Nathan Gage just before the race began. He and I ran together for about 8.5 miles, then he slowly pulled away. We had both talked about being content with a 1:45 time today, but we both ran a bit faster than that. It was great running with Nathan.

Shortly after the start I saw Larry and he said that Wayne was up ahead and was pushing to beat his previous PR of 1:36. About 1/2 way into the race (I think) I saw Wayne ahead down below on a big switch back. Nathan and I gradual gained on him. Shortly after Nathan pulled away from me, I saw him pass Wayne up ahead. I managed to maintain the distance between Wayne and me and keep him in sight from about mile 9 to the end. At mile 11 I tried to pick up the pace a little but Wayne did, too. Then we both kicked about the same time near the end. Wayne never knew I was chasing him, but he seemed to match every push I tried to make anyway. He ended up beating me by 5 seconds with 1:36:01...so close to his goal of breaking 1:36.

I was thrilled to finish in 1:36 (average pace of 7:20/mi). I was also surprised, and pleased, to find out I had finished 3rd in the 45-49 division.

Despite the unusually cold weather, I really enjoyed this race. I liked the course and I thought the race was organized pretty well. The finisher medals and awards were nice. I will definitely consider doing this race again next year.

Basketball (3 on 3 this morning).

Basketball game at 9:00 p.m. We had 11 show up. We lost by 2 points.

I definitely need to get more runs in, but with the weather being so cold it's nice to at least get some exercise running up and down the court.

I mailed in our team's registration for the Wasatch Back Relay (now called Ragnar Relay Wasatach Back) on Tuesday (early registration ends 1/31.) We're in the Submasters Male division this year (we have been a corporate team the previous three years). We've got a few new team members this year, but once again we have a great bunch of guys to run with and I can hardly wait.

I finally got some running in again today, even if it was on a treadmill:

Pace (min/mi)	Distance (miles)
8:30	0.5
8:00	0.5
7:30	4.0
cool down	0.25
Total
Avg 7:45	5.25

This wasn't a killer workout, but wasn't too easy either. The hardest part was the boredom of running on the treadmill.

Tom was finishing up on a stepping machine when I arrived. He looked like he had worked up a pretty good sweat. Cory was running on the treadmill next to me. His foot is still bothering him a little but he was excited to be running again and got in 5 miles at a pretty good pace. After I had showered and was leaving I saw Scott come in. He had put in a good run outside (tough guy). I found the treadmill to be extremely tedious today. I may follow Scott's lead and brave the cold next time.

Basketball again this morning (4 on 4). Great fun, though I missed my son Andrew being there. I think he is nursing the "dead leg" (thigh bruise?) he got on Tuesday morning. At Wednesday night's game he said it was bothering him. Kevin called last night about running on Saturday.

I ran 6.5 easy miles with Larry, Wayne, and Kevin. It was sunny but quite cold. We ran up to the mouth of Battle Creek Canyon and back. It's great to have great guys to run with. I don't know if I would have braved the cold alone. I know I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much.

I ran the Eagle View run today. The temperature was about 20 degrees. It was good to run up those hills again. I didn't have my Garmin, but I averaged about 8:24/mi overall for the 5 miles. I'll classify these as easy miles, but they weren't too easy.

I was going to run outside again today, but my long pants were still wet from the Fitness Center laundry. Instead I watched Jackie Chan while I ran 5 miles on the treadmill. I ran most of it at about 7:30/mi, speeding up to 7:00/mi during the last half mile. I averaged 7:36/mi overall including the warmup.

No running today, but had a basketball game at 10:00p.m. We only had 6 players to begin with (a 7th came at half time) so I got a pretty good workout. The team we played against looked more like (and at times played more like) a football team. Three of the guys looked to be 6'4"+ and 300+ lbs. While running a marathon you don't see too many big guys like that trying to hurt you (or hurting you without really trying, like when one of them stepped on my foot). Maybe that's part of why (being 5'7") my first love is running.

I ran the Eagles View course again today in 39:48, an average of 7:58/mi, nearly half a minute per mile faster than my average of 8:24/mi for the same run on Monday. It was about 5 degrees warmer today (25 degrees instead of 20) and I ran in shorts instead of long pants. I think that accounted for the faster time.

Morning basketball with my son Andrew and the guys.

Kevin and I met at 9am to run. We weren't sure if Larry and Wayne were planning to run so we walked the few houses down to Larry's. He wasn't home. As we discussed where to run we decided to try the BYU indoor track. Bad choice. We drove all the way there only do find that they were hosting a high school invitational track meet. By the time we got back home it was nearly time for my son's basketball game so we skipped running.
At 9pm my wife had some things she needed to do so I took the opportunity to get a little running in. I decided to run the hill up 2000 North a couple of times. I warmed up by running up Main Street then up 2000 North to the intersection with the street just above Oak Canyon Jr. High. From here to the manhole cover where we normally turn around at the top of the hill is about 1 mile. The hill is pretty steep for about 0.75 miles then flattens out at the top. The first time up the hill I averaged 10:11/mi, and 7:22/mi back down. The next time up I averaged 10:15/mi, and 7:14/mi back down. On the 0.42 mile stretch back to Main Street and down to my neighborhood I averaged 6:39/mi.
It was a little scary running in the dark near the icy shoulders of the road when cars came by, but there weren't too many. I wouldn't make a habit of doing this run when I did, but I'll probably do it again when it is a little warmer and a little lighter.
While running I thought of my assigned legs in the Wasatch Back Relay this year (1, 13, 25). While running uphill I thought of the climb up Trapper's Loop, and while running downhill I thought of the quick run down Blacksmith Fork Canyon to start the relay. It gave me an idea for a loop run up 2000 N and down 1600 N. I'll have to try it out soon.

I probably should have stayed indoors. The air quality was terrible. Even so, it didn't seem to affect my breathing too much...but I think I can still taste it.

I ran Eagles View again, the same course as last Monday and Thursday. The times were:

Last Monday: 41:57 (8:24/mi)

Last Thursday: 39:48 (7:58/mi)

Today: 37:58 (7:36/mi)

It would be great if this rate of improvement were to continue, but somehow I don't think that is very likely.

My lungs didn't appreciate me running outdoors in the muck yesterday so I stuck to the treadmill today. I warmed up @ 8:00-8:30/mi for 1 mile then bumped it to a 7:30/mi pace for 1.5 miles. I dropped it to 7:42/mi for another 1.5 miles then dropped down to 8:00-8:30/mi for a half mile cooldown.

I don't like running on the treadmill anyway, but today seemed especially bad. I was bored, too warm, and wasn't feeling very good anyway. My kids have been sick and I may have picked up a little something...or maybe it's from running in the gunk on Monday. I don't think it's anything that a good outdoor run in clean fresh air wouldn't cure.

I decided to run a new loop at lunch time today. It starts similar to the Eagles View run but continues north to 300 South, west to State St., south to 400 South, west to Universtity, south over the train bridge, and then back to Novell on the road east of University (behind the stores). It is approximately 6.4 miles.

I mentioned it to Cory and he decided to come with me. I invited Nathan and Scott also, but Nathan had a meeting after lunch and Scott didn't have the right clothes for the cold.

There was a slight breeze with lightly falling snow and it was a little colder than we expected. I should have been smart and worn long pants like Cory, but I had a headband, gloves, and fleece vest and it wasn't too bad.

We averaged 8:08/mi overall. Not too suprisingly, we were a little slower than that on the uphill sections and a little faster on the level sections. The last mile we picked up the pace and averaged 7:36/mi.

Because of his sore foot, I believe this is the longest Cory has run since the St. George marathon. He ran great and kept the pace moving right along. It was a pleasure having his company. It was also great having clean air to breath again.

Morning basketball.

I ran with Larry, Kevin, and Wayne this morning. We didn't really have a predetermined course or distance in mind when we started out. We ended up running down to the mouth of Provo Canyon, then worked our way down to Center Street, up the hill, then headed north on 1000 East and worked our way back home. It ended up being about 9 miles. Three of us had to be back for other activities or we may have gone longer. We only averaged about a 9:00 pace but it was an enjoyable social run. It's truly a blessing to have great guys to run with.

Larry and I got out at 5:45am this morning for the first time in a couple of weeks. It was an enjoyable run. We solved a number of the world's problems again. It was still a little cold (23 degrees), but it was ten degrees warmer than last week (13 degrees) with much better air to breathe.

The weather was in the mid-30's and sunny at lunchtime so I couldn't resist running again. I started the Eagle's View run with Cory, Darin, and Steve King. At the turn up to Eagle's View Darin and Steve decided to go on north and run a little farther. I think they ended up doing 8 or 9 miles. Cory and I went a ahead and finished the 5 mile Eagle's View run. Except for the first bit, Cory and I pushed fairly hard most of the way. The last 1.6 miles in from State Street we averaged 7:18/mi.

My last 4 Eagles View runs have been:

1/22: 41:57 (8:24/mi)

1/25: 39:48 (7:58/mi)

1/29: 37:58 (7:36/mi)

2/5: 39:48 (7:58/mi)

So my run last Monday was a little faster, but today I had already run 6 miles this morning. I recovered a lot faster today than last Monday, meaning I must not have worked as hard. Overall, I feel good about today's run.

Even though Cory's training has been down because of his sore foot, he ran strong today.

I felt I needed to focus on other more important things (yes, there are more important things than running) so I didn't get out today. I did have time for a basketball game at 9 p.m. so at least I got a little exercise.

Ran the Orem run with Larry this morning. I was originally planning on also running at lunchtime, but work didn't allow it.

Cory and I ran a new course down Kuhni road, looping up over the overpass by the truck stop, heading back north past the pipe plant to State, and back west over the two overpasses. I was thinking it was about 8 miles but it turned out to be just over 7 miles (7.13).

The weather was great, sunny in the low 50's. A couple of miles into the run I could tell something wasn't right in my stomach. About 4 miles into it I start feeling some stomach cramps. About mile five I saw the small headquarters building of the Pacific States Cast Iron Pipe Company. I figured they probably had a restroom I could use and decided to stop. I sent Cory on to finish the run. The receptionist pointed me to the men's room and it was a great relief...literally...and I continued the run. Unfortunately, about 1/2 mile later the cramping returned. I walked most of the two overpasses and my stomach calmed down. I tried running the last stretch back but didn't make it far before the cramping returned. I finally made it back and found the nearest restroom. My stomach didn't feel quite right the rest of the day.

I had a similar experience on a run with Tom last year. That day it was very hot and we were pushing the pace pretty hard, but today it was cool and we weren't really pushing that hard. I hadn't eaten anything unusual recently. I wish I could put my finger on the cause so I can avoid such unpleasantness in the future. It may have just been a mild case of stomach flu both times.

Ignoring the unpleasantness, I enjoyed this new 7 mile course. Crossing the "busier than I expected" overpass was a little tense, but not too bad. Most of the run was on quiet rural streets.

Ran with Larry, Wayne, and Kevin at 6:30am. The weather was in the high 30's when we started and it was a little dark. As we got warmed up and it got lighter it was great running.

We ran a 9 mile loop down into south Orem and back. We only averaged 8:39/mi overall, but Kevin and I picked it up a little the last 2.5 miles and averaged 7:54/mi for about 1.5 miles, then 7:11/mi for a mile or so, finally getting down to 6:11/mi for the last couple of blocks.

I would have liked to go a little farther, but we had a 9:00 am meeting to get to. I also think we could have gone faster, but just running with my friends was enough today.

With both my son and daughter having basketball games on Saturday, and with the leadership meeting this week, its been hard to get in a good long run recently. Of course, until a few days ago I was only training for a 10K in March.

I had decided to wait until next year to run Boston, but this week I reconsidered and decided to run it this year. My wife is supportive, but is going to wait and maybe go with me next year, so I'm doing a short trip to minimize expenses. I'm going to fly out early Sunday morning and return late Monday night.

Now that I'm officially registered and have booked my airfare, I'm getting pretty excited. This will be my first Boston marathon. I'm really looking forward to running with Kerry and Tom. Running St. George with them two years ago, and with just Kerry this past year (Tom was too fast), was awesome. It seems we all have the same goal for our first Boston, just run a comfortable pace, have a good time, and enjoy the experience. We can always pursue a good time another year.

Nevertheless, there is no such thing as an easy marathon. I'll have to get a little more serious the next couple of months and make sure I find time to get in the miles and the long runs, but with spring coming I'm looking forward to it.

I ran Eagles View with Tom today. Cory and Nathan also ran it but they had a meeting to get back for so they went out earlier. We passed them on their way back in.

Tom had me pushing so hard on the way out and up that I could barely carry on a conversation. On the way back I was able to catch my breath and push hard enough to set a new PR (barely) for this run this year, 37:53. We averaged about 7:56/mi out/up and 7:06/mi back/down. All these numbers are somewhat suspect as Tom's Garmin and mine didn't quite match up. Nevertheless, it was a good hard run and it was great running with Tom again. Maybe next time we can hook up with Cory and Nathan, and maybe Scott, too.

My last 5 Eagles View runs have been:

1/22: 41:57 (8:24/mi)

1/25: 39:48 (7:58/mi)

1/29: 37:58 (7:36/mi)

2/5: 39:48 (7:58/mi)

2/12: 37:53 (7:35/mi)

The weather was nice today and I did a little bit longer run to do some thinking and clear my head. I ran down Kuhni road, crossed the tracks and headed east, followed the road that zigzagged to the SE until the first road that headed back north, followed that road that zigzagged to the NW, then took the road north that goes past the Pacific States pipe plant, and finally headed back west from State street.

The total distance I ran was about 8.5 miles, at an average pace of 8:17/mi. The average paces for the mile splits were 8:03, 8:16, 8:10, 8:33, 7:49, 8:13, 8:12, 8:11, and about 7:45/mi for the last half mile. I was deep in thought during mile four (8:33) and picked up the pace when I "came to" during mile five (7:49).

Today's run had all the positive benefits I hoped it would, one of which was just to get some miles in. Now that I've finally decided to do Boston this year (paid non-refundable registration and airfare), I only have a couple of months to be ready for a marathon.

I ran 6.3 easy miles with Larry this morning. I enjoyed the run and the conversation, as I always do with Larry. Kevin was a no-show.

At lunchtime Tom, Cory, Nathan, and I ran the Lake View run. Darin and Kevin White had run it earlier and said the trail over wasn't too muddy. Shortly after we got to the asphalt we started a 3 mile tempo run with a goal pace of 7:00/mi. Our mile splits were 7:01, 6:56, and 6:54. We all felt very good about the run, except maybe Cory. He was slightly behind the rest of us and made some negative comment about his performance, but given the limited training he's been able to do because of the foot injury he's been fighting all winter, he should feel very good about his performance. I was impressed.

I also had a church basketball game at 10:00pm. My legs were beat and I would have skipped it but I felt obligated to go. We only had 6 players. I managed to run up and down the floor okay, but I got to experience firsthand the effect of tired legs on shooting.

Larry called and said he wouldn't be able to run in the morning. I probably ended up leaving Kevin to run alone again, but after two runs and a basketball game the day before, my legs were beat. I knew if it was just Kevin and me he would want to push the pace, and I just wasn't up for it. I was feeling a little discomfort in my left knee, right hamstring, and right hip so rather than risk injury I skipped the morning run.

I was thinking of getting in a few easy miles at lunchtime, but I ended up working through lunch. I then had to leave work a little early to get my daugther Emily to her ballroom competition at UVSC, and then I had a training meeting for church leaders on how to help people dealing with depression and anxiety. I'm a little depressed about missing my run today, but one of the things I learned was that one of the best treatments for depression is exercise. I'll get out to run tomorrow and everything will be good again.

At lunchtime I ran a little over 6 miles @ 8:10/mi, just a little slower than marathon pace. I ran the Kuhni road course Cory and I ran last week, only in the reverse direction and I cut a mile off by cutting through the truck stop parking lot from the base of the overpass to Kuhni road.

The temperature was in the mid-40s and cloudy. My legs still felt a little heavy from doing too much on Wednesday, but it was an enjoyable run.

I did a 12+ mile run with Kevin and Wayne this morning. Larry had a chest cold but still came out and ran a few miles with us and then turned back. We headed south through Orem, over to University Ave, south to the country club, then back north up University Ave to Orem 800 North then back up through Orem to home.

We ran the 12.25 miles in 1:43:20 (8:27/mi). We started out at about a 9:15/mi pace, ran most of the run right around 8:30/mi, then finished with 1.5 miles at about 8:00/mi and then the final mile at 7:18/mi.

I think we were all pleased with the run, although Kevin and I were breathing pretty hard the last few miles. Wayne just seemed to cruise along.

Basketball in the morning. Shane was playing a lot better than me (as is normal), but I had a better morning. I left uninjured. His face collided with somebody's elbow. I think he broke his nose. He bled quite a lot and seemed to be in quite a lot of pain. The quick application of a bag of ice seemed to help. I hope he's okay.

I was going to run yesterday morning, but woke up to a blanket of snow, with more still falling. I was going to try to run later in the day, but it being a holiday with the kids out of school, there was never time for it.

I was afraid today was going to be the same. I was planning to run at lunchtime, but just before lunch there was a problem I needed to handle and ended up working through lunch. Fortunately, I managed to find time to run after I got home from work. It was light when I started but quickly got dark.

I ran just over 6 miles in a loop around 1600 N, 400 W, 2000 N, Heather Rd., and 400 E, running the steepest part of 2000 N (Main to the top of Heather Rd.) twice. My average pace was 8:10/mi. The distances and paces were:

0.52mi - 7:16/mi - slight down - Home to 400 W on 1600 N

0.50mi - 7:24/mi - slight up - 1600 N to 2000 N on 400 W

0.50mi - 8:31/mi - gradual up - 400 W to Main on 2000 N

1.00mi - 9:56/mi - steep up - Main to Heather on 2000 N

1.00mi - 7:15/mi - steep down - Heather to Main on 2000 N

1.00mi - 10:04/mi - steep up - Main to Heather on 2000 N

0.85mi - 7:01/mi - steep down - Heather & 400 E to 1600 N

0.50mi - 6:53/mi - gradual down - 400 E to Main on 1600 N

0.21mi - 6:08/mi - level - Main to Home

I felt pretty strong throughout the run and really enjoyed it. If things go as planned, I decided this will be the first of 3 runs in 24 hours. Tomorrow I plan to run in the morning with Larry and Kevin, and then at lunchtime with Tom, Cory, and/or Nathan. I figure this is an opportunity to get in some good training for the Wasatch Back Relay.

I ran a few easy miles with Larry and Jolene in the morning. It's good to see Jolene out running again.

At lunchtime I ran with Tom and Cory. Tom wanted to do a tempo run of 3.25 miles at 7:00/mi. We ran 0.93 miles over to the other side of the freeway to warm up. Shortly we got off the trail and onto pavement we start the tempo run. My mile splits were 6:59, 6:58, and 6:58, with a 6:46 pace for the last 1/4 mile. We then cooled down running back across the freeway.

The first mile wasn't too bad, but then I had to start working. It got progressively harder to the end. Tom ran strong. He was the pace setter the whole way and finished a little ahead of me. Cory ran the first mile with us then backed off the pace. I know Cory is a little discouraged that he can't hang with us, but Tom and I think he is doing great. While we've been running 25-35 miles a week all winter, he's been laying off trying to get his foot healed (which is still hurting him). I don't think he's run a dozen times since the St. George marathon. I ran at least 4 of those runs with him and I was impressed with how strong he ran all of them. He just needs to give himself some time and build up his training base.

Kevin and I finally hooked up for a morning run, but Larry was a "no show" this time. The temperature was in the upper 30's but a breeze made it feel colder.

Our pace started slow. It picked up a little the last couple of miles, but neither of us felt very fast this morning. We averaged 8:17/mi overall, warming up a mile or so at around an 8:50 pace, averaging around 8:20 for most of the run, and ending at 7:36/mi.

I wore a heart rate monitor for the first time on this run. My heart rate was around 160 for most of the run, rising to around 180 when we pushed harder the last couple of miles.

Basketball in the morning (no broken noses this time).

At lunchtime I ran 4.5 miles on the treadmill. I averaged about an 8 minute pace for 4 miles and then cooled down for 1/2 a mile. My heart wasn't really in it (metaphorically speaking).

Nathan was there at the same time. Afterwards he asked something like, "So, is it worth it?" I wasn't sure. I sure don't like running on treadmills much. They were showing episodes of "Northern Exposure". At least it was distracting. I did find myself running in time to the theme song at the beginning. I think it could be a pretty decent running song.

I had a basketball game at 8:00am. I would have preferred to have skipped it, but I have family reasons (playing with my son) and duty reasons (I'm sort of in charge of our team) for feeling I need to be there.

Because of the game, I missed running with Larry, Wayne, and Kevin. I talked with Kevin later and I think he said they went about 10 miles or so at an easy pace. I saw them getting ready to start out as I headed to my game. I missed the sociality, but it sure looked cold.

I ended up running alone at about 3:15pm. My wife Karen gave me a ride down to Utah Lake State Park and I ran along the Provo River Parkway trail up to the mouth of Provo Canyon and then on up through Orem to home. It was just under 12.5 miles overall. My average pace was 8:49/mi.

It was chilly, but I was dressed well for it.

There's an interesting fact about running upstream on a river trail, it's a gradual uphill the whole way. I feel okay about the 8:49/mi pace. I maintained a pretty steady effort; my heart rate was right around 145 most of the way. It would rise temporarily to around 155 when I would speed up going down an underpass under the road and push up the hill on the other side. Climbing the hill to University Ave, and then later climbing from the mouth of Provo Canyon up 800 N to Orem, also took a little extra effort.

At mile 6 (heading N on Univ.) I took an eGel and I think it helped. I was feeling pretty low on energy at that point. I ate a bowl of cereal after the game this morning, but was reluctant to eat too much after that because I usually run on an empty stomach (early in the morning or just before lunch). At mile 10 I was feeling some stomach cramping, but I eased off the pace for a half mile or so and felt better.

The average paces for each mile were:

1 - 8:32/mi

2 - 8:19/mi

3 - 8:23/mi

4 - 8:07/mi

5 - 8:26/mi

6 - 9:05/mi (climb hill to Univ. Ave.)

7 - 9:01/mi (feeling pretty tired)

8 - 9:26/mi

9 - 9:28/mi

10 - 9:36/mi (stomach cramps)

11 - 9:20/mi

12 - 8:39/mi (slight downhill-feeling better)

12.5 - 7:29/mi (downhill home-pushed pretty hard)

I ran 6.2 easy miles with Larry this morning on our normal route down and back on 400 E in Orem. Jolene ran with us for a couple of miles then turned back. We only ran about a 10:00/mi pace, but that was about as fast as the road conditions allowed. Many of our steps were crunching through an inch or so of frozen snow, but in some spots the ice was smooth and very slippery. During one especially bad stretch near the end of the run I intentionally slid and easily slid 2 or 3 feet. As we turned off that street a bit later I unintentionally slipped and nearly went down. Despite the risks, as usual it was an enjoyable run as Larry and I discussed our lives and solved the world's problems. If only we could remember the solutions after the run and get people to listen to us...

At lunchtime I ran the Eagles View course Tom and Cory. We averaged 8:08/mi, but that included stopping at the State St. intersection for a while waiting for the light. I normally stop my watch when I have to stop at an intersection, but today I didn't. I wish I would have. I think it makes comparisons to previous runs more consistent since how long I have to stop at a red light is a variable outside of my control that can have a significant impact on the overall pace.

Our pace out/up was 8:54/mi. Our pace back/down was 7:24/mi.

My last 6 Eagles View runs have been:

1/22: 41:57 (8:24/mi)

1/25: 39:48 (7:58/mi)

1/29: 37:58 (7:36/mi)

2/5: 39:48 (7:58/mi)

2/12: 37:53 (7:35/mi)

2/26: 40:11 (8:08/mi)*

Today was a basketball day. At 6am I played with my son Andrew and the morning guys. At 10pm I played in the 1st round of our church tournament game. We were the bottom seed because we hadn't won a single game all season. I guess we finally had the right combination of guys show up because we came from 4 points down in the last minute and knocked out the #2 seed. I pulled myself out of the game early in the second half because I was scared of getting hurt. The other team had some really big guys (like 6'6", 300+ lbs) that were playing pretty rough. One of these guys fouled one of our players really hard on a layup in an earlier game and cracked his elbow. These guys were a foot taller than me and weighed almost twice as much, and were merciless. I didn't want to have my Boston Marathon plans terminated on a layup attempt in a meaningless game. Call me a wimp if you wish, I call it...being a coward, or at least careful.

In the morning I ran the normal Orem 400 E course with Kevin. The weather phone said it was 21 degrees and I dressed well for that temperature. I was fine while we headed south. As soon as we turned back north, however, we realized that we had been running with a tailwind which was now a very cold headwind. My face got pretty cold (numb) but the rest of me was okay.

We took a few detours this morning. First we took a minor detour at 400 S when we headed west to go over to Main St. to go back north. We both were thinking we were on 400 N. 400 S does not intersect with Main St. When we saw State St. approaching we turned back and went north on 400 E as usual. At 800 N, we did go west to Main St. and stopped at Gold's Gym so Kevin could use their bathroom. There sure seemed to be a lot of people there on the treadmills, etc. We then crossed over 800 N and made our way around the construction to get onto Main St. and head home. We ended up doing about 6.7 miles @ 8:23/mi. The first mile was @ 8:37/mi and the last mile was @ 7:45/mi.

At lunchtime I ran Lake View with Cory and Nathan. It was sunny and cold, around 31 degrees I think. The pace for the first mile was around 9:00/mi. We then conciously picked up the pace. The average paces for the next 4 miles were 7:23, 7:33, 6:50 (we pushed it hard), and 7:30. We averaged 7:38/mi overall. Tom would have probably made me run a 7:00 pace for most of those miles, but it just wasn't in me today...and Tom wasn't there.

This morning's run was similar to yesterday morning's run. It was roughly the same course, but without the detours...and without Kevin. It was cold again, with the cold north wind again freezing my face on the return north, but this time I was alone. The pace was slow. The footing was tricky. There was about a 1/2 inch of snow along the shoulders of the road. I was tempted to run in the road where it appeared to be clear in many areas, but the reflection from the street lights revealed that much of it was black ice. The snow tended to pack to the bottoms of my shoes, often flying off and hitting the backs of my legs and occasional dropping into my shoes. I was tense most of the run, not feeling confident in my footing. If I had known I was going to be running alone, I may have waited until lunchtime and been able to run a little faster, but at least it's behind me now, and Sasha won't reprimand me for skipping a planned run because of bad weather. ;-)

I was planning to play basketball this morning, but then was asked to substitute and drive the junior high carpool because the assigned driver was having car trouble. I like to keep Friday's light so I'm not too tired for long runs on Saturday. I was just going to play ball today, but since I didn't, I went to the fitness center at lunchtime and put in a few miles on the treadmill. I warmed up for 0.5, then ran 0.5 at 8:00/mi, then 1.5 at 7:30/mi, then gradually cooled down for another 0.5 mile. They were showing "Blast from the Past" with Brendan Fraser and Alicia Silverstone. I should have run more miles so I could finish the movie. I was quite enjoying it.

I had a good run with Kerry and Kevin this afternoon. It was a first attempt at a team run for our Wasatch Back Relay team, but many couldn't make it.

It was sunny and felt colder than I expected. The temperature was in the low 30's with a cold breeze at times. Kerry had a little stomach distress in the middle of the run, but he and Kevin both seemed a lot fresher than me at the end. I was beat. This was a high mileage week for me.

We went a little over 13 miles and averaged 8:32/mi overall. After warming up we started out at about 8:13/mi for the next few miles. We gradually slowed as we turned north and headed uphill for a while. Kerry had stashed water and Gatorade at a couple of places, and we also stopped for a bio-break at Kohlers. I feel like we held a pretty good pace throughout the run, and we finished pretty strong, averaging 7:52/mi for last 2.2 miles. It sure felt good to stop.

I enjoyed running with Kerry and Kevin, but I wish more of the team could have been there. I felt bad that we lost some with the schedule change. I look forward to more participants (and warmer weather) for the next team run.

I ran the normal 6.2 mile Orem course with Larry this morning. It was a little warmer but still pretty chilly. I'm looking forward to some warmer weather this week.

At lunchtime I ran Eagles View with Nathan and Cory. They were a little late so I warmed up for a 1/4 mile on the treadmill. The temperature was in the low 40's, which felt good to me. This past week of running has seemed especially cold to me...maybe just because I'm getting tired of it.

I feel like we pushed pretty hard, although I'm pretty sure it was harder for Cory and me than for Nathan. He pushed ahead of us up the hill. I managed to stay with him all the way back, but it took some effort. I'm very satisfied with the run.

My Eagles View runs this year have been:

1/22: 41:57 (8:24/mi)

1/25: 39:48 (7:58/mi)

1/29: 37:58 (7:36/mi)

2/5: 39:48 (7:58/mi)

2/12: 37:53 (7:35/mi)

2/26: 40:11 (8:08/mi)*includes time stopped at light

3/5: 39:22 (7:52/mi)

I was planning on basketball for this mornnig, but my son wasn't going so I opted to run instead. We had a basketball tournament game at night and I wanted to leave something in the tank for that so I only ran a little over 4 miles.

When I started out I had decided I would just run our neighborhood 5K course. However, as I started up 1600 N from Main I decided I wanted to go a little farther than that so I continued up 16OO N to 400 E (1 mile gradual uphill @ 8:41/mi), turned north up 400 E to 2000 N (1/2 mile steep uphill @ 9:30/mi), turned west down 2000 N to 400 W (1 mile big downhill @ 6:48/mi), turned south on 400W to 1600 N (1/2 mile level @ 7:49/mi), turned east on 1600 N up to Main (1/2 mile slight uphill @ 7:30/mi), then turned north on Main and went up and around the block to home (0.35 miles level @ 7:19/mi). I then let my dog out and we jogged around the block for a 0.4 mile cooldown. I averaged 8:06/mi for the 4.25 miles, including the slow jog at the end.

We had 11 show up for the basketball game, so I didn't get as much exercise as I had planned, but it was fun. We gave them a good game but lost. Don't tell the other guys, but I wasn't too disappointed. Now I can focus on my running instead of worrying about the regional tournament.

I ran 6 easy miles with Larry this morning. It was enjoyable as always, even more so as the weather wasn't quite so cold.

I missed out on my normal Wednesday tempo run with the guys at work because I had to take my son to the doctor. His right shoulder as been bothering him off and on for a couple of years. He thinks it was injured during a Lacrosse game his senior year. They diagnosed a SLAP lesion in his right shoulder and have scheduled him to be scoped in a couple of weeks.

Kevin and I ran a variation on the normal Orem route this morning. We kept each other going at a pretty good pace and averaged 7:52/mi for 6.3 miles.

We ran down Main to 400 S, over to 400 E, down to Center, over to 800 E, up to 1600 N, then down to Main and home. As we approached the intersection at 1200 N on 800 E we saw the "WordPerfect hill" in front of us. I thought briefly about suggesting we go up it because the downhill home from there would be nice, but then suggested to Kevin that we turn at 12OO N and take the more level route home. Kevin said, "Let's go up the hill." I figured it was just because Kevin likes hills so much. As I had already considered it, I readily agreed to going up the hill. As we climbed the hill I ascertained that the uphill was just a price he was willing to pay to get the long (1 mile) downhill home. We did the first 1/2 mile of the downhill at 6:50/mi then averaged 6:30/mi for the second 1/2 mile, both of us finishing with a pretty strong kick, although I have to admit that Kevin pulled away a little at the end.

We both felt like we had worked hard and felt very good about the run.

I needed to be home by 8:00am so I started my 18 mile run this morning at 5:00am. The weather was in the 40's, but there was a strong cold wind coming from the NW which made it feel colder.

I ran a 6 mile loop up through Lindon three times. I ran the first loop alone. I averaged around a 9:00 pace. I got off my planned course a little and ended up running a little over 6 miles. I was supposed to meet Kevin and Larry back at the corner for the second loop. I didn't see them as I went by and didn't dare stop as I barely made it around the corner and up the street to my house in time for an urgently needed bio break. I also took an eGel, got a drink, and changed my sweaty shirt. I began to sweat like a pig when I entered my house and I didn't want to go back into the cold wind with a wet shirt.

I headed back to the corner and saw them walking up the other way. It turns out they had followed to my house and waited a while, but then began to question whether it was really me they had seen go past in the dark. Luckily, because of the chilly wind, Kevin had went back for his vest. I met them as they were returning from Kevin's house.

The three of us ran the second loop together. I had enjoyed the solitude of running the first loop alone, but now I was beginning to tire and it was good to have their company. We averaged about a 9:00 pace for the second loop, too.

Larry's wife Jolene wanted to run 6 miles so Larry went to check if she wanted to run the last loop with us. She wasn't quite ready, and Larry needed a bio break, so he said they would run the loop backwards and meet up with us. After Kevin and I refueled, we added a little distance to the last loop by taking a different course out of the neighborhood. Since it was lighter now, we also decided to run along the canal road as it paralleled our course. At one point Kevin insisted that we leave the canal road and run up and back down a hill portion that we were bypassing. We got back on the canal road and met up with Larry just as we exited that portion of the canal road. We then continued the loop, meaning Larry and Jolene doubled back the way they had just come.

As we neared home I was pretty tired and had to lock into a rhythm to keep my pace up. This caused me to pull slightly ahead. I figured once they hit a good stopping point in the conversation Kevin would be pushing to catch up with me. I was right. I was about a half mile into the last mile, averaging about an 8:15 pace, when Kevin caught me. Since we had averaged about a 9:00 pace most of the way, I felt like I was doing pretty good. As usual, running with Kevin somehow caused the pace to increase significantly and we ended up averaging a 7:39 pace for that last mile, meaning we were going even faster than that the last 1/2 mile. It felt good to have some juice left at the end of an 18 mile run.

I averaged just under a 9:00 pace for the 18.35 miles. My legs were pretty tired the rest of the day, but overall I felt very good and have no new pains to speak of. It was a good long run for me.

I ran an easy 6.3 miles with Larry in the morning. Our legs felt kind of heavy from Saturday's run, but it felt good to stretch them out.

At lunchtime I ran Eagles View with Tom and Cory. Known of us felt like pushing the pace too hard, although we did manage to squeeze in a couple of faster miles at the end.

My Eagles View runs this year have been:1/22: 41:57 (8:24/mi)
1/25: 39:48 (7:58/mi)
1/29: 37:58 (7:36/mi)
2/5: 39:48 (7:58/mi)
2/12: 37:53 (7:35/mi)
2/26: 40:11 (8:08/mi)*includes time stopped at light
3/5: 39:22 (7:52/mi)
3/12: 41:57 (8:23/mi)

I ran 8.3 miles on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail above the Eagles View neighborhood and south toward Springville. Just before Springville I took the dirt road down to State St. and headed back north along State St. As I approached the Eagles View neighborhood I decided to head back up into the neighborhood and take the normal route back from the Eagles View gate. Unfortunately, I headed up the road south of the white fence just before the neighborhood and ended up having to go off road through the hills. I finally made it back into the neighborhood and to the gate and then back to work.

Much of this run was in the hills and I had to work pretty hard. Even so, I only averaged 9:46/mi for the 8.3 miles. The steep uphills took so much out of me that it was hard to make up for it on the downhills. I also found myself holding back on many of the downhills because of the steepness and/or poor footing. Nevertheless, it was a fun adventure and a good run.

Even though most of the run had been significantly slower, the last couple of miles from the Eagles View gate back to work I set the goal of averaging under an 8:00 pace, in spite of my tired legs. I thought it would be a good mental as well as physical challenge. I averaged a 7:49 pace for the 0.65 miles down to State St. I worried about the next 1.5 miles back because it was not downhill any longer, it was mostly level with two overpasses mixed in. After the first overpass my overall average pace since State St. was 7:41, 8:01 at the top of the second overpass, then 7:54 at the bottom. If I could just hold an 8:00 pace for the level section back in I'd meet my goal. I was so tired I decided to not look at my watch until the next intersection. I just focused on form and rhythm. At the intersection I was pleased to see my overall pace since State St. down to 7:45. I pushed on, not looking at my watch again until just before the finish. My final average pace from State St. was 7:40. I was thrilled.

One of my first thoughts after finishing was that it was too warm. I was hot and thirsty. Through all my cold winter runs I'd been looking forward to warmer weather, and now it was finally in the 60's and I was thinking it was too warm. I pushed that thought away and replaced it with thoughts of how beautiful the day was, what a challenging yet enjoyable run I'd just had, and how good it felt to be done with it...and the water at the fountain in the fitness center tasted so good.

I ran the normal Orem route with Larry this morning. It was very enjoyable. I can't remember a single time over the years that I haven't enjoyed running with Larry. We can talk about anything, and have talked about just about everything. I don't even mind hearing stories I've already heard a couple of times before. My memory is so bad most of them seem fresh anyway.

At lunchtime I ran the Lake View tempo run with Cory and Tom. Today's run was not nearly as fast as previous weeks. Tom wasn't feeling well to begin with and dropped back on the return trip. Cory and I ran the 3 tempo miles at roughly 7:31, 7:37, and 7:04. Cory had to head back for a meeting. I waited and ran in with Tom. We had a total of a couple of miles of warmup and cooldown.

This morning I ran the normal Orem route again with Larry at an easy pace.

My schedule isn't going to allow a 20 miler on Saturday. My conflicts start around 7:00 am and are spread throughout the day. I'll have time to run, but not 20 miles. Instead, I decided to run the 10.5 miles home from work today, and I plan to run back in to work in the morning. I left my street clothes (plus a fresh shirt and underwear), and my vehicle, at work.

I ran from East Bay up University Ave. to the mouth of Provo Canyon then up 800 North to Orem, then worked my way up to 1200 North, over to Main, and then north to home. I ran the 10.5 miles in 1:25:08, an average pace of 8:06/mi. (I stopped my watch for lengthy traffic light stops, but kept it running during brief delays.) The average paces for various stretches of the run were:

Work to Wil's Pit Stop: 8:08/mi

Wil's to Provo Canyon: 8:19/mi

Up 800 N to Golf Course: 8:42/mi

Golf Course to 1200 N 800 E: 8:15/mi

800 E to Main on 1200 N: 7:46/mi

1200 N to 1600 N to Home: 7:36/mi

I'm thrilled. I was hoping for around a 9:00/mi average pace, and as heavy as my legs felt when I started the run I thought that was overly optimistic. The temperature was perfect, about 60 degrees with a bit of a breeze. The run home was very enjoyable. I hope the run back tomorrow morning is equally as enjoyable. It will be a little cooler I'm sure, but it's a gradual downhill most of the way instead of up. I'm really kind of looking forward to it.

I'm nearly euphoric. I just finished my 10.5 mile run into work this morning and I feel great, and it's not just because I only had to stop at one red light coming down University Ave. (a near miracle in my opinion). I ran the 10.5 miles in 1:21:13, an average pace of 7:44/mi. Here are the average paces for various stretches of the run (paces for yesterday's trip home in brackets):

Temperature: mid 40's [yesterday aournd 60 F]

Home to 1200 N to 1600 N: 8:01/mi [7:36/mi]

Main to 800 E on 1200 N: 7:58/mi [7:46/mi]

1200 N 800 E to Golf Course: 8:05/mi [8:15/mi]

Down 800 N from Golf Course: 7:58/mi [8:42/mi]

Provo Canyon to Wil's Pit Stop: 7:20/mi [8:19/mi]

Wil's Pit Stop to Work: 7:42/mi [8:08/mi]

Overall: 1:21:13 @ 7:44/mi [1:25:08 @ 8:06/mi]

The overall downhill grade definitely helped make this run faster than the run home yesterday. The weather was a little chilly at the start, and there was a really strong headwind from the golf course to the mouth of the canyon, but overall the cool sunny morning made for a very enjoyable run. Today's run was a training run for Boston, but it felt much more like a blessing.

I ran the water tank road with Larry early this afternoon. We wanted to get in some downhill in preparation for the Spectrum 10K next Saturday. We took it easy on the way up, including walking some of the steeper sections, so we could push the pace a little on the downhill. I didn't risk pushing it too hard on the dirt portion of the downhill, as the footing wasn't all that good. In fact, I only pushed hard for two sections.

On the steep paved section down to 800 E I pushed as fast as I dared, holding back so I didn't end up kissing the road. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I averaged a 5:46/mi pace on this section. We then recovered as we ran over to 400 E at about an 8:36/mi pace.

The final push was downhill on 1600 N between 400 E and Main. I think the downhill grade there is nearly perfect. It's a pretty good downhill but I didn't have to expend any energy at all putting on the brakes to not lose control. I averaged 5:40/mi for this 1/2 mile stretch, slightly faster than the steeper downhill.

I've been told the first half of the Spectrum 10K this year is steeper downhill, with a more gradual downhill the second half. My first goal is to set a new 5K PR (less than 20:13) in the first 5K of the race, with a stretch goal of breaking a 40 minute 10K overall. I figure to do this I'd need to average around a 6:00 minute pace the first 5K (18:12), and then try to hang on and average a 7:00 pace (21:42) the second 5K.

This would still be a real stretch for me. I've trained all winter for the first time since I started running again, and I've been putting in record mileage for me recently. This week I ran nearly 64 miles, and I've run over 256 miles in the last 5 weeks since I decided to run Boston this year. I've been focusing on marathon training, so I'm concerned about having enough speed for this 10K. I plan to run shorter, faster miles next week as I taper for the Spectrum 10K. We'll see how these runs go, but today's experiment running some short, fast downhill sections at a sub-6:00 minute pace gave me some hope for a PR performance next Saturday.

I ran 6.2 easy miles on the Orem route with Larry again this morning.

At lunchtime my plan was to run up Eagles View with the Novell guys at an easy pace and then push the downhills, similar to Saturday. However, when I hit the fitness center at 12:00, Tom was warming up on a treadmill and Cory wanted to leave right then (we normally leave at 12:10) to get back for a 1:00 meeting. I told them to go ahead and I would try to catch up.

I changed as quickly as I could and headed out. I saw Tom a block or so up ahead, but I couldn't see Cory at all. I got stuck at a red light and Tom pulled farther ahead. I ran a sub-7:00 minute pace for about a mile to catch Tom just before State St., not quite the easy pace I had planned.

We saw Cory quite a ways ahead of us and never caught him, even though we pushed up the hill at a pretty good pace. I decided to go ahead and push the downhill. I ran from the top of the hill down to the stop sign (0.58 miles) at a 5:40/mi pace. For the less steep 0.36 miles from there down to State St. I averaged 6:08/mi. We backed off the pace a little for the 1.56 miles back to work, but still managed an average pace of 7:35/mi.

Even though I was planning to take it easy the first part of this run, by chasing Tom and Cory I ended up with my fastest time so far this year for this run, 37:48 (7:34/mi).

My Eagles View runs this year have been:

1/22: 41:57 (8:24/mi)

1/25: 39:48 (7:58/mi)

1/29: 37:58 (7:36/mi)

2/5: 39:48 (7:58/mi)

2/12: 37:53 (7:35/mi)

2/26: 40:11 (8:08/mi)*includes time stopped at light

3/5: 39:22 (7:52/mi)

3/12: 41:57 (8:23/mi)

3/19: 37:48 (7:34/mi)

I was planning to get out with Larry at 5:45am this morning but I guess I turned the alarm off at 5:00 because I didn't wake up until about 5:38. I was a few minutes late getting out and I guess I missed Larry.

I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to run this morning. I ended up running the neighborhood 5K course, with a total of about 1.5 miles of warmup and cooldown.

I ran the 5K course in 21:52 (7:04/mi). My paces for the 3.1 mile downhill, level, uphill loop were roughly 6:45, 7:02, 7:12. According to my Garmin I ran the last 0.1 mile at 5:49/mi, but I'm not sure I believe it.

I have normally been doing two-a-days on Wednesday, but since this is a taper week I decided I would only do the morning run. However, when I awoke and saw the driving rain being blown sideways at times by the gusting wind the thought crossed my mind that maybe it would be better to do the noon run instead.

Some issues prevented me from running at the normal time. I missed running with Cory. He was just finishing up in the locker room when I got there.

I ran the 5.2 mile Lake View course. Instead of the 3 mile tempo run in the middle like we've been doing, I swapped out the middle tempo mile for a recovery mile. My splits for the 3 middle miles were 7:07, 8:36, and 6:50. I ran the 1.2 miles back in at 8:24/mi.

I just ran a few easy miles this morning to loosen up my legs. After some really slow warm up the last two miles were at about an 8:30 pace. I'm feeling pretty good about the Spectrum 10K Saturday (knock on wood). I've got a few minor aches and pains, but that's normal for my old body. Overall, I feel pretty strong. The tightness I've had in my right calf for the past couple of weeks is mostly gone. I felt a little tightness in my left calf this morning, but it's not too bad. We'll see how I feel race day morning, but I'm optimistic about a good performance. I'm looking forward to finding out what I've got in me.

I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to St. George to run the Spectrum 10K. We stopped and visited my parents in Nephi both on the way down and the way back. After my dad's recent strokes and my mom's knee surgery it was great to see them both doing so well and to visit with them. It was also enjoyable to spend a couple of days alone with Karen. I really enjoyed sharing the drive down and back with her. I really appreciate her support of my running.

Larry picked me up at the hotel and I rode to the race with him, his wife Jolene, his daughter Stacia, her husband Jeremy, and Wayne. I also saw Scott Blake before and after the race. It's great to have good friends to share these experiences with.

The Spectrum 10K course runs through Snow Canyon State Park. What a beautiful place for a run. The weather was perfect. There was no wind. It wasn't too cold at the start nor too hot at the finish.

They changed the course this year because of the increase in the number of runners. I had been told the course was basically half pretty steep downhill then half gradual downhill. I don't think that was entirely true. It seemed to me the last mile or so were at best level, with a little more uphill grade than I originally expected. They also added a section in the first part of the race where we turned and went uphill on the West Canyon Trail for 3/4 mile before doubling back. It was actually kind of fun on this section to see the people in front of me as I went up and the people behind me as I went down.

My goal was to break 43 minutes, with a stretch goal of shooting for 40 minutes. I figured this would take roughly 6 minute miles for the first half and 7 minute miles for the second half.

The first mile was downhill as promised. I tried to take what the hill was giving me without pushing too hard and ran it in 5:42. I may have taken it a little too fast, but I felt like I was running within myself.

The second and third miles, at 6:39 and 6:50 revealed that 40 minutes wasn't going to happen. However, this included the added uphill section, so I still felt like I was doing well. I hit the 3 mile mark at 19:12. There wasn't a 5K marker and I wasn't wearing my Garmin, but I figure I ran the first 5K in around 19:50. My 5K PR is 20:13.

I maintained my pace down the lower portion of the canyon and ran the next two miles in 6:47 and 6:49. I ran the 6th mile in 7:18. This is the level-to-slight-uphill section that I originally thought was supposed to be gradual downhill. Luckily I realized it wasn't as I drove the course prior to the race so I was expecting it. I just held on and tried to maintain my form and breathing.

In summary, my mile splits were 5:42, 6:39, 6:50, 6:47, 6:49, and 7:18 with a final time of 41:43 (6:42/mi). I finished 1st in the Male 45-49 division and 20th place overall. It was clear evidence to me that dedicated training really pays off. It was a great birthday present. I received a plaque and a $20 gift card to the St. George Running Center.

Larry and Jolene celebrated a greater accomplishment than me. Larry met his goal of running under 50 minutes. In fact, as coincidence would have it, he tried to out kick Scott Blake near the finish but Scott barely held him off. This was Larry's 18th consecutive Spectrum 10K. In fact, he was wearing his 1990 Spectrum 10K t-shirt. Jolene placed 2nd in her division, and also received a plaque and gift card. But their greatest accomplishment was that they were celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary. At the beginning of the awards ceremony the race officials recognized them and they presented Jolene with a bouquet of roses Larry had provided.

My 47th birthday was just a good day all around. It was truly a blessing. Throughout my life I have received far more of these tender mercies from God than I deserve, but I am sure grateful for them.

I went out with Larry in the morning. My legs were still pretty tight from Saturday's race. I thought running some easy miles might loosen them up. It might have a little, but they were still pretty tight after the run. Larry ran a little farther than I did this morning as I had to make a pit stop at Orem High about halfway through. I'm sure glad the school opens early in the morning.

In the afternoon I ran Eagles View with Tom and Nathan. Nathan was coming off being sick and told me to go ahead with Tom, but Tom was really feeling good today and my legs told me to not even try to stay with him. He was about 15 seconds ahead of me at the top of Eagles View. He maintained that lead until the light stopped him at State Street. Nathan and I caught up and we all waited for the light together, but as soon as it changed Tom was off again. I tried to at stay at least close enough that I could shout some friendly trash talk at him to keep him working hard, but by the time we finished he had built up a 10+ second lead again. It was good to see Tom back to his old self and feeling good again. I'm also sure this is one of the few times I'll finish ahead of Nathan.

I didn't run today because my legs have been feeling tired and I needed to save my strength for the annual adults v. young men basketball game at 8:30pm. I did some running before the game to warm up, and felt pretty good most of the game, but near the end of the game I pulled myself out because my legs were beat.

The tradition is to play to 100, with half-time whenever the first team gets to 50. We rotated 14 adults against their 10, but without success. They beat us 101 to 90, but that wasn't too surprising. Our young men's team repeated as region champs this year, with another undefeated season. For this game they also had the services of two players who didn't play on the church team because they were playing on the high school team. One of them was a valley all-star. He probably scored 40 points or more. On the other hand, our men's team only one a single game this year. We were no match for them, but it was a lot of fun.

I ran the normal Orem route this morning. It was probably good I was alone. Otherwise, we would have been splashing slush all over each other. The temperature was about 32 F with with a fresh covering of snow on the ground and more coming down. I was dressed well and didn't get real cold, but I did get very wet by the end. I had to keep shaking snow off my hat and gloves, and I stuck my glasses in my vest pocket after a mile or so. They were so wet I could barely see through them. In some spots there was about 1 inch of snow. I didn't mind running in those areas. Unfortunately, the rest of the run was through about 1/2 inch of slush, hence my comment about getting really wet. It was also surprisingly noisy as the cars sloshed through the slush.

I ran the Orem route alone again this morning. There was a light rain falling, but the running conditions were far better than yesterday morning. I managed to get in 5+ miles at marathon pace this morning, plus some warm up at an easier pace. The marathon pace miles ranged from about 7:30/mi to 8:30/mi (depending on the grade), with the average being 8:01/mi.

I ran the 20 mile up/down route between the mouth of Provo Canyon and the top of South Fork with Tom, Kerry, and Greg. We started about 6:30am just as it was getting light. The temperature was around 36 degrees, but there was a cold canyon breeze. The other three all wore long pants. I had mine in the car, but my legs were only kind of cold, not really cold, so I didn't put them on. I was afraid they would be too warm at the end. In hindsight, I probably should have worn them. It never did get real warm before we finished. Ah well, I feel like I had a good run anyway.

We averaged 8:57/mi up to Vivian Park. At this point, Kerry wanted to give is sore knee a break so he got on his bike he had stashed there earlier. Even though the road gets quite a bit steeper starting up South Fork, Tom and Greg started up at the same pace we had been going. I felt the extra effort right away but managed to hang on. We only slowed 1 sec/mi and averaged 8:58/mi up to the Trefoil gate.

After refueling at the top, we started down. It didn't take long for me to realize we were going to go down considerably faster than we came up. Greg had led strongly coming up, and took off at a strong pace to lead us back down. We averaged 7:42/mi back down to Vivian, then slowed slightly to 7:50/mi down to the gate just above Bridal Veil.

It was along this stretch I felt myself getting tired and sloppy in my form. I decided to tighten up my form, shorten my stride slightly, and pick up my turnover rate a little. This little bit of focus really made a difference. I pulled slightly ahead then stopped and waited for the others at the gate. When we started up again I focused again and again started to pull away. I averaged 7:19/mi for about the next two miles. I could tell I was pushing too hard to finish at that pace so I backed off and ran the next mile or so at 7:48/mi to try and save something for the last mile. At one mile to go I picked the pace up slight to 7:40/mi for 1/2 mile. I then tried to take it up a gear and I averaged 6:54/mi for the final 1/2 mile.

My Garmin showed 20.11 miles in 2:46:48, average pace 8:18/mi. I felt very good about the run. I held on through the difficult times and ended up finishing strong. I did feel a blister forming in the strike area of each foot near the end, but they weren't bad. My legs were pretty tired after the run, but they recovered pretty quickly.

The best part was spending the morning with Tom, Kerry, and Greg. I also saw four other people I knew on the trail, including Doug Eddy. He looked good. It's good to see him getting enthused about running.

Ran the Orem route at an easy pace with Larry this morning. Jolene ran with us for a while then turned back. My left knee was hurting a little after the morning run, so I didn't do the normal two-a-day noon run. I was also feeling a bit of an upset stomach around 11:30am. Besides, with two weeks to Boston I'm beginning to switch over to taper mode so I didn't feel an 11 mile day was needed.

Normal route with Larry this morning. We stopped briefly along the way so Larry could check out the lawn at a church where he was going to be bidding a sprinkler project later in the morning.

My RaceReady shorts arrived yesterday so I tried them out this morning. I even loaded 6 of the 7 pockets similar to how I plan to for Boston: one eGel packet in each of the smaller rear pockets, my cell phone in one of the velcro side pockets, and my cards/ID/cash in the other velcro side pocket. I wasn't disappointed. The shorts are very light and comfortable and the contents fit in the pockets perfectly.

Ran in the morning with Larry again. Shortly into the run I stepped on a rock rolled my right ankle. It scared me a little, being this close to Boston, but it wasn't serious. I was able to go ahead and do the run and my ankle felt okay.

I was planning to run with the Novell guys at lunch time, but when I got to the locker room Tom was just finishing getting dressed. He had run early because of a conflict. I didn't see Cory or Nathan. With the little bit of soreness I've had in my left knee, and tweaking my right ankle this morning, I decided to skip the second run today.

Orem route with Larry again. I wore my neoprene knee brace to give my knee a bit of a break. I'm going to take tomorrow off and see how it feels Saturday morning. I think I could run Boston with it the way it is and not have it bother me too much, but I would prefer to have it not hurting at all.

We met at 7:00am to run up Provo Canyon to Vivian Park and back. I rode to the canyon with Larry, Wayne, and Ozzie (Larry's dog). We ended up with half of the relay team showing up, twice as many as the last team run. Cory, Greg, Ryan, Will, and I were there at the start. Scott was a little late and caught up with Larry, Wayne, and me a few miles up the canyon. Cory, Greg, Ryan, and Will had pushed on ahead.

My watch registered 5.8 miles up, at an average pace of 8:55/mi. Greg started back from Vivian before the rest of us because he had a birthday party to get to. Once the rest of us were ready we headed out. I had joked about catching Greg, so Larry told me I'd better get moving. I had wanted to push the pace a little on the way back so I picked it up. Cory, Ryan, and Will came with me. I ran two miles at 7:23/mi, then three miles at 7:15/mi, and finally the last 1/2 mile at 6:39/mi. I ran most of the latter miles with Ryan. He seemed to be running at that pace with very little effort.

I had a time of 1:32:42 overall for 11.46 miles, an average pace of 8:05/mi. 

I felt like everyone ran pretty strong. We've got a great relay team. More importantly, I've got a great bunch of running buddies. I really enjoyed the run.

I wore my knee support as a safety precaution, and my knee hurt a little, but it didn't affect my running too much. I came home and soaked my legs in ice cold water and I feel pretty good. I plan to take it really easy this final week before Boston.

I also got a bit of a blister on my left foot, same place as on both feet during the 20 miler last week. I may change my mind and wear my older Wave Rider 9 shoes at Boston instead of the new Wave Rider 10 shoes I was planning to wear. The old ones still have some good miles left in them, and I've never had blister problems with them.

I intended to run a few miles at lunch today, but I had forgotten about a lunch meeting. I ended up running 3 miles after I got home from work. I took it easy and averaged a pace of 8:27/mi.

One goal of the run was to see how my bum knee felt. I wore a knee strap and the knee felt pretty strong. It's hard to get a reading on this knee because it has bothered me off and on for 30+ years. Ever since the injury and surgery back in 1975 it has been a "weather knee". With the ever-changing spring weather we've been having I don't know if what I'm feeling is just the normal stuff or if there are still some minor lingering effects from the long run two weeks ago. Oh well, there's not much I can do about it now. I'll find out Monday in the Boston Marathon.

The blister on my left foot seems to have healed completely. I ran in my newest older shoes, that still have plenty of miles left in them, instead of the new ones that have been giving me blisters on longer runs. They felt great. I'll use them for Boston.

It sounds like the weather forecast for Boston is improving somewhat, although cold, windy rain is still likely. At least it sounds like the race will go on for sure. That's a relief.

This Boston trip is going to be an adventure. There are so many details and hence so many things that could go wrong. It will be a relief to finally get in the air and stop worrying about all the preparations. I've told people I'll be very relieved when I get to the starting line ready to run. Getting from there to the finish line will be the easy part. This opportunity is a great blessing for which I'm very grateful, and I'm excited about the adventure.

Sorry for the long delay in logging my experiences at the Boston Marathon. I had no computer access until after I got back from Boston. On Tuesday after the race I did some sightseeing in Cape Code and Plymouth, MA then drove to JFK, took the JetBlue redeye to SLC, and by Wednesday night had packed again and driven my family to Anaheim, CA for a spring break vacation. We got back late last night, and then I had a full day of church responsibilities today. It was also Karen's birthday yesterday so we celebrated that today as well. After a week away, I think work will probably be a little hectic when I get back in tomorrow. I need a vacation to recover from my vacations, but I have no regrets.

I enjoyed driving the PT Cruiser (also a nickname some of my running buddies call me) from JFK to Boston, but the wipers were on full speed most if not all of the way. Even so, I could barely make out road signs before I passed them. The Garmin Where2 GPS system I got with the rental car was a lifesaver. I parked outside Boston and took a bus to the expo. With help from the lady at the information booth at the station (who lived in Wyoming for a while and was a Cowboys fan), the bus driver who helped me know when to get off on the modified bus route, and the lady on the bus who walked me to the convention center, I was able to pick up my bib number without any trouble. I didn't spend much time at the expo. There were too many people, and I wanted to try to make it to church at 2:00pm at a local ward. I found the chapel easily and was on time, but the information on the web site I had checked was apparently out of date. The ward met a little earlier, and it was a Haitian ward. Rather than sit in on the last half of a meeting where I couldn't understand anything anyway, I headed on down to Cape Cod.

I stayed at Kent Gassman's in-laws home on Cape Cod. They are selling the house and are currently living in Florida. I stayed there with Kent his son Kurt. James and Marci Lamoreaux were also staying there. Kurt and Rich were running the marathon this year. Kent and Marci had run Boston previously and did not run this year. The others had received an unexpected dinner invitation from Kent's brother-in-law a little over an hour away, so they were not there when I arrived. They didn't answer their cell phones so I eventually called Kent's wife Melinda in Utah and she gave me the code to the garage. They eventually returned and we had a little pasta, chatted, and watched the weather reports before heading to bed. I had my own room and was very comfortable, but I could hear wind and the rain from the Nor'easter that was battering the east coast.

The next morning we drove the PT Cruiser to the start in Hopkinton. It was raining, but the worst of the storm had passed. Kurt and Rich were running in the first wave, so we split up shortly after we arrived and I went in search of Kerry and Tom. I tried calling Kerry's cell phone a couple of times with no luck, and they weren't at the backstop where we were planning to meet. I was relieved to get a call from Kerry saying they were in the portapotty lines. I was even more relieved when we finally met up in person. After all, my whole purpose in going to Boston this year was to share the "first time" experience with them.

In my last blog entry before I left for Boston I said I would be "very relieved when I get to the starting line ready to run." That was true. I also said, "Getting from there to the finish line will be the easy part." This turned out to be merely wishful thinking. My statement, "This opportunity is a great blessing for which I'm very grateful, and I'm excited about the adventure", was accurate. The Boston Marathon was a great experience...even if it took me five hours to finish. I just got more marathon for my money than most of the other runners.

By the time I met up with Kerry and Tom they had already begun sending wave two runners from the athlete's village to the corrals. I changed into dry socks, but unfortunately it didn't help much as my shoes were already pretty wet. I should have changed shoes (as Kerry did) or at least wrapped my shoes in plastic bags (as Tom did). (Lesson #1: On a rainy day, take measures to keep your feet and shoes dry before the race.)

We headed to the corrals. We were supposed to be in the first corral in wave two, but because of leaving the village a little late and the thick crowds I think we only made it to about the 3rd corral before the second wave started. (Lesson #2: Leave early for the corrals. If in one of the first corrals, turn a block before the main street and go east a block or two before heading north to the corrals.)

Shortly after we started I realized I had dressed too warmly. All the warnings about hypothermia and 20 degree wind chill had caused me to wear a fleece vest I should not have worn. I would have discarded it, but I really liked the vest. Fortunately, a number of miles into the marathon it got colder and I was able to wear the vest comfortably the rest of the way. I left my light jacket tied around my waist. (Lesson #3: If very cold temperatures are predicted, wear disposable clothing (from DI maybe) as the extra layers.)

One issue that arose from not knowing how many layers to wear, was not knowing on which layer to pin the official bib. I ended up running most of the race without my bib number visible. I saw a number of people that had a belt for attaching the bib number around their waste. (Lesson #4: Buy a bib belt for easily wearing race bibs.)

Tom's wife had written his name on the front and back and both sleeves of his shirt. Because of this Tom got lots of encouragement from the spectators. They seemed to be looking for runners wearing names so they could cheer them on. I could see Tom drawing energy from all this attention and I was jealous. On his back it said "Tom from Utah", and it started conversations with other runners, many of them also from Utah (Lesson #5: Wear your name and state clearly visible.)

Right from the start the spectators and volunteers were awesome! The people of Boston have had 111 years to practice, and they really know how to put on a great marathon, even with the threat of a Nor'easter. The support was awesome even near the end of wave two. The support from the young women of Wellesley was enthusiastic as promised. I was surprised by the number of "Kiss Me" signs. Kent's 18 year old son Kurt ran the marathon in 3:18 (awesome), but if I were him I think I would settled for 3:20 and spent a couple of extra minutes in Wellesley.

Tom, Kerry, and I ran together at just under a 9:00/mi pace for the first 8 miles. The next two miles were at 9:18/mi and 9:28/mi. These may have been hilly miles, I don't remember. The Boston Marathon course has a lot of hills. (Lesson #6: Don't underestimate the difficulty of the Boston Marathon.) Our average pace for mile 11 was only 12:47/mi, but this included a potty break that all of our bladders were demanding. Mile 12 was back at a 9:12/mi pace, with mile 13 at 9:55/mi (more hills I think). I had a time of 2:03:55 for the first half. This was right about the pace we planned.

I think this about where things began to unravel. My legs were feeling pretty tired, more than I expected at that point, but my main concern was the blister I could feel forming on the ball of my left foot. During the 20 miler a little over two weeks before Boston I got a bad blister in that same spot, with a lesser blister in the same spot on my right foot. A week later, on the 11 mile Saturday run, the blister on the left foot returned. That's when I decided to go back to my older shoes for Boston. I've worn Mizuno Wave Riders for years, but the new Wave Rider 10's I bought for Boston, were apparently giving me serious blisters on long runs. At the expo in Boston I talked with the Mizuno representatives and they confirmed that they modified the 10's and made the toe box a little wider. Dang them! Why can't they leave well enough alone. I've worn 7's, 8's, and 9's and loved them and now I have to look for a new shoe. Anyway, I was wearing my 9's for Boston (still plenty of miles left in them) but the blisters from the previous two weeks had apparently not completely healed, and combined with running in wet shoes, I ended up with a pretty serious blister on my left foot, with a lesser but still uncomfortable blister on my right foot. I knew the 2nd half of the marathon was going to be a lot less pleasant than the first half.

During mile 15 Kerry started feeling a little nauseated and his legs began cramping a little. We stopped and walked some during miles 15 and 16, averaging 12:42/mi and 11:26/mi. Kerry tried to send Tom and I on our way. I agreed that Tom was feeling strong and should go on ahead. I knew my blisters were only getting to get worse and I couldn't keep up with Tom. I chose to stay with Kerry. We would and see this thing through together.

Kerry and I alternated walking and running the last 10.2 miles. I could tell Kerry was in a lot of pain, which kept getting worse. He would pick a landmark in the distance and we would run to it then walk again. With a few miles still to go, Kerry said it was hard to even keep walking. Nevertheless, he kept picking landmarks, and we kept running and walking and moving forward. The volunteers and spectators continued to provide great support. Our paces for the remainder of the marathon were 13:31 (17-19), 14:21 (20-21), 14:08 (22), 17:47 (23), 13:49 (24), 13:29 (25), 10:41 (26.2). We ran in the last 1/2 mile or so and crossed the finish line together with a great deal of relief. Kerry finished in 5:00:35, and I finished in 5:00:36.

I consider it an honor and a blessing to have personally witnessed Kerry's triumph at Boston. It's a great accomplishment to run a BQ time, or to set a new PR. However, I've never personally witnessed greater courage and mental strength and endurance than Kerry's five hour Boston Marathon. I know how hard he trained, and what great shape he was in before his knee started hurting him a few weeks before Boston. I know how frustrating and discouraging that was as he had to back off his training and nurse his knee. Nevertheless, he courageously headed to Boston to give his best effort. The adverse weather conditions (slowest winning time at Boston in 30 years) only made things worse. Kerry's body came very close to reaching its physical limits, but his mind and spirit fought courageously and prevailed. I'm sure Kerry feels some disappointment, but I hope he feels no sense of failure. I personally witnessed the battle, and I admire Kerry's awesome victory. I'm proud of him, and grateful to be his friend, running buddy, and brother. Well done, Kerry. This was an experience I will never forget.

My overall feeling from my Boston Marathon experience is that there are a lot of awesome people in the world. The volunteers. The specators. The Korean runners shivering in the porta potty line turning around to say "Good Luck" in broken English. The 62 year old lady from Toronto who finished eating her gel while walking and talking with us and then said, "Come on. Let's go." The helpful and friendly employees and passengers on the plane, bus, and subway. The rental car people. The airport and restaurant employees. And of course, Tom and Kerry, and Kent, Kurt, Rich and Marci. I had an incredibly positive experience (even if my rental car got rear ended as Kent was driving it to the finish).

I'm glad I went to Boston. I'm already qualified for next year. Karen's niece and her husband are moving there for a year, already have their house selected, and have invited us to stay. God willing, I'm going back. I'm hoping for a little better weather, and maybe a little faster time. I'll need some buddies to again share the experience with, so you'd better get qualified. (You know who are.)

Ran the Orem course with Larry this morning at an easy pace. This was my first run since Boston. My legs felt pretty good, and there was hardly any discomfort at all from my healing blisters. Actually, I recovered pretty quickly after the marathon and my legs felt pretty good all week. Once I get the blisters fully healed I'm ready to get after it again.

I ran some easy and enjoyable miles with Larry and Lyle this morning.

I was up late last night watching the Boston Marathon coverage that was on Versus that my wife recorded for me. I also wanted to run at lunch time but didn't think I was up for a two-a-day yet, so I slept in.

I ran the Lake View course with Tom. We ran at an easy pace and talked about Boston. It was very enjoyable, especially with the beautiful spring weather. It was also encouraging to find out that our easy pace was an 8:22 average for the 5.2 miles. I think I'll hold off until next week, but I'm beginning to get the urge to run some sub-7:00 minute miles just to convince myself that I still can.

I ran the Orem route with Larry again this morning, but this time Wayne joined us, and we started at 5:30am instead of 5:45am. Larry and I had talked about pushing the pace a little harder, even on our easy runs, and having Wayne along helped us. This morning we averaged 8:39/mi for the 6.2 miles, which includes warm up. About four miles of the run were sub 8:30/mi, with the last mile or so at around 7:45/mi. It was a good run.

I ran up Provo Canyon with Larry, Wayne, and Greg this morning at 6am. With the canyon breeze, it was a little cooler than expected, but overall it was a beautiful morning for a run.

We ran up to Vivian Park. Wayne, Greg, and I continued up to South Fork park, and then Greg continued up to Trefoil. I ran just under 15 miles @ 8:24/mi. My paces for different sections of the run were:

start to Bridal Veil: 3.76 mi @ 9:30/mi

Bridal Veil to Vivian: 2.0 mi @ 7:57/mi

Vivian to South Fork: 1.6 mi @ 9:18/mi

South Fork to Vivian: 1.6 mi @ 8:02/mi

Vivian to Bridal Veil: 2.13 mi @ 7:54/mi

Bridal Veil to fountain: 2.75 mi @ 7:38/mi

fountain to start: 0.86 mi @ 7:17/mi

This was a good run for me. It gave me back a lot of confidence after a less than stellar outing at Boston.

I ran the Orem route with Larry this morning. Coming off 90F weather yesterday, the weather this morning was very comfortable. If I'm not mistaken, this is the first time this year I've worn only a short sleeved shirt for an early morning run.

At lunch time, when I ran Eagle View with Nathan and Tom, it was considerably warmer, maybe even hot, but it wasn't too bad. Tom and I tried to hang with Nathan, but he was definitely the one pulling us along today, and I'm pretty sure he was just idling through parts of the run. I think Nathan is well prepared for the Hurricane Half he's running this weekend.

I thought today about how lucky I am to have running buddies (Tom and Nathan are two of many) that are not only such good men and so easy to talk to and be with, but with whom we are able to push each other to better performance. We learn from each other, admire each other, inspire each other. This applies to my neighborhood buddies, my relay teammates, and other runners at Novell. I believe it also applies generally to the overall running community. I'm not sure if it's that good people run, or that running makes people good, but it's my experience that a very high percentage of runners are good people. I feel grateful to be among you.

Back to today's run, I feel good about my 40:25 time for Eagle View. I was still feeling a little discomfort in my right foot from healing blisters, but my legs are feeling pretty strong. I pushed pretty hard today, but it wasn't an all out run. Some comparative times for this same run earlier this year are:

1/25: 39:48 (7:58/mi)

1/29: 37:58 (7:36/mi)

2/5: 39:48 (7:58/mi)

2/12: 37:53 (7:35/mi)

3/5: 39:22 (7:52/mi)

3/12: 41:57 (8:23/mi)

3/19: 37:48 (7:34/mi)

4/30: 40:25 (8:05/mi) 

Larry had to start his workday early today so we just ran the neighborhood 5K course. We didn't push real hard, but went faster than our normal easy runs. My watch showed us finishing in 25:51 (8:20 pace). I thought about doing a second lap a little faster, but resisted the urge. I ran twice yesterday and plan to run twice tomorrow, and my blisters are still not fully healed, so I opted to rest my feet a little.

This morning I convinced Larry to run the big hill course, a.k.a water tank road. This has been our traditional Wednesday morning run for years, but during the cold, dark, and snowy months of winter we switched to a well lit flat course through north Orem. Larry was afraid he might have to walk part of the steeper hills this first time. We didn't push real hard, but we didn't walk any of the hill either. It felt good getting up there again. We both enjoyed it. I think our traditional Wednesday morning run is back, at least until it gets too dark (at 5:45am) and snowy up there again.

At lunch time it was great to run the Lake View course with Cory, Tom, and Nathan again. After warming up getting over the freeway and into the neighborhood, we ran 1.35 miles @ 7:52/mi to the turnaround. We then ran 0.52 miles @ 7:44/mi. At the intersection where we turned south, I decided to push the pace to the stop sign after the next left hand turn. I figured it was about 1 mile. Nathan came with me. We ran 0.89 miles @ 6:30/mi. Tom (preparing for 5K race Saturday) and Cory (injured) hung back but were'nt too far behind us. We ran the 1.1 miles back @ 8:01/mi.

It felt good to run the hills this morning and then get in a little speed at lunch time. The recovering blisters bothered me a little, but not too much. I'm hoping that by continuing to run on them while they are healing, it will toughen them up (and me).

I ran the Lindon loop with Wayne. Very enjoyable. I don't have my watch with me, but I believe we averaged about 8:10/mi for about 6.2 miles. We had to keep the run short because I had a full day. I was in charge of a neighborhood cleanup project, one daughter had ballroom dance tryouts, another daughter had to be at an opera rehearsal, a third daughter had a church activity, a son had AP testing, and we had a baptism to attend. Sometimes everything just seems to happen on the same day.

I ran Eagle View with Nathan. I thought I was going to end up running alone, and was planning to push the pace a little, but Nathan showed up at the last minute and we ended up pushing the pace a lot. Even though Nathan had run fast in the Hurricane 1/2 Marathon on Saturday, and he said his legs were a little stiff, he still easily outran me. He beat me up the hill by 12+ seconds. He let me catch up there, and had to stop at a light on the way back where I caught up again, but still he finished another 12+ seconds ahead of me on the return trip.

Even though I couldn't keep up with Nathan, I did set a new PR for this course at 37:27 (7:29/mi). I think part of this was due to the fact that I didn't run in the morning before this run (like I usually do), and I only did a light run on Saturday.

Some comparative times for this same run earlier this year are:

1/25: 39:48 (7:58/mi)

1/29: 37:58 (7:36/mi)

2/5: 39:48 (7:58/mi)

2/12: 37:53 (7:35/mi)

3/5: 39:22 (7:52/mi)

3/12: 41:57 (8:23/mi)

3/19: 37:48 (7:34/mi)

4/30: 40:25 (8:05/mi)

5/7: 37:27 (7:29/mi) 

I normally run in the morning on Tuesday, but Larry was sick so I ran at lunch time today. I didn't have my Garmin, so I just ran a "clear my head" run down Kuhni road not worrying too much about how fast I was going, but trying to keep moving at a respectable pace. I measured the distance on Google Earth to be about 5.4 miles. I went out in 22:12 and back in 22:22, maintaining a pretty consistent pace for the entire run. My total time was 44:34 (8:15/mi).

I did the Lake View run with Tom, Nathan, and Cory. We didn't push all out but held a pretty good pace throughout the run. I didn't have my Garmin but clocked on overall time of 40:18 (20:50 out, 19:28 back). Estimating 5.2 miles for the run, the average pace was 7:45/mi (8:01/mi out, 7:29/mi back). I think Nathan's Garmin showed a 7:39 average pace, and Tom's 7:40, so the distance may be slightly more than 5.2.

Ran the Lindon loop with Larry this morning. It was a beautiful morning for a run.

I ran up Provo Canyon with Larry, Wayne, Kerry, Nathan, Ryan, and Ryan's wife. Most of us went from the mouth up to Vivian and back. Nathan and Wayne continued up South Fork for longer runs.

We started out at about a 9:00/mi pace but it kept getting faster and faster as I tried to stay with Wayne, Kerry, Nathan, and Ryan. We averaged 8:33/mi for the first 4.76 miles. At that point I was curious how fast we were going so I reset the lap. The last 1.06 miles up to Vivian was at 7:34/mi. That may have been the fastest pace I've run on the up portion of this run.

I ran with Kerry most of the way back. We averaged 8:10/mi for the 4.9 miles down to the fountain by Timpanogos Park. We met back up with Larry and Ryan and this point, and started running again as Ryan's wife went past. We averaged 7:57/mi for the last 0.87 miles.

The weather was great and the companionship was even better. I really enjoyed the run.

Ran the Lindon loop with Larry in the morning.

Ran Eagles View with Nathan and Cory at midday. This weeks 41:44 (8:20/mi) was much more enjoyable than last weeks 7:29/mi pace.

Ran the water tank road with Larry and Wayne this morning. I felt pretty good this morning. Larry was running behind me up one of the hills and said I had chiseled calves. I drew some positive energy from that and charged the last hill pretty fast. On the way back down 1600 North I decided to push the nearly perfect downhill section from 400 E to Main. I ran a 6:11/mi pace for the 1/2 mile and felt pretty good. It was a beautiful morning and I really enjoyed this morning's run with Larry and Wayne.

Larry took me on the "never ending hills" route this morning. As the name suggests, the course consists of hill after hill. We didn't set any speed records, but got a pretty good run in.

At noon I ran the Lake View route with Cory and Nathan. I averaged 8:04/mi out and 7:08/mi back in for an overall average of 7:36/mi. Not quite the 7:18/mi Nathan and Will ran yesterday on the same route, but I'll take it.

Larry, Wayne, and I ran the old Thursday route through Lindon which ends with the climb up 2000 N and then the long downhill back home. I felt pretty strong throughout. I averaged 8:45/mi overall for about 5.65 miles. I pushed the big downhill near the end pretty hard at 6:02/mi for 0.7 miles. In my mind I was preparing for the neighborhood 5K this Saturday.

I've been hoping I could break 20 minutes for the first time at the neighborhood 5K this year, but I'm not sure I'm quite there yet. That would require an average pace of 6:27/mi. I think I'm going to go for it anyway and see if I can hold on. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I met Kerry and Nathan at 6:00am at Provo Canyon. I conducted some relay business with Kerry then ran a couple of miles of warmup. They eventually hooked up with Cory, who was late, and headed off for their run.

At 7:30am was the 19th annual Northridge Neighborhood 5K Fun Run and Breakfast. I've participated for most of the last 15 years. My PR was last year's 20:36. My overall highest place has been 3rd.

Goals: 1. Break 20:00. 2. Take 2nd place overall.

Results: 1. 20:15 (new PR by 21 secs for course--but 16 secs short of sub-20:00). 2. 3rd place overall.

Kurt Gassman (18) took 1st place (as expected) with 19:44. My next door neighbor Taylor Allen (15) made his debut with a 2nd place finish with 19:45. I took 3rd place with my 20:15. I was the first finisher older than 18, and I'm 47, so I'm pleased with my performance...although there were probably only about 30 runners...plus bikers, etc.

The last mile was interesting. Kurt was in front, Taylor back a little, and then me. Suddenly Kurt stops and Taylor runs on past him. As I approach I ask if he is okay. He says he is, but that he is done. I proceed to chase Taylor, but he had a good lead and was running strong so I wasn't hopeful to catch him. A little while later I hear footsteps behind me. As Kurt passes on his chase of Taylor, he says he isn't going to let puking keep him from racing. Later he said he stopped, puked, and then decided to finish the race and still try to win. He and Taylor ran within a step or two of each other for last 1/2 mile or so, with Kurt holding on for the 1 second victory. I had a good view of the action from behind them and it was impressive, especially when Kurt said he kept heaving occasionally during the stretch, but with nothing coming up. It's great to see a new generation benefiting from the strength, endurance, and grit that can be learned from running.

The breakfast and visiting (many don't run but still come for breakfast) were great, too. I got 3rd pick of the prizes and got a nice iron outdoor thermometer for our deck. It was a great morning.

I ran the Lindon loop with Larry this morning. After serving nearly five years I was released as president of the elders quorum yesterday. I thought I might be able to run faster with that burden lifted off my shoulders, but I didn't notice any real difference.

At lunch I ran Eagles View with Cory and Nathan. I didn't feel like we started out very fast, but I ended up finishing only 10 seconds off my pace from two weeks ago, which was my PR for this route. As we started up the steepest hill, Nathan pulled a little ahead and I tried to stay with him. Cory was a few steps back, but as we neared the top he put on a very strong surge and went past both of us. Nathan hung on better than I did. As I crested the hill I was too tired to brake, so I carried my energy up and over, past Nathan and Cory, and on to the downhill. Nathan eventually caught me, but Cory was paying the price for his aggressive push up the hill. Nathan and I ran a 6:35/mi pace back down to State Street where he had to wait for the light. I averaged roughly a 7:00/mi pace up and down the overpasses. Nathan began to pull away on the second overpass. I decided I wanted to try to average a 7:00/mi pace the last 3/4 miles from the end of the overpasses back to the start. I only managed 7:16/mi for the 0.37 mi to where I got stopped by a traffic light again, but I surged to 6:41/mi for the last 0.36 mi, so the overall average was 6:59/mi. It was a good hard run.

Some comparative times for this same run earlier this year are:

1/25: 39:48 (7:58/mi)

1/29: 37:58 (7:36/mi)

2/5: 39:48 (7:58/mi)

2/12: 37:53 (7:35/mi)

3/5: 39:22 (7:52/mi)

3/12: 41:57 (8:23/mi)

3/19: 37:48 (7:34/mi)

4/30: 40:25 (8:05/mi)

5/7: 37:27 (7:29/mi)

5/14: 41:44 (8:20/mi)

5/21: 37:37 (7:31/mi)

I was very tired this morning and wanted to go back to bed. I remember having my cell phone in my hand to call Larry and tell him I wasn't coming. The next thing I knew I was out running towards the big hill with Larry and Wayne. It was a brisk and beautiful morning and I really enjoyed the run, but I still don't remember when I changed my mind and decided to run instead of going back to bed.

Larry was up really late last night so he called to say he was catching a few more Z's and wouldn't be out for the morning run. I was still feeling the effects of the long physical day yesterday, which included hauling 1200+ lbs. of sand, and replacing the serpentine belt on my daughter's car (which had to be done from the right wheel well). I decided to skip the morning run and push the noon run a little harder.

I had a hard time getting out of the office and was late getting to the fitness center. Tom had been waiting for me and was just ready to head out (after about a mile on the treadmill I think), but he said he would wait for me to change. That was very kind, especially since he had a meeting after lunch and could only run a few miles with me.I very much enjoyed the mile and a half or so I was able to run with Tom before he had to turn back.

My mile splits for the first five miles were 8:09, 7:40, 7:25, 7:49, 7:53. I then walked 1/4 mile waiting for Scott Blake who I saw coming up the street, and then ran the last 1.3 miles back in with him at 8:14/mi. He's still recoverying from an awful heel and ankle injury about a month ago. I'm amazed he's running at all, let alone carrying on a comfortable conversation while running an 8:14 pace.

One of the things Tom and I talked about as we started the run was a Runner's World article I read yesterday about stride rate. It said, "At the 1984 Olympics, Daniels and his wife, Nancy, analyzed the stride frequencies of runners from 800 meters to the marathon. At distances from 5000 meters on up, the top runners, both men and women, were remarkably consistent: They ran with a stride rate of about 180 strides per minute." After Tom turned back, I tried to maintain a good marathon pace running as usual, but once every 1/2 mile I picked up my stride rate and counted my steps for a minute. I wanted to see what it felt like to run at 180 steps/minute, or if I could even do it.

When the seconds reached 00 I would start counting. Since 180 steps/minute is 3 steps/sec, I counted once for every three steps I took...One-2-3, Two-2-3, Three-2-3, etc. This allowed me to compare my counts with the seconds on my watch and see how I was doing. If my count matched the seconds exactly, then I would know I was at the 180 steps/second rate, else I would be able to see how much ahead or behind I was.

I was surprised, and pleased, that my count reached 64 or 65 each of the 6 one-minute intervals I did, which equates to 192 to 195 steps/minute. I noted that even though I felt as though I was shortening my stride to get the quicker turnover, my speed still increased significantly, roughly a minute/mile faster. The quicker steps obviously took more energy/effort, but the effort did not seem as intense as other times when I've tried to push the pace by keeping my stride length the same and just trying to run faster. By mentally shortening my stride and focusing on turnover rate I seemed to run more smoothly and efficiently...and faster.

Below are my over paces for miles 3, 4, and 5. The numbers in parentheses are the paces for the 1 minute quick-stride intervals I did during those miles. I didn't think to measure the pace until half way through mile 4, but my feeling was that the first 3 quick-stride intervals were pretty quick, probably closer to 6:30/mi than to 7:00/mi.

7:25 (?) (?)

7:49 (?) (6:36/mi)

7:53 (7:02/mi) (6:49/mi)

I'm think I'm going to focus a little more on stride rate between now and the Wasatch Back Relay next month. I'm also planning to run the Nestle 5K a week from Saturday. I'm thinking of  maybe focusing the whole race on just counting my strides every minute and trying to keep them at 180/min...ignoring my pace...and see I can hold it to the end, and then see what my finish time turns out to be. I'm not sure I'll do that, but it would be an interestnig experiment.

I ran the Lindon loop with Larry this morning. I was pleased to see that the pace of our "easy pace" is getting a little quicker. During the winter we slogged some runs at a 9:45 or slower pace. The average of this morning's run was closer to 8:45. Some of that was due to Larry wanting to push the last mile. Larry was hoping for around a 7:30 pace and we came in at a 7:33 pace.

About 2/3 into the run I decided to check Larry's stride rate and then mine. Yesterday I only counted my stride rate while I was pushing hard for 60 seconds. Today I counted at our normal pace. Larry's stride rate was 168 and mine was 180, even though we were both running the same pace. He was surprised by this. I've been trying over the last year or more to try to shorten my stride and increase my stride rate. It seems I've made some progress. I really think it might help Larry, too. It might be what he needs to finally get that Boston qualifying time. He's been within 5-10 minutes for years. Of course, every year he says he needs to lose 20 pounds and put in more miles. That might help, too.

With the holiday weekend I ended up not planning a run with anyone, so I was left to decide on my own what to do. I decided to do a loop around Orem. I started on 1600 N, went west to 2000 W, south to 2000 S, worked my way east and north to Palisades then north to Cascade Golf Course, then worked my way west and north back up to 1600 N and then west to home.

It ended being 14.6 miles. I finished in 2:10:12, for an average pace of 8:55/mi. I averaged around 8:50/mi for the first 6.5 miles, then slowed as I headed east and then north, which were mostly uphill. I stopped at exactly 10 miles and took an eGel and drank about 8 ounces of water from my water bottle. I felt pretty good the next 2 miles north to Cascade Golf Course, but I was still only running just over a 9:00 pace.

As I turned west, and began the gradual downhill instead of uphill, I picked up the pace. I ran the mile to 1200 N/800 E at 8:17/mi. I started the next mile at 8:06/mi, but my average pace for that mile slowed to 9:00/mi as I went up the big hill and around the former WordPerfect buildings, but I managed to pull the average back down to 8:24/mi by end of that mile at 400 E/1600 N. I was now only a little more than a 1/2 mile from home, and it was my favorite 1/2 mile downhill, so I pushed the pace from 400 E to Main. I decided to not look at the pace on my watch as I pushed this 1/2 mile, but instead I solely counted my stride rate. I had calculated my stride rate at right around my target of 180 a few times during the earlier part of my run. I calculated it at 195 for this section, the same rate as when I was pushing hard on Wednesday. When I checked my pace at the end of the 1/2 mile it was 6:47/mi.

I felt pretty good about finishing that strongly, and overall I just felt pretty good after the run. I had no real aches or pains to speak of, and recovered pretty quickly. The skies were overcast and it never got too hot. I think I prefer running with a buddy or two or more, but I also enjoy a good solo run now and then, and I enjoyed this one.

Similar to Saturday, because of the holiday weekend I didn't have anyone to run with and no real plans. I finally settled on running the water tank road and ended up leaving at about 7:00am.

It took me most of the mile from home to the base of the water tank road to loosen up. I decided to push the series of five hills pretty hard, focusing on keeping my legs turning over at around the 180/min rate I've mentioned in recent blogs. I felt pretty strong all the way to the top and ran the 1.42 miles uphill in 15:55 (11:15/mi). I feel good whenever I can do it under 17 minutes, so today was a good effort.

Rather than coming back down the hill like we normally do, I decided to drop down the trail that eventually leads down to the mouth of Provo Canyon. I've never been down this way before, and took a couple of wrong turns, but eventually worked my way down to the new homes just east of the golf course. I stopped a couple of times to enjoy the view. I couldn't enjoy it while I was running because I had to watch my footing.

After coming off the hillside, I ran a little over 1.5 miles at an easy pace, around 8:55/mi. At 1200N/800E I decided to step up the pace and averaged 7:33/mi for the last 1.5 miles home. It was very warm this morning, and I was hot when I finished, but otherwise felt pretty good.

Larry didn't show this morning (probably sleeping trying to recover from the holiday weekend). I didn't feel like doing a regular route, so I decided to (more or less) run the Lindon loop backwards and add the big hill up 2000 N on the end for a couple of extra miles.

I was jealous of Kerry averaging an 8:02 pace for his long run on Saturday while I only averaged 8:55, so I decided to start out a little quicker. I ran the first three miles in 8:02, 7:50, and 7:55.

That looks pretty good, except there was some downhill mixed in that I had to pay back with some steady uphill during the next 0.9 miles (9:42/mi).

For the next 1.71 miles (8:18/mi) I ran upstream (slight steady uphill) on the canal road.

I then turned and headed up the big hill on 2000 N for 1.0 mile (10:29/mi). The last 0.25 miles at the top level out a bit. I think my pace for the steep 0.75 miles was about 10:56/mi. I ran the top 0.25 back down at 8:10/mi, followed by 6:55/mi for the steep 0.75 miles down. I wanted to go faster, but my legs were pretty heavy from the hill climbing. I couldn't turn them over as quickly as I'd like and I didn't want to risk falling flat on my face.

I ran the last 0.5 mile down Main St. and back home at 7:11/mi.

My overall pace was 8:25/mi for the 8.15 miles. This is still a little slower than Kerry's average on Saturday, but I mixed in some good hill work so I still feel good about the workout.

I ran alone again this morning. This time I picked the flatter Orem route. It was a little chilly this morning with a cool breeze. I opted for the vest and gloves for the first time in a while.

I think the hard runs of the past couple of days caught up with me. I had a real hard time getting going this morning. I ran 6.4 miles at an easy pace (8:49/mi), but it sure didn't feel easy. A positive was that I got faster as I went along.

As I was running back home the thought struck me that this might be similar to how I'm going to feel on the 3rd leg of the Wasatch Back relay. I ran hard yesterday and the day before, and was feeling sluggish today. My 3rd leg (leg 25 - Hard) is a 4.8 mile run up a 1.8% average grade. I highly doubt I'm going to be feeling much zip in my legs at that point.

I ran the water tank hills with Larry and Wayne this morning. It was nice not running alone again. The pace was a little slower than when I pushed hard solo on Monday, but with a 5K race on Saturday I didn't want to push too hard. We still maintained a steady push up the hills.

My bad knee acted up a little at the beginning of the run, but I don't think it's anything unusual. I don't plan to run on Friday as I taper for the 5K.

I still plan to try once again to break the 20 minute barrier at the 5K, but after riding the course on Tuesday on my motorcycle I can see it's not going to be easy. That first mile looks pretty challenging with the big hill into Mapleton.

I think I'll just try to hang onto Tom for the first mile or two and then try to step on the gas until the tank runs dry as we head back down to the high school and around the track. It's going to require some star alignment for me to reach my goal, but I'm counting on drawing energy from the other runners to hopefully get me over the hump.

Dang! I just remembered a quote Larry shared with me recently from Steve Prefontaine. I googled and found it, and another quote, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Prefontaine.

"The only good race pace is suicide pace, and today looks like a good day to die."

"A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more. Nobody is going to win a 5,000 meter race after running an easy 2 miles. Not with me. If I lose forcing the pace all the way, well, at least I can live with myself."

So now I'm faced with my original plan to hold back a little that first uphill mile, or live on the edge, force the pace all the way, and push (and risk reaching too soon) my mental and physical limits. Strangely, I feel myself being drawn to the latter right now. How can you be sure where the limits are if you never push them? I hope I come to my senses before the gun fires on Saturday morning.

I finished the Nestle Art City Days 5K in 19:53, and finally met my goal of breaking 20 minutes. My splits were 6:37, 6:19, 6:23, and 0:35. (The official results have my time as 19:28...I wish...but their results are suspect.)

I saw Tom as I was picking up my packet and we warmed up for a mile or so. He had warmed up earlier so he turned back and I went a little farther. I made a bathroom stop, warmed up a little more jogging over to and around the track to check out the finish, and then met up with Tom again a little before the start.

Things were a little congested at the start, but as I was able to open up I locked into what I hoped was about a 6:30 pace. It felt a little fast, but I decided to go for it. I noticed one of Tom's buddies just ahead of me. He finished in exactly 20:00 last year, so I figured I needed to stay with him. I felt pretty strong as I pushed up the big hill and was pleased to hear them call out my first mile split at 6:37.

I knew I needed to keep up my effort to run a sub-6:30 pace for the rest of the race. I focused, as I had in the first mile, on keeping my legs turning over at or above 180 steps/min. I was slowly passing a few people, and no one was passing me, and I felt pretty good.

As I began the third mile I was beginning to feel the effects of pushing the first two. It took a lot of mental effort to focus on keeping my legs moving, even though it was mostly downhill. I was struggling a bit, and a few runners passed me (mostly high school kids I think), but I was keeping up with most of the other runners so I was still optimistic.

As I entered the parking lot and then the track I was confident I could hold on. As I passed the 3 mile marker on the track I quickly glanced at my watch and thought I saw 19:1x. I figured I still had 40 to 50 seconds to go half a lap and was going to make it. I then saw a runner a little in front of me that I thought might be in my age division. I decided to play it safe and just pass him, which I did rather easily and finished pretty strongly.

It's good I started and stopped my watch correctly, or I wouldn't know my time. The official results were way off. They showed my time about 30 seconds faster than what I ran. A lot of other runners were saying the same thing. Tom didn't even show up in the results. It turns out anyone who registered this morning before the race were not included in the results, but their times were. They awarded me a plaque for 5th place in my division. Tom's time would have earned 5th in his division as well, but we'll have to wait until they rework and post the results to see the actual results.

The prizes in the raffle were amazing, and nearly all 2000+ entrants stayed for the drawing. Of course, it doesn't matter how great the prizes are if you don't win any of them, which I didn't. It was still an awesome race. I really enjoyed it.

I ran the Lindon Loop with Larry this morning at an easy pace (9:15/mi avg). I was surprised a little by how hard it was to hold this "easy" pace. I guess I loosened up somewhat during the run, as we ran the last mile or so at a sub-8 pace.

I felt a little pain in my left knee this morning, similar to what I first felt about 10 days ago when I was pushing hard on a Wednesday noon run. I've felt it a couple of times since then, usually after I've been pushing a fast pace (6:30-ish) for a while. It's not serious, but I need to keep an eye on it.

At lunch time I ran Eagles View with Cory and Nathan. It was pretty hot. We pushed pretty hard, but not as hard as some other days recently (7:55/mi, not 7:30/mi). My time was 39:33 (7:55/mi). I did push to a 7:01/mi pace the last 0.75 miles, and felt pretty good about finishing strong.

Some comparative times for this same run earlier this year are:

1/29: 37:58 (7:36/mi)

2/5: 39:48 (7:58/mi)

2/12: 37:53 (7:35/mi)

3/5: 39:22 (7:52/mi)

3/12: 41:57 (8:23/mi)

3/19: 37:48 (7:34/mi)

4/30: 40:25 (8:05/mi)

5/7: 37:27 (7:29/mi)

5/14: 41:44 (8:20/mi)

5/21: 37:37 (7:31/mi)

6/4: 39:33 (7:55/mi) 

Larry showed up this morning, but the toes which have been bothering him lately hurt him as he walked over so he opted to ride his bike instead of running with me this morning. I was okay with that, but didn't know where I wanted to run. Larry (jokingly I hope) said to just run up the big hill on 2000 N six times.

I decided I would run that hill. In the Wasatch Back relay I have a big downhill leg and another steady uphill leg. I figured the hill work might be beneficial. I decided to run the steepest part of the hill, from the Oak Canyon Jr. High crosswalk near 180 W up to the fire hydrant at the top of 2000 N. This is just over 1 mile up, and then another mile back down. Running it six times would have been 12 miles, so I chose to only do it three times.

I didn't really press the pace, but I wouldn't classify it as easy either. It felt like it was just slightly under marathon pace effort. I pushed the uphills hard enough to maintain a steady stride rate at around 180 steps/minute, and then recovered on the downhills while still maintaining my form and stride rate.

My up/down paces for the three repeats were:

1 - 10:52 / 7:51 - I started at Main instead of near 180 W, so this was only 0.85 miles uphill.

2 - 10:26 / 7:36

3 - 10:25 / 7:05 - At the top, instead of immediately turning around and heading back down I continued along the road (which levels off) to our normal turn around point (0.25 mi). My thought was to catch my breath a little so I could push the downhill a little faster the last time down. I did go faster, but I wasn't really pushing. It was more like letting off the brakes a little more.

With the warmup and cooldown the total mileage was 7.7 miles. This is a little short of the 8 miles per day Sasha recommended I do, but I'm okay with that. After all, I ran 11+ yesterday, and today was hills. By the way, can I count the 1/2 mile walk with my dog I do after many of my morning runs while I cool down? :-)

I really enjoyed this morning's run. The weather was cool and the day was beautiful. I didn't notice any aches or pains, and I recovered pretty quickly.

My left knee was aching this morning. I'm wasn't sure if it was because of the low pressure system that moved in (this is my bad "weather knee" from surgery when I was 14) or from the hard hill run I did yesterday. I didn't want to overdo it, so I chose to skip the two-a-day today and only do the lunch time run. Yes, I would have been running alone this morning, and it was raining hard, too, but if the knee had not of been hurting, I would have done the morning run anyway.

It was still raining pretty hard at lunch time. I almost ran in the rain anyway, but in the end opted for the treadmill, which I really don't enjoy very much. The fitness center seemed hot and humid, and this combined with the boredom and monotony of the treadmill to produce a wonderful (heavy sarcasm) running experience.

I ran 6 miles in 47:48 (7:58/mi). I think I ran 1/2 mile@9:00, 2.5.miles@8:00, 1 mile@7:47, 1 mile@7:35, and 1 mile@7:47.

It was a little cool and windy this morning. I thought Larry was coming out this morning, but he's heading out with the youth on a handcart trek at noon so I wasn't too surprised when he didn't show.

I decided to run the Orem route but lengthened it a couple of miles by going down to 800 E and 800 S (near Costco) before turning back. Just before I got to the 800 E 800 S intersection I started having some stomach cramps. Fortunately, there were some guys playing basketball at one of the churches at that corner so I was able to make a much needed pit stop.

I ran a total of 8.5 miles in 1:10:57 (8:20/mi). There was a pretty strong head wind as I headed back north. At one point I ran 1/2 mile north, slight uphill into the wind, at 8:40/mi. I then turned west and ran the next 1/2 mile, not into the wind and a slight downhill, at 7:40/mi expending the same effort. This was representative of most of the run. I tried to maintain an even effort (around marathon level), and I averaged 8:20/mi, but most of the miles were either faster or slower depending on the grade and the direction with respect to the wind.

I chose to play basketball with my son Andrew and my old basketball buddies this morning. With preparing for the Boston Marathon, and Andrew's shoulder surgery a few months ago, I hadn't played for months. It was definitely the right decision. Andrew doesn't live at home and it was great spending some time with him again, not just while playing but on the drive there and back. I also enjoyed being with many of my old basketball friends again. I've been playing with some of these guys for over 15 years; one is an old friend from high school. Besides all the social aspects, it was great exercise, and even though I was a little rusty, I actually didn't play all that badly. It was great fun. It was a great cross training workout. We played a little longer than normal, for over two hours, and I was plenty tired by the end.

It's hard to map basketball into running miles, but I can't not count it at all. I just roughly count one easy mile for every 20 minutes of basketball (equivalent to a walking pace), subtracting out the time between games and when I'm sitting out.

I tried something different for my long run today, and learned (hopefully) a lesson or two.

My 15 year old daughter Brittany was involved in a handcart trek experience this week. We found out mid-week that parents were invited to be there Saturday morning. They talked a lot during the trek about the Willie and Martin handcart companies. Just after the leaders talked of the rescue parties that came to save the pioneers, the parents came walking in. The leaders then talked of how the youth can look to their parents as rescuers to help them when life seems too hard to go on. It turned out really well and was a great experience for the youth and for us parents. We also got to eat breakfast with them, help pack up their camp for the last time, and trek the last mile or so with them and then take them home.

I missed my normal Saturday morning long run, and my wife Karen missed a niece's baby shower for which her sister had flown in from Arizona, but we have no regrets. We made the right choice to be with Brittany. Karen went and spent most of the rest of the day with her sister and they had a great time. I ran some errands and then went into work for a couple of hours. I decided to do my long run starting from work later in the evening when it cooled down.

About 6:30 pm I headed to the fitness center. To my surprise, my clothes I had put in the fitness center laundry on Wednesday were not in my locker as they should have been. I eventually found them as I sorted through a basket behind the reception desk. It was after 7:00pm before I finally got started with my run. It was still around 80 degrees.

I had decided I would run south to my sister Katherine's house in Mapleton, which was about 14-15 miles round trip. I sometimes struggle with bowel issues running in the evening, so I took a path that took me past the house in Springville I was raised in (where my nephew now lives) at about mile 5 in case I needed to make a stop.

I had forgotten it was Art City Days in Springville, and unexpectedly ran into and through the carnival downtown. My mile splits for the first five miles were 8:28, 8:31, 8:23, 8:34, and 8:44. These were mostly level miles. The next 2.25 miles as I climbed into Mapleton were a little more uphill and I slowed to around a 9:10/mi average.

As I was approaching my sister's house I was feeling the need for a bio break and was thinking how well my plan had worked out. This was the last time I thought this during this run. As I came to her house I saw an empty driveway. My brother-in-law is a cabinet builder and their garage is a workshop (they always park in the driveway), and the house was dark, so I knew they weren't home. Fortunately, there is a gas station at the next intersection, so I stopped there for my bio break.

I was actually still feeling pretty good at this point and decided to add a couple of miles to my run by running farther into Mapleton towards the mountains before turning back north and beginning the return trip. The siren song of the beautiful summer evening was calling me. I eventually ended up on the last road that connects Mapleton to Springville before going up Hobble Creek canyon. The extra mile or two I was going to add to my run ended up being 2.7 miles one way, all gradual uphill (average pace 9:50/mi). This is where things began to fall apart.

First, I realized I had turned my 14-15 mile run into a 19-20 mile run.

Next, I noticed the sun was about to set. I would be running in the dark most of the rest of the way and wouldn't finished until nearly 10:00 pm.

That's about when I noticed that my middle toes on my right foot were feeling a little weird. It wasn't really pain, but I figured I needed to take my shoe off and see what was going on in there before it got worse. I looked for a good place to sit, and not finding one, ended up sitting down on the side of the road. As I took my shoe off, I was surprised to see a bloody sock and then bloody toes. My toenails weren't long, but there was a sharp corner on the left edge of my middle toe that had pierced a small hole in the longer toe to its left. A pair of nail clippers and a bandaid would have been real handy about now. If I could have reached my toenail to my mouth I would have tried chewing the sharp edge off.

As I put my shoe on and got up, it hurt to walk, but hurt a little less to run so I continued jogging towards the main road up Hobble Creek canyon. It was already nearly dark, and I figured I still had 5-7 miles to go, so I decided to abort the run. Fortunately I was smart enough to carry my cell phone on this run (but not a bandaid...duh). The only problem was my wife had one car with her at her sister's son's house in Kearns , and I had the other one parked at work, so my 18 year old son Adam had no way to rescue me (as he did last year on a 20 miler, but that's another story). I finally decided to call my 20 year old son Andrew who lives in an apartment near UVSC. He was home and agreed to come to my rescue. I continued to jog as I told him where I was.

When I hung up I realized that my toe was no longer hurting me. I almost called him back, but it was still getting dark, I didn't know how long before it would start hurting again, and I figured it would make him feel good to rescue me anyway. I had told him to just come up 400 South until he found me, so I decided I would see how far I could get before he got to me. I ended up making it another 2.75 miles (avg 9:44/mi), and he picked me up near Reams and drove me back to work. Aside from the toe, I was still feeling pretty good, and kind of wish I could have completed the whole run. I may try it again sometime when I have a better plan, and have a bandaid with me, and have trimmed my toenails a little better.

When I got back to the fitness center to shower, there was quite a bit more blood on my sock and toes than the first time I looked. I felt better about the decision to abort. I enjoyed the shower and actually felt pretty good as I got dressed. I was pretty hungry, though, and I knew Karen wouldn't be home until probably after midnight, so I decided on Fazoli's for dinner. I called Andrew to see if he was hungry, and ended up dropping some Fettucine Alfredo and breadsticks by his apartment to say 'thank you'.

Today didn't turn out quite as planned, but as I've discovered in life, sometimes what happens, even with some bad mixed in, ends up being maybe even better than what was planned. I really enjoyed being with my wife and daughter and the others at the trek this morning. I got some good work done in the afternoon, I enjoyed the part of the run I completed, I still managed to get in over 13 miles, with some good uphill miles which I needed, at an average pace of 9:10/mi, and I got to share some quality time with my adult son and allow him to serve me in a way that strengthened our relationship. Despite the unexpected events and apparent adversity, this day turned out to be a tender mercy, a blessing from God.

I was alone again this morning. My legs whispered to me that they would prefer to not run hills this morning, so I decided on the "south into Orem" run. My legs gradually felt better as I went along. The paces for my half mile splits were:

0.5	8:59/mi
1.0	8:35/mi
1.5	8:08/mi
2.0	8:39/mi
2.5	7:56/mi
3.0	7:38/mi
3.5	8:38/mi
4.0	8:14/mi
4.5	8:05/mi
5.0	7:37/mi
5.5	7:36/mi
6.0	7:31/mi

It was a beautiful morning, about 60 degrees. I had no aches or pains to speak of. Even my toe that gave me trouble Saturday evening was not an issue. After a 50 mile week last week, and feeling as good as I did this morning, I think I'm in pretty good shape for the Wasatch Back relay a week from Friday. I just need to stay healthy (knock on wood).


 

It sounds like Larry will be back running tomorrow, but I was alone again this morning. It was a beautiful morning for a run. I ran west, then north into Lindon, then east and southeast through Lindon and eventually up the big hill on 2000 N (Orem), then back down the hill to 400 W, south to 1600 N and up 1600 N to home. I finished the 8 miles in 1:06:44 (8:20/mi). I got in some good hill work and still managed marathon pace on the flatter sections. Again, no real aches or pains to speak of.

I ran the water tank road with Larry this morning. It was sure great running with him again. I hope he can get his sore toes figured out so he can get back to regular running. They bothered him again this morning so he'll be biking again tomorrow.

At lunch time I ran Lake View with Cory, Nathan, and Bill. It was good to have Bill along. We started off at a fairly easy pace but it steadily increased. I ran the 5.23 miles in 40:23 (7:43/mi). My mile splits were: 8:34, 8:07, 7:59, 7:23, 6:55. My watched showed the average pace for the last 0.23 miles as 6:03/mi. I was going fast, and I hope it was that fast, but I'm a little skeptical. At any rate, it was a great run with great guys. I missed Tom being there, but after reading his blog I see he did a 4.25 mile tempo run at 6:57/mi this morning. Maybe I'm glad he wasn't here. Of course, Nathan blew me away today (as usual), so maybe Tom would have just given Nathan a little company up there in front.

I tried out my new Asics Gel Landreth shoes at lunch today. I ran a 10K (6.2 mile) loop that starts like the Eagle View run but then goes north a ways then loops west to University Ave. then south back to work. I finished the 10K in 50:18 (8:07/mi). My mile splits were 8:07, 8:13, 8:46, 7:34, 7:59, and 8:09, with a pace of 7:23/mi for the last 0.2 miles. It was a steady effort, with uphill/downhill accounting for the pace variance.

The shoes felt pretty comfortable and performed well. It was only one run, but I think they'll work out okay. I did feel some discomfort in my feet during the run, but I think it was from the hot asphalt. It was around 90 degrees and my feet felt like they do sometimes on the hot pavement at the water park. I have kind of sensitive feet. I tried running on the grass along University Ave. near the end of the run and the discomfort almost instantly disappeared, comfirming in my mind at least that it was caused by the hot pavement. I haven't done too many runs in the heat. It looks like I need to toughen up a bit.

I ran Provo Canyon up to Vivian Park and back with 7 of 12 of the relay team (Verdon, Kerry, Greg, Tom, Terry, Will and me) plus Larry and Wayne. As usual with the relay team members, we seem to push each other. I started with the group then held back a little and ran with Larry and Wayne for a bit. Kerry and Verdon were just behind us and the rest started pulling away. This was the first time I had met Terry so I decided to push to the lead group and run with them for a while. Terry was obviously idling to stay with us, but it was a pretty quick pace for the rest of us. I ran with Tom and Terry for a while with Will and Greg a little up ahead. We caught up with Greg then Tom and Terry pulled a little ahead, with Will still in the lead, and I ran with Greg for a while until he pulled ahead me as we approached the park.

On the return trip I ran with Kerry. We didn't push real hard as we conversed but it was still a pretty steady pace. I noticed a young man running a couple of steps behind us for quite a while so I finally introduced myself and invited him to run with us. His name was Martin. It's his first year running, he's training for his first marathon at St. George this fall, and this was his first 10 mile run. We were running about an 8:00 pace and he was running with us pretty easily. He asked a few training questions and we gave him a little advice, then Kerry told him about this web site. Maybe he'll join up. It's certainly benefited Kerry and me. The three of us ran together until the last mile, when I decided to pick up the pace to the end.

I averaged 8:11/mi up and 7:47/mi down, running the last mile in 6:36. It was a very enjoyable run. I wore my new shoes for the 2nd time and they performed very well. I think I'm ready for the relay next week. At least I hope I am, because it's too late to do anything about it now.

I woke up this morning with no aches or pains to speak of, and with the Wasatch Back relay this weekend, I want to keep it that way. I decided to skip the two-a-day today and only run at lunch time. All morning my legs felt rested and strong.

At lunch time I ran Eagle View with Nathan and Cory. It was quite warm. Nathan tried to stay back with us, but I think our relatively easy (though I still wouldn't call it easy) pace, as we mostly discussed the relay, was too slow for him. He waited for us at the top of the hill, and again at the light at State St. on the way back, but from there he pulled easily away for good and beat us back by quite a distance.

This was one of my slower times on this route this year, but with a total of 18.5 miles to run in the relay this Friday and Saturday, I want to taper this week and make sure my legs and joints are well rested. I took the average of a dozen Eagle View runs since January and my average pace was 7:52/mi, so I guess my 40:47 (8:07/mi) today wasn't too far off my average even though I wasn't pushing very hard.

We used to get 4 or 5 guys out to run in the mornings. Most days lately it's just been me. Kent hasn't run since St. George last year, so his son Kurt doesn't run with us anymore either. Kevin broke his leg, and now Larry is having toe problems.

This morning I headed up 1600 North then up the hills by the former WordPerfect buildings then wandered down through Lindon and back home. I noticed that the names of the streets I climbed in the first couple of miles (Mountain Oaks, High Country, Oakcrest, Skyline) all seem to hint that they may not be flat. This was the first time I've run up these streets and it was a pretty good climb.

I ran a pretty easy pace throughout the 6.5 miles I wandered this morning. It was a beautiful morning and I just wandered down through Lindon. I'm not even sure I could retrace where I went, but I enjoyed it. It would have been more enjoyable with some company. I enjoy an occasional solo run, but there has been a few too many of them recently. It will be great be with the relay team this weekend, and with so many other runners.

I ran the water tank road with Larry this morning. We intentionally ran an easy pace. I'm tapering for the relay and Larry's toes are still bothering him, although they seemed a little better this morning.

See tomorrow's blog on the Wasatch Back relay.

Leg 1 - 5.1 miles

Leg 13 - 7.8 miles
 

This is my report on the Ragnar Relay - Wasatch Back and covers both Friday and Saturday.

Actually, the fun began on Thursday night when we met at my house to decorate both team vans. A couple of team members couldn't make it, but most of us were there to draw the team logos and write our names, team number etc. on the windows, and attach lights to the tops of the Suburbans. We also reviewed our plans and made sure everything was ready.

Friday morning Nathan and Steve met at my house a little before 9:30 am. We then picked up Kerry and Greg in Cedar Hills, met Cory at the 5400 South exit off I-15, and then headed to Logan. We stopped at the Subway in Brigham City for sandwiches along the way. As Runner 1, I didn't think I would have time to fully digest it before our 2:00 pm start, so I stuck mine in the cooler for later. I was still full from the Begian waffles I had eaten for breakfast. (The cool sandwich tasted awesome after running my first leg in the heat.)

We got to the start with plenty of time to get checked in and relax prior to the start. There were eight teams scheduled to start at 2:00 pm, but only seven were there. With only a few minutes before the start there were only 4 runners at the starting line, 3 young women and myself, and they all looked fast. I had this vision of me struggling to stay with them and ending up in last place in that leg. I felt a little better when two more men and another woman joined us, but they all still looked fast. They introduced our teams, we wished each other luck, and then exactly at 2:00 pm they started us.

Leg 1

I stayed near the front of the pack through the first half mile or so. I don't know exactly because when I looked at my watch at that point I realized I had pushed the mode button instead of the start button. I started my watch and tried to stay with the leaders for the next mile or so. The young woman from "Curves with a Kick" had started to pull away, followed by the shirtless young man with the headphones (don't know from which team). The course had a little more uphill grade than I had anticipated, the temperature was in the 90's, and I felt like I was going about as fast as I could. My estimate for this leg was a 7:11/mi pace, and when I looked at my watch it showed a 6:25/mi pace since I had started my watch. I knew I couldn't go any faster and had to let them go.

My focus then shifted to the runner from the Andalusia Bootleggers. His team was the only one that started at 2:00 pm that was in our Sub-masters Male division. He seemed to be nearer my age, but he too appeared to be a good runner and had pulled a little ahead of me, but not too far. I planned to just try to stay near him and hope I had enough left to catch him at the end, or at least be close enough for Nathan to be able to catch them on the next leg.

As I was crossing a street heading west near the 3 mile mark, I heard a honk and then Cory yell, "Left!". I looked to see Cory signaling me to turn left, then looked back and saw the sign I (and the three runners ahead of me) had missed. I stopped and turned left and gratefully continued on course, as Cory and our van headed on to tell the other runners they had missed the turn. I felt bad for the extra distance they would have to run in the brutal heat, but I was sure glad it wasn't me, and I have to admit that I enjoyed now being in the lead. I managed to continue on the final 2.1 miles in the lead and be the first runner in our starting group to reach Exchange 1. It was somewhat of a hollow victory, but my estimated time for this leg was 36:38 (7:11/mi), and my actual time was 37:04 (7:16/mi). Given the brutal heat, I was thrilled to only be 5 seconds/mi off the estimated pace.

I won't take the time to describe everyone else's first leg in much detail. I'll just say that it was very hot but everyone ran his first leg very hard and very well. We managed to maintain the lead, and were a little surprised when we started catching some of the teams that had started an hour before us. Greg's pursuit of the tall girl in the pink skirt up Avon Pass was especially memorable. This was a long, hot, grueling uphill run on a dusty dirt road. She was a strong runner but Greg was slowly gaining on her. Each time we stopped to give Greg water (about every mile) we gave her water as well, for which she was grateful. Some may have considered it aiding the "enemy", but we didn't think twice about it. Her support van must have felt as we did, because they offered us, including Greg, a Popsicle along the way. They were starting to melt, but mine sure tasted good. I was a bit surprised that Greg took one as well before he started off after a water stop. I asked them if they listened to KSL and knew Greg Wrubell. When I told them that's who they had just given a Popsicle to, they thought that was pretty cool. The Popsicle must have helped Greg as he ran great and finished strong, well ahead of the girl in the pink skirt.

We met Van 2 at Exchange 6 as planned and gave them their numbers and shirts as we waited for Cory to finish his leg. I visited the port-a-potties there and as I came out I was surprised to run into Kurt Gassman. He is my son Adam's 18 year old friend from across the street. I've run with him and his dad Kent with the neighborhood guys, and stayed with them when we ran Boston this spring. Kurt was running in Kent's spot on Steve King's Novell corporate team. He seemed in good spirits and ready for his first leg.

We followed the course as we headed to the next major exchange at Snow Basin. As we passed Exchange 7 I stopped briefly to talk to my sister Liz who was working that exchange as one of our team's required three volunteers. We saw her again at Exchange 27 the next morning as she worked again as another one of our team's volunteers. She was still in good spirits then, even though she had driven all the way home from Eden to Spanish Fork in between, sleeping only from about midnight to 3:15 am before heading back to Francis by 6:15 am. Like we usually do for our volunteers, we gave her a team shirt and some money to help compensate for her gas expenses, but we can never adequately thank her for cheerful sacrifice and service on our behalf.

Our third volunteer was Tom's wife Kim. She was at Exchange 35 so we didn't get to see her. Tom told us after the race that he was going to have to wait for her to finish a second shift at that exchange. Apparently it was a dangerous exchange and she could tell they needed additional volunteers to keep the runner's safe, so she was staying for an extra shift. What awesome volunteers we had!

Back to the race. There was a lot of activity at the major exchange at Snow Basin. The high school teams that were only running part of the relay were waiting to start at 9:00 pm. We also met up with Rod and Tyler here for them to start accompanying us on our night legs on their bikes. They served us in van 1 very well, and I can only assume they served van 2 equally well.

In the parking lot at Snow Basin a young female runner came around handing out free ointment and foot cream samples that they had too many of. I recognized her as the runner who was leading Leg 1 until she missed the left turn. She said she ended up running an extra 1.5 miles on that leg. As I was waiting to leave Snow Basin and begin my second leg, she was standing nearby and good naturedly said something about this being the leg where they catch up and pass us back. Since she had averaged a 6:10/mi pace the first leg, this was a distinct possibility, depending on how far back her team was.

I also talked with Steve King and former neighbor Joe Ware at this exchange. They were from different teams, both very fast teams with runners about to do the same leg as me that were capable of sub-5:00 miles down those hills. I had not been passed by anyone yet. It was inevitable that their teams would eventually pass us, but I hoped they were far enough back that it wouldn't be on my leg.

Leg 13

At 9:53 pm Will came into the exchange very strong and I began Leg 13, a 7.8 mile run down from Snow Basin, with Tyler at my side. I don't think he knew what he was in for when he volunteered to ride for us, but to his credit he kept his word and did an excellent job.

This leg began with a climb then headed downhill. I knew there were a few short uphill sections on the way down, but they seemed to be more frequent and longer than I expected. Nevertheless, the cool weather, the downhill, Tyler's company, and the thought of three very fast runners maybe catching me at any time, combined to keep me moving along. I ended up finishing in around 51:44 (6:38/mi), just 2 seconds/mi off the estimated pace of 6:36/mi. I didn't see any other runners until I managed to catch and pass my first "road kill" near the end of this leg. There was another runner that finished not too far behind me, but he was not one of the three fast runners I had feared. I had managed to remain unpassed.

During all of our night legs, everyone in the van once again ran great legs. We all much preferred the cool night weather to the heat of our first runs. Tyler and Rod provided a great service accompanying the runners on their bikes so the van could move on to the next exchange and rest.

After the our second legs we ate Fazolli's spaghetti at East Canyon then headed to our hotel in Park City to try to get a little sleep. Cory told us to eat while he was running his leg supported by Rod, so we did and were ready to head to the hotel when Cory finished, even though the spaghetti tasted so good I had three servings.

Cory took us on a dirt road through the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night, but we eventually ended up in Park City. At first we had the wrong address and had some trouble finding where we were to pick up our late check-in key for our hotel. We eventually found the right address and the check-in building. We went to room 312 in that building, but the key didn't fit. If someone was staying in that room, they were probably quivering in their beds wondering who was trying to open the door to their room. We then realized that there were multiple buildings that made up this hotel, and we needed to find building 3, so we loaded everything back in the Suburban and tried to find building 3. The map was terrible, but we eventually found it. A few people showered but I opted to try to maximize my sleep time. I think I managed to get in a solid 1.75 hours before the alarm went off at 5:00 am. We got a call from Van 2 giving us their status. They had been making great time so we hustled off to Rockport to make sure we were there before the Will finished his leg.

Leg 25

At 5:50 am Will once again came in very strong to the exchange for the handoff. Even though this is the time of the morning I normally run with Larry, my legs were a little sluggish as I began this 5.6 mile uphill leg. It was also pretty chilly and there was a pretty strong headwind. I had to focus pretty hard to keep my legs turning over. I felt like I was doing pretty well, but my mile splits kept getting slower and slower as the uphill got steeper and steeper...7:52, 7:57, 8:25, 9:15, then 9:19/mi for 0.51 miles to the "one mile to go" marker. At that point the course leveled off then went downhill so I pushed hard and managed 7:13 for the last mile. I finished in 45:46 (8:14/mi), well off the estimated (I think) 43:10 (7:44/mi). (This is the leg they added 0.8 miles to shortly before the race so I'm not certain if I have the lastest estimate.) Even though I was slower than the estimate, I feel good about my performance on this leg. I gave my best effort, kept my legs moving up the hills, passed 4 or 5 other runners, was not passed by anyone, and was totally spent when I finished. It felt so good to be done.

While I'm not commenting much on other people's legs, I need to say something about Nathan's leg that followed mine. He ran into a long string of runners that had started before us and passed so many runners that he couldn't count them all. It must have really pumped him up as he passed one after another, and he ran an awesome leg. It took him a minute to catch his breath after he finished, but when he did he looked me in the eyes, and with a fire that is hard to describe, said, "That was awesome!"...and I could tell immediately that he had had one of those special runs that a runner never forgets.

Once again, as on their previous legs, everyone else in the van ran great on their final legs. Greg was especially pumped as he averaged 6:30/mi on his downhill leg, beating the estimated 6:33/mi. He had been watching for the KSL team along the course. I noticed their van at this exchange and they were just getting out. I mentioned that Greg was on my team and on his way in. They were excited to hear that and were waiting to cheer him when he finished. I think this added to Greg's well-deserved elation over his stellar performance.

After Cory handed off to Van 2 at Exchange 30, we went in for breakfast at Rocky Mountain Middle School. It was awesome! Scrambled eggs, bacon, pancakes, juice, a clean and comfortable climate-controlled room to eat in, and all for only $4.00. After breakfast we headed back to the hotel. I managed to get another of couple of hours of good sleep before we had to head to the finish line. I think this was important and helped me stay awake on the drive home after the race.

We got to the finish area with plenty of time to spare. The other van had a little trouble finding parking but they eventually all made it to the staging area before Will got there. As expected, Will came in very strong and we celebrated as we ran together to the finish line.

We finished in 23:16:16, well under our primary goal of sub-24:00:00 (which we've never done before), and not far from our stretch goal of a little over 23:00:00. We finished 1st in the Sub-masters Male division, finishing nearly an hour ahead of the 2nd place team, and finished 21st out of 296 teams overall.

This was by far our fastest performance ever, and we maintained our primary goal of everyone having a positive, awesome experience. I don't think we had any injuries or mishaps, just my near miss at getting off course in the first leg (from which I was saved by my awesome van mates). We had a number of new team members this year, and both veterans and rookies alike came through, as quality runners and quality team mates. Even our bike pacers and volunteers gave stellar performances worthy of gratitude and praise. I feel very grateful to have been a part of it all.

My family wanted to go to the Provo River Parkway trail tonight. My wife and teenage daughter wanted to walk a couple of miles, and my two younger daughters wanted to ride their bikes. I, of course, ran.

At first I had to keep stopping...to use my Garmin measure how far between the round marks (every four is 1/4 mile)...to stop for a drink for my daughters...to take my youngest back to my wife because she couldn't keep up. Finally, I was able to get a continuous mile in heading up the canyon. I ran it in 7:56 trying to keep up with my older younger daughter on her bike. I was hoping it was two miles back, but it was only 1.89. I chased my daughter again and ran the first mile in 6:40, and the last 0.89 in 6:06 (6:53 pace).

My legs were a little stiff and sore from the relay, but it felt good to get some fast miles (for me) in. I only ran 4 miles total (7:27/mi average), but that's okay. I really enjoyed the time with my family, and I'm not sure my legs were ready for much more.
 

Larry and Wayne were doing the water tank road this morning so I went with them. I didn't push very hard up, but held a pretty steady pace. On the way back down I could feel in my thighs the effects of that 7.8 mile downhill on my second relay leg. They didn't hurt a lot, but there was definitely some soreness and stiffness that I hadn't noticed until I started down. The skies seemed to have cleared quite a bit, but there was still noticeable smoke in the valley from the wildfires. I really enjoyed the run with Larry and Wayne.

I went to the fitness center for the normal Wednesday run. Tom and Nathan are gone this week, but I was hoping Cory might show. He eventually did, but arrived after I left and stayed indoors on a bike to give his foot a break. I did find Will on a bike when I arrived. He was planning to stay indoors and rest his knee, but it didn't take much persuasion to get him out to run with me. It actually made me nervous...he seemed almost too eager...and I didn't really feel up to a fast run in the heat.

Will is in the best shape I have ever seen him. He delivered a great performance at the relay. I told Will he had to run slow today, and maybe he was, but it still seemed pretty fast to me. I averaged 7:32/mi for the 5.2 miles. I hung with Will until the very end when he pulled ahead to the finish. My mile splits were 7:42, 7:36, 7:38, 7:26, 7:26, and 1:19 for the last 0.19 (6:51/mi). Given that it was probably around 90 degrees, and I was originally intending to take it easy, I feel pretty good about the run. While walking back to the building after showering I noted that my legs actually felt pretty good, with almost no stiffness or soreness lingering from the relay.

I ran the Lindon loop with Larry and Wayne this morning. We ran at an easy pace (around 9:00/mi average) but it didn't feel all that easy this morning. I think that fast run in the heat with Will yesterday drained me more than I thought.

I ran Provo Canyon up to Vivian and back with Larry and Wayne. It was beautiful running weather, despite the strong headwind going up. We took it easy going up. Mile splits were 9:42, 9:42, 9:44, 9:50, 9:23, 0.77 @ 8:28/mi. My Garmin didn't register very well for the first few miles coming down, but we were pushing a little faster. Wayne and I pushed the last 3 miles pretty hard in 7:20, 7:04, and 7:02.

Larry was riding his bike with James and Lee again this morning (I saw them ride past as I was waiting for my Garmin to lock in) so I ran alone. I decided on an 8 mile run down to 800 S in Orem and back. It took me a while to get going. My splits for the first four miles were 9:01, 8:53, 8:18, and 8:18. I felt like I was pushing pretty hard but just couldn't seem to get under an 8:00 pace. I decided to try some mile intervals on the way back. Maybe I could push a little harder if I knew I could rest after a mile.

I ran four 1 mile intervals on the way back, with a 1/4 mile rest in between. My splits were 7:05, 7:36, 7:27, and 7:28. The first interval was mostly heading west, which was a slight downgrade with a bit of tailwind. The other three intervals were mostly northward, which was a slight uphill, with a pretty good headwind until I got north of 800 N. I finished with about a 1/2 mile jog to cool down.

I feel good about my efforts this morning, especially during the second half.

I ran the water tank road with Larry and Wayne. The company was enjoyable as usual, and the hills were steep as usual. I made the comment that I keep thinking someday those hills will seem easy. I can't remember which of the others said, "Maybe in the Millennium." Perhaps, but somehow I suspect it will require some effort and determination even then. It was a beautiful morning and a good run with good friends.

Repeated Tuesday's run up the water tank road with Larry and Wayne.

I came so close to staying in bed this morning. We were out late Tuesday night at my nephew's 30th annual July 3rd birthday party and fireworks spectacular up in Kearns. We then drove some chairs down to my young adult daughter who was camping out at the parade route in Provo with her friends. She was going to save enough space for us, too, but that didn't work out so I got up early on July 4th and went and found us a place.

After the parade I worked all day in the heat repairing the bathroom ceiling in our camping trailer. I barely finished in time to go down to Provo again in the evening to watch the fireworks. With all the traffic we didn't get home until pretty late.

I guess my alarm went off at 5:00 am this morning and I kept pushing the snooze, but the first thing I remember is looking at the clock and seeing it was 5:36. I guess the combination of not enough sleep and working in the heat for a couple of days caught up with me. I was supposed to meet Larry and Wayne at 5:45. I came so close to just staying in bed, but I didn't run yesterday (I kept wanting to all day), and I knew it would only be hotter later, so I got dressed quickly and headed to the corner. They weren't there so I walked over to Larry's. Wayne was there but Larry hadn't come out yet. We decided we weren't in a hurry so we rang the doorbell and got him up. Both Larry and I had a hard time getting up this morning, but at the end of the run we were both glad we hadn't stayed in bed.

On July 4 I was throwing a frisbee while waiting for the fireworks to begin. While I was traversing a hillside I stepped in a small depression and rolled my left ankle. It hurt quite a bit, but I walked it off and it didn't really bother me too much. The next morning I ran the water tank hill with Larry and Wayne and don't remember it bothering me much. However, as I got up to run Friday morning it was sore enough that I decided to give it a day off to be ready for Saturday's run. At bedtime Friday night, for some reason it was really sore. I tried jogging on it a little and realized there was no way I was going 14 miles on it as planned the next morning, but thought I might go a little ways if it felt better in the morning. When I got up Saturday it was bad enough that I decided to not run on it at all. I'll take it day by day, but I hope to be able to run on it again Monday morning.

I ran the Orem loop this morning. My left ankle still hurt a little as I got up, but I decided to test it with a run anyway. I figured I could cut the run short if it bothered me too much. It turns out it didn't hurt me at all while running. I ended up not only pushing the pace a little but also extending my run by a mile. It's a high ankle sprain and I guess the position of my ankle while running doesn't impact the injured area.

I ran 7.4 miles in 58:55, an average pace of 7:58/mi. My mile splits were 8:16, 7:55, 7:50, 8:28, 8:12, 8:07, 7:14, and 2:54 for the last 0.4 (7:18/mi). I think I maintained a pretty consistent effort throughout the run, pushing a little harder the last mile or so. I think you can tell which miles were uphill with a headwind.

We recently watched "Hello, Dolly!" with our kids and the music from the song "Dancing" kept going through my head this morning..."And one two three, one two three, one two three. Look I'm dancing!" This kept me moving along. Other lyrics include: "Well my heart is about to burst, My head is about to pop, And now that I'm dancing who cares if I ever stop!" and "Whatever you do for gosh shakes keep breathing!" and "One-two-three. One-two-three. One-two. And now that we're dancing, Who cares if we ever stop." It may be a little dated, but this is a high energy song that I may add to my old running song favorites "Theme from Rocky" and "Chariots of Fire".

I was expecting the big hills of the water tank road this morning, but Larry had decided he wanted to do some speed work at the track, which consisted of 4 - 1/2 mile intervals with 1/4 mile rest in between. My times for the 1/2 mile intervals were 3:05, 3:17, 3:16, and 3:04. After the first interval I realized I had gone too fast and wouldn't be able to hold that for all four. Larry also reminded me that the last interval would have to be my fastest (a goal we have). I ran the second and third intervals at a saner pace, hoping I would have enough left to beat 3:05 on the last interval. As you can see, I barely made it.

This wasn't the workout I had planned for this morning, and I'm not sure how much benefit I got from it, but it was fun. That should count for something. The old neighborhood group (of which Larry and I are currently the only active runners) had the tradition of doing these track intervals once a week during the summer/fall for many years, gradually moving from 4 to 8 repeats and trying to get faster each week, but the tradition has died over the past couple of years. I like doing them because the slower and faster runners can all get a good workout and still be with each other a lot of the time (warm up, rest periods, and cool down).

I should mention that Wayne doesn't live in our neighborhood, but has recently been coming on Tuesdays and Thursdays to run with Larry and me. This was his first experience with these intervals. He didn't know what to expect and I'm not sure he had as much fun as I did.

I ran Lake View with Tom at noon. It was hot, humid, and smoky. I don't get to run with Tom much or I might not have gone out at all. I didn't feel like going very fast and I felt like we were doing 9:00 miles, but we ended up averaging 7:57/mi overall, 8:08/mi out and 7:46/mi back.

I ran the Lindon loop with Larry and Wayne at an easy pace. It seemed pretty humid this morning. At mile 3 I decided to insert a little fartlek and ran 0.75 miles @ 6:29/mi. I also ran the last 0.4 @ 7:31/mi. Overall, I ran 6.15 miles in 54:00 (8:47/mi), but this included stopping a few times to make sure Larry's dog Ozzie was staying with us.

As we sometimes do, we took a detour to see some point of interest. This morning we ran past Wayne's daughter's new house where Larry's crew had recently installed the sprinkler system. I enjoy runs when there's more to the run than just running.

I ran up Provo Canyon with Larry and Wayne. We left home at 5:30am and started up the canyon about 5:45am. I'm sure glad we did. The weather was great for most of the run but was getting into the upper 70's by the time we finished.

We didn't see many runners on the way up, but shortly after we passed Bridal Veil Falls an old guy (probably about our age) passed us. Wayne and I looked at each other and it didn't take us long to decide to leave Larry (his toes and hip have been bothering him, he's going to the doctor on Tuesday) and go get this guy. There was a pretty strong head wind this morning, and our mile splits up to that point had been pretty slow: 9:48, 9:18, 9:36, 9:54. We ended up catching and passing him pretty easily. The next mile was 8:30 followed by 5:32 for the last 0.77 (7:13/mi) into Vivian Park.

Larry turned back at this point and Wayne and I continued on up South Fork until we got to 8 miles, about a mile past South Fork Park. Our mile splits were 9:23, 8:42, and 1:48 for 0.25 (7:19/mi). Given the steepness of the hills, I feel okay about those times. We were working pretty hard.

Back down to Vivian our splits were 7:48, 5:10, and 2:55 for 0.22 (13:28/mi). Does anyone else suspect a GPS glitch here? If you add the times and divide by the distance I think the resulting average pace of 7:09/mi is closer to what we actually ran.

We stopped for water twice on the way back down from Vivian. It was starting to get warm, and we were getting tired. The mile splits were 7:45, 7:20, 7:21, 1:08 for 0.16 (6:57/mi), 7:13, 5:10 for 0.72 (7:12/mi), and 6:13 for 0.88 (7:02/mi).

After the first 4.5 easy miles (when we couldn't let the "old guy" pass us) we pushed the rest of the run pretty hard. After averaging 9:39/mi for the first 4 miles, we averaged 7:40/mi for the last 12 miles, nearly two minutes per mile faster.The total run was 16.0 miles in 2:10:38 (8:10/mi).

Maybe the best part of this run was actually seeing Wayne get tired. I saw him tired at the end of the Hobble Creek Half last year, but I've never seen him this tired during a training run before. I guess he really is mortal.

Boy, it sure seemed warm this morning, even though I started my run at 5:21am instead of the normal 5:45am. I also had a really hard time getting my legs moving this morning. I ran alone up into Lindon and then back along the canal road. It took me 3 miles before I could get under a 10:00 pace. Of course, the first 3 miles were mostly uphill, but even coming back along the canal road I struggled to barely get under a 9:00 pace. I ran 6.2 miles overall, average pace 9:31/mi. I'm pretty sure I was still feeling the effects of the long hard run with Wayne on Saturday. I could feel it in my legs all weekend. I don't know how else to explain averaging 8:10/mi for 16 miles (7:40/mi for 12 of those miles) on Saturday and then struggling to average 9:30/mi this morning.

At lunch time I decided to try running again. I wasn't sure if anyone else would be running today, and they weren't. I ended up running Eagles View alone. I ran the 5 miles in 42:45 (8:33/mi average; 8:52/mi up, 8:14/mi back). It wasn't quite as hot as some recent days (upper 80's instead of 90's), and a little overcast, but it was still plenty hot. My pace during this run was about a minute per mile faster than this morning, but still not very fast.

I like to think of days like today as mental conditioning days. It's hot, there's nobody to run with, my legs are tired and my mind and body are trying very hard to convince me not to run. When the runner in me wins out and I run anyway (which isn't always the case) I think it builds a mental strength and endurance that shows itself in other areas of my life when things get hard. I was just telling my sister-in-law (who is staying with us this week) this morning as we were talking about running, that I have an imaginary chalkboard in my mind. Every time I want to quit (slow down, stop, not run), and I don't, I put an imaginary tally mark on the "I Won" side of the board. It's silly I know, especially since I can't ever remember putting a tally mark on the "I Lost" side of the board. Maybe that's why it is so helpful to my confidence and self-esteem. In my mind's eye I have various tally marks on the "I Won" side, and few if any marks on the "I Lost" side. Even though I ran slow today, I did get out twice and finished the runs, and earned a couple of new tally marks.

We went to the track again this morning. Kent actually came this morning when he heard we were going to the track. He hasn't run at all since the St. George marathon last year, but he loves the track workout so he came. It was Wayne's first time at the track last week and he was back for more. I'm not convinced it helps as much as a good tempo run, but I do enjoy it, too, and it's a nice break from the routine. We haven't had four runners out together in the morning for a long time. Actually, Larry's wife Jolene came along but didn't do the intervals with us. Having some company today sure beat running alone yesterday.

We only did four 1/2 mile intervals again this morning, but will start adding more. My times were 3:02, 3:09, 3:17, and 3:00. After struggling to get my legs moving yesterday, it felt good to be able to move along at a faster pace.

I wasn't sure whether to log this run for yesterday or today, but since it was just after midnight, I'll log it for today. I was up late last night and just before I was going to go to bed I heard our wind chimes on the front porch. I stepped out. The wind was blowing strongly through the trees and blowing a light mist from our sprinklers. The night seemed to be calling to me and I got the urge to go for a midnight run. Karen was up late with her sister who is staying with us, and I wasn't really sleepy (I had a brief nap after dinner), so I headed out.

I decided to head to the high school track to reduce the danger of getting hit by traffic or stepping on something in the dark. There was a light near one end of the track, and it was just light enough to make out the white lines against the black track on the dark end of the track. On the way over I had enjoyed listening to the wind and the crickets. The sprinklers were on in the center of the track so that's what I heard there, and some pennants flapping in the wind. The wind and the mist from the sprinklers kept things relatively cool, but it was still a little warm. I only got one direct hit from the sprinklers near the end, and it felt good.

I decided on a 3 or 4 mile tempo run at the track. During the third mile I decided to go four. I was hoping for mile splits between 7:00 and 7:15, and felt like I ran close to that level of effort, but I think the strong wind hampered my efforts (even though I know it was helping me half the time since I was running in a circle). Actually, my Garmin said I was running between 6:50/mi and 7:10/mi, but it also registered around 1.08 miles per 1600 meters, and its really only 0.994 miles. My 1600 meter splits were 7:34, 7:42, 7:39, 7:18.

I enjoyed the run, and I enjoyed sleeping in a little this morning.

At noon I ran Lake View with Tom. I guess we sort of ran with Will and his buddy. We started at the same time but they stayed in front of us until they took a detour to the fountain at the park (Tom and I were both packing water), and then I guess they headed back. We didn't see them again until we got back to the fitness center. They were already inside stretching.

Neither Tom nor I felt like going very fast. It was hot with the temperature in the mid-90's. We still managed to finish the 5.2 miles in 41:54 (8:03/mi). I'm not sure I enjoyed the running all that much, but it was nice talking with Tom as we ran.

Ran the water tank road with Larry and Wayne. Wayne pushed pretty hard today. I've put in a few extra miles this week and my legs didn't feel up to it so I didn't go with him. It still required some pretty good effort. It's never easy going up those hills. It was warm this morning so the cool breeze at the top was a nice reward.

I ran up Provo Canyon with Wayne this morning. Larry dressed to run and met us but his toes were really hurting so he decided not to do the long run today. Tuesday his doctor diagnosed his condition as Morton's neuroma. I hope he can recover quickly.

Wayne's newer Garmin measured our distance as 12.3 miles. Mine only registered 12.09 miles and warned about a poor GPS signal quite a bit this morning. We ran it in 1:40:24 (8:09/mi by Wayne's watch, 8:18/mi by mine). Splits up were 9:06, 8:30, 8:38, 8:46, 8:23, 8:17, and 1:18 for 0.17 mi (7:35/mi). Splits down were 2:40 for 0.22 (12:04), 8:39, 8:24, 7:45, 0:47 for 0.10 (7:38/mi), 7:45, 7:20, 4:03 for 0.59 (6:52/mi). As I mention, the GPS was a little flaky on some of these numbers.

Neither Wayne nor I felt much like pushing as hard this week as we did last week. Even though we were slower than last week, we were both actually a little surprised that we ran as fast as we did and were quite satisfied with the run. We started running at 5:45am, and the best part may have been that it never really got hot before we finished.

I ran an extended Lindon loop this morning, going into P.G. a ways and adding a loop at the end, making it 8 miles instead of just over 6. I ran it in 1:05:50 (8:13/mi). My splits were 9:24, 7:57, 8:07, 7:28, 8:30, 8:41, 7:43, and 7:57. I maintained a pretty steady effort. The faster splits were downhill miles, the slower ones uphill. I didn't feel like I had a lot of energy this morning but tried to maintain my effort level anyway. Whenever I felt myself dragging a little I would accelerate for 5 to 10 seconds then drop back a little and try to maintain a slightly faster pace than I had been. It seemed to help.

I was half tempted to go run the Speedy Spaniard 10K this morning. Instead I settled for running my own 10K. It was cheaper and there was no travel time. I warmed up over to the start of the neighborhood 5K course and then ran the course twice.

I tried to hold a pretty good pace, but not race pace. At 7:40/mi, it was more of a fast marathon pace for me. The course is basically downhill, flat, then uphill and ends where it starts. My (rough) splits were 7:13, 7:50, 7:50, 7:25, 7:41, 8:03.
 

We camped at the Lagoon Campground last night in preparation for our Novell day at Lagoon. We have an old 1985 trailer I bought from my neighbor years ago and that we have used very little. It lacks an air conditioner, but with slightly cooler temperatures and a good fan we slept pretty well.

There is a jogging/bike trail that passes right next to the campground. I asked the camp staff about it and they said they thought it went 4 or 5 miles up to the canyon. I followed it towards Lagoon and entered the "Lagoon Trail" which passes behind the park. I saw some buffalo and elk and went passed the loading area for Rattle Snake Rapids. I was a little disappointed when I got a 1/2 mile up the trail and it came out onto a city street and apparently ended. I couldn't find anywhere that it continued so I turned back. Once I got back to the campground I followed the trail the other direction...for maybe 1/4 mile until it also came out onto State St. and apparently ended. I may have missed the trail continuation on either end but, if not, this is a pretty short trail. Anyway, I continued following State St. for a while and then turned back.

All in all it was a pretty enjoyable run, although I didn't push very hard. I knew I had a full day of walking around the amusement park ahead of me. I ended up running 5.1 miles at an average pace of 9:11/mi. 

We left Lagoon a little early because of rain. We went back to the trailer and stayed up late playing games, watching a movie, and eating Jiffy Pop popcorn. It was a lot of fun, but I wimped out in the morning and slept in before enjoying breakfast with my family then loading up and checking out by 11:00am.

We actually only had our two youngest daughters (9 and 11) with us at Lagoon. Our 18, 20, and 22 year old children were too old to be interested in going to Lagoon (and one of them is in Florida this week). Our 15 year old daughter is at EFY at UNLV. We're driving to Las Vegas on Friday (tomorrow) to pick up her and her friend early on Saturday morning and bring them home. We're dropping our two youngest at my parents in Nephi on the way down for an overnighter with Grandma and Grandpa and will pick them up on the way back home.

I plan to get a good run in tomorrow morning before we leave. We're supposed to pick our daughter up at 7:00 am on Saturday, so I don't know if I'll be able to squeeze a run in, definitely not a long run. I guess you'll never know, because "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas."

I didn't run yesterday and don't know how much time I'll have to run tomorrow so I did my long run today. I left at 5:45am and ran alone from my house up to Vivian Park in Provo Canyon and back.The weather was great. I actually got a little chilly (it felt good) early in the run with the headwind as I was heading up the canyon. I didn't hit sunshine until after mile 13 and it never did get really hot before the end of the run...only up to around 70.

I completed the 18.25 mile run in 2:43:23 (8:57/mi). This does not include a couple of bathroom stops, but does include a few quick water stops. I didn't take any gels on this run like I normally do, but still felt pretty strong at the end. The best part is that I don't seem to have any blisters, chafing, or other aches or pains to speak of, other than just tired legs.

My mile splits were 9:56, 9:00, 8:55, 9:04, 0.28 mi in 2:28 (8:54/mi), 9:07, 9:26, 9:44, 9:31, 0.97 mi in 8:51 (9:08/mi), 8:53, 8:20, 8:34, 8:47, 0.91 mi in 7:37 (8:21/mi), 8:32, 9:16, 8:53, 7:42, and 0.09 mi in 0:44 (8:08/mi).

With about a mile to go I noticed that my average pace to that point was 9:01. I decided I wanted to break a 9:00/mi average. Having already run 17 miles, I knew I might have to beat a 9:00 pace the last mile by at least 34 seconds to drop the average to 8:59. I had a pretty good downhill stretch and I managed to run 7:42/mi and drop the overall average to 8:57. I realize this is a snail's pace to many on this blog, and a few seconds doesn't make a big difference, but this little victory at the end of a long run still felt good to me.

I ran an extended Orem loop this morning, 8.26 miles in 1:09:19 (8:24/mi). Mile splits were 9:09, 8:53, 8:12, 7:56, 8:12, 8:40, 8:23, 7:56, 0.26 mi in 2:00 (7:50/mi). I miss my morning running buddies, but I guess running alone builds character...kind of like digging holes.

It was great to run with Nathan at noon today. Cory is backing off running to try and get his foot healed. He was in the fitness center and we missed him coming out with us. It was a nice day today, but it was a little hot with the temperature around 90'. I knew the pace would be pretty fast running with Nathan. We ran out together until the big hill and then Nathan easily pulled away. He waited at the top for me and we ran back together until the second overpass. From there he gradually pulled away and finished well ahead of me.

My watch (my everyday Timex Ironman, no Garmin today) fell out of my locker and reset when it hit the floor, so I don't have my exact time. I remember it being around 38:00 for the 5 miles (7:36/mi) so I'll just go with that.

I did some 1/2 mile repeats with Larry and Wayne this morning. I could tell right away it wasn't going to be a fast morning. My legs had no zip. My 1/2 mile splits were 3:20, 3:23, 3:20, 3:18, and 3:09.

I ran a loop that starts up the Orem Main St. hill then up the big hill on 2000 N and back down, then follows the road above Oak Canyon Jr. High then down and around through Lindon and back up 1600 N in Orem. This is the old 6 mile loop we used to regularly do on Tuesdays, but I extended it in a few places to see if I could squeeze an extra mile out of it. I ended up hitting 7 miles right back in my neighborhood.

I ran the 7 miles in 1:00:50 (8:41/mi). Mile splits were 11:19, 9:18, 7:21, 8:06, 8:17, 8:29, and 7:57. I ran an easy yet steady pace. I was thinking of Sasha's recent comment on Tom's blog that easy runs should be easy.

At noon I ran the Lake View route with Tom. I thought it might be a little cooler than recent weeks, and maybe it was, but it sure seemed pretty hot. Both of us had run in the morning and neither of us was interested in pushing too hard. We still averaged 8:00/mi for the 5.2 miles. We both commented on how we seem to run faster at noon with the Novell guys than we do in the mornings. I think we both kind of felt like we were running closer to a 9:00 pace and were pleased that it was 8:00 instead. I really enjoy running with Tom. I'm going to miss him while he's in India.

I ran the water tank road with Larry and Wayne this morning. Before meeting up with them I ran a little over a mile to see if my foot was going to be up for the run up the big hills. I got a bit of a blister during Tuesday's run and the two runs yesterday aggravated it a little. I did some reading online yesterday and a few different sites mentioned the use of duct tape, both to prevent and to treat blisters. I tried it a little last night just walking around and it seemed to help, so I tried it again this morning for my run. It actually felt pretty good. Now I just need to do some reading on how to get the sticky off my feet. Oh well, live and learn.

I've been getting in some extra miles this week so I decided to take a break from running this morning and went and played basketball with my son Andrew and the morning crew again. It had been a long time since I had played. It was good seeing some old friends again. We played for about an hour and a half. I'm not sure why, but we score 1 point for a 2 point basket, 2 points for a 3 point basket, and we played 3 games to 21 (win by 2). We had 11 (only 1 sub) so we all got plenty of playing time. It was really a lot of fun. I even hit a few long shots. It was a nice cross-train break before the long run tomorrow.

What a great morning for a run! Seven of us started from the mouth of Provo Canyon around 6:00am: Nathan, Greg, and Ryan from the relay team, Larry and Wayne, and Michael Nelson, a former neighborhood runner. I ran with Nathan, Greg, Ryan, and Wayne up to Vivian Park. Ryan had to head back at that point. The rest of us continued up to South Fork Park. At 7.5 miles out Greg, Wayne, and I headed back down settling for a 15 mile run. Nathan continued on up. I believe his plan was for 20 miles.

On our way down South Fork we passed Sasha who was heading up. As Wayne and I were waiting for Larry and Michael on the bridge at the mouth of Provo Canyon we saw Sasha pass by again on his way south.

I ran the 15 miles in 2:01:00 (8:04/mi), not including three water stops and a bathroom break. There were so many runners up the canyon today that there was a line at every water stop.

 The GPS struggled getting a signal in spots on the way down, so the splits were a little off. Basically, most of the uphill miles were at around an 8:30 pace, the steeper hills at 9:00 or slower. The early downhill miles were around an 8:00 pace, speeding up to around 7:30 the last few miles. I pushed the last 3/4 miles at closer to a 6:30 pace.

The blister I've been nursing since I got it on Tuesday's run got a little worse today, but didn't really bother me until the last few miles. 

I intentionally slept in this morning to get a little more sleep. Even though I left a little later than usual, it still seemed a little cooler. It was also a little lighter. It was a beautiful morning for a run.

I ran down into Orem. As usual, there was a bit of a tail wind as I went south, which meant a bit of a head wind as I came back north. I ran 6.4 miles in 49:16 (7:42/mi). Mile splits were 8:34, 7:01, 7:49, 7:56, 7:43, 7:15, and 0.4 mi in 2:58 (7:22/mi).

This is faster than I normally run this course. I credit it to having watched "Chariots of Fire" last night. I ran my first two marathons, and my only sub-3 hour marathon, back in 1982, the year after this movie came out and won an Oscar for Best Picture in 1981. I ran many miles with the Theme from Chariots of Fire pulsing through my head. It is still my favorite running song. It was going through my head throughout my entire run this morning.

I've also been reading a book, based on a true story, called "Marathon", by W. William Winokur, that was published in January 2006. From http://www.helleniccomserve.com/bookmarathon.html :

"From the concrete canyons of lower Manhattan to the ruins of Ancient Greece, Marathon is a tour de force by a new voice in American fiction. In this impressive, multi-layered debut, based on a true story, W. William Winokur takes the reader on a journey that is at once historical, philosophical and spiritual in order to learn exactly what gives a life meaning. ... Framed by the story of Pheidippides’ celebrated run from Marathon to Athens, the novel is steeped in mythology and mystery. Winokur ponders the essential questions of life and death, the intersection of past and present, the struggle of duty versus passion, all while exploring one woman’s discovery of herself through ancient myths, lost journals, impossible loves, and timeless souls. ... Marathon is a richly imagined work that sets the conflict and intrigue of the ancient world against the reality of contemporary life. Compelling, thought provoking, and thoroughly engaging, Marathon is a powerful statement about the choices we make in life, and how to create a life worth living."

I'm only about halfway through it, but I'm finding it hard to put down. In fact, I slept in this morning because I was up so late reading it last night. If I stop blogging, maybe I can squeeze in a few chapters before I go to work.

I went to run with Nathan at lunch time today but I was late and he had already left. I went ahead and ran the Eagles View course alone. It was warm, but not as hot as it has been. I kept expecting to see Nathan on his way back but never did. I saw him in the fitness center after the run and he had taken a different course and gone a little longer than normal. I ran the normal 5 miles in 39:57 (7:59/mi). Not my fastest run, but on that run I feel good about anything under 40:00.

After a mile or so of warm up over to the track, Larry, Wayne and I did 3x1 mile repeats, with a 1/4 mile rest in between. My times were 6:48, 6:56, and 6:36. I feel pretty good about the times, although the consistency could be better, but my focus was on my form, trying to run efficiently.

I felt like I was running pretty smoothly, but it must not have been too impressive. There were two groups of cheerleaders, one on each side of the track, and I even knew one of the girls in each group and we greeted each other, but still our athletic prowess didn't elicit a single cheer out of either group. Actually, on one lap I think Larry did ask Stephanie for a cheer and she said something like, "Way to go, Larry, you're doing good." We figured they were saving their enthusiastic cheering for the young bucks...potential dating partners. Come to think of it, I can't remember ever hearing any good running cheers. Maybe something like "Kick again! Kick again! !Harder! Harder!" or "Larry, Larry, he's our man! If he can't hold his pace to the end, no one can!"

The weather was great and it was another enjoyable morning running with Larry and Wayne. 

It was a great morning for a run. Like Monday, I slept in a little (yes, I was up late reading "Marathon") so it was light and beautiful as I headed out. For some reason I decided to run towards the mouth of Provo Canyon and then down Palisades. It was just short of 4 miles to Center Street. I wanted to go 8 miles total, so I made up the distance looping through some side neighborhoods on the way back. It's gradual uphill to the golf course then downhill to Center Street. I ran the same route down and back. I really enjoyed it and will probably use it again.

I ran 8.1 miles in 1:09:21 (8:34/mi). Mile splits were 9:04/mi (for 3 miles), 8:05, 8:49, 8:38, 7:55, and 7:49.

At noon I did the traditional Lake View run. With Tom in India, and no Cory or Nathan, I thought I might have to run alone, but Will and Russ were leaving later than usual so I ran with them. Russ had to get back for something so he turned around at the church. Will and I had a very enjoyable run together. We stayed conversational the entire run and still managed to finished the 5.2 miles in 38:40 (7:26/mi).

 

I went to meet Larry and Wayne this morning but neither of them were there. I think Wayne might be tapering for the Provo River Half Marathon this Saturday. I saw Larry's wife Jolene heading out for her walk with Denise. She had left Larry at home thinking it was a biking morning for him, when he normally leaves later. She said he was moving pretty slowly this morning and may have fallen back to sleep. I went over and rang the bell, waited, then knocked and waited some more. I figured if he was that tired I'd just let him sleep so I headed out alone.

I ran the water tank road like we have been doing on Thursdays, but when I got to the top instead of turning around I continued on the dirt road for another 1.25 miles or so until the Garmin got to 4 miles. I then turned around and headed back. It was another beautiful morning, and I enjoyed the run, but some companionship would have been nice.

Even though I went a little farther than normal, my pace must definitely be rated as easy. I only averaged a 10:12/mi pace for the 8.1 miles. Sure, there were quite a few hills, but my legs just had no zip. I pushed pretty hard yesterday, and with the extra miles I've been trying to get in, the legs only had an easy run in them today.

Basketball with Andrew and the morning bunch. Once again, it was a nice mental and physical break from all the running, and a social opportunity to keep in touch with my basketball buddies.

Larry and I ran to the summit of Mt. Timpanogos and back this morning. It's been something I've been wanting to do for a long time, and I wasn't disappointed.

We left Larry's house around 4:50am. Even that early the parking lot at the Timpanooke trail head was full. Apparently a lot of people hike up to watch the sunrise from the top. We had to park about a half mile away.

We started from the Timpanooke trail head at 5:45am. It was still dark so we used head lamps for the first couple of miles. This was only my second time up, and the first was 25 years ago, so I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. We chose (wisely, I think) to only run where the trail was not too steep and not too rocky. We ran most of the way back down, walking when it was prudent.

The weather was cool and comfortable clear up until we reached the saddle. The wind was really strong from there on up to the summit. We were just wearing our running shorts and a t-shirt, and got pretty cold. Our hands were so cold it was difficult to write our names in the register at the summit. We had both taken our cell phones and called our wives from the shack at the summit. After drinking a little and eating some of the homemade energy bar Larry's wife Jolene had sent along (it was awesome!) we started back down. Going up from the saddle to the summit was pretty challenging, but coming down that section was even tougher I think, especially being cold with numb hands. Once we got back down to the saddle and beyond the sun hit us and the wind died down and conditions became perfect. I thoroughly enjoyed the run back down.

Everyone we saw along the trail was very friendly. They stepped off the trail to let us pass, and said kind words about our efforts. Most of them were college-age kids. One girl said we were her heroes. Others told us we were crazy. A couple of girls in one group gave us high fives as we passed. As we approached one large group I was a little ahead of Larry, who they couldn't see yet. The conversation was something like this: Seeing me coming running, one of the boys said, "Something must be chasing him!" I said, "Yeah, that guy behind me won't stop chasing me. Tackle him!", as I ran past. Larry heard this as he approached them and said, "Stop that man! He stole my wallet!" The kids knew we were joking and got a pretty good laugh out of it.

The wildflowers were beautiful, in reds, yellows, and purples. The sky was clear and blue and the meadows, plants, and trees were green. It starting getting warm near the end, but there was a nice breeze. Even the brooks were babbling about how beautiful it was. We saw various chipmunks and other small animals, one that looked like a guinea pig. As we came running around one bend there was a deer standing near where the path curved in almost a full circle. We expected her to bolt, but she just stood there about 20 feet away looking at us as we ran around her. We slowed to a stop and I began to ask her if she was having a nice day. I think she got nervous about us stopping and she went off into the trees.

The Sojourners Running Club was running Timp today. We had a bit of a head start on them and only three of them passed us. The third guy that passed us said the two in front of him were both sub-2:30 marathon guys, so we didn't feel too bad about them passing us. On our way down from the summit, near the saddle, we came across a group of them. Larry knows Cheryl Harper and talked to her for a bit. She said she had snacks in her van at the bottom and told us where the keys were. When we got down we both enjoyed some Nutter Butter cookies from her van, and Larry had some grapefruit juice from the cooler.

It took us 2:52:16 to reach the summit, and the return trip took 2:19:40, for a total of 5:11:56. My GPS was unreliable, but the Sojourner's web site says "9 miles to the top (18 total but probably worth 20 or more!)"

Larry stubbed his toes on some rocks and hurt his big toe on his left foot, but other than that we both thoroughly enjoyed the run. It was awesome!

After Saturday's run up Mt. Timpanogos, this morning's run wasn't much more than a "loosen up my legs" run. I can feel a little soreness in my quads, but surprisingly I feel pretty good. I only averaged a 9:11 pace this morning, but the first mile was 10:54, so I did gradually speed up as my legs loosened up.

At lunch time, I ended up running alone again. It was probably a good thing. I wouldn't have been able to keep up. My quads still felt a little sore, especially as I started the downhill halfway through. My legs didn't have much zip in them. I ran the 5 miles in 41:55 (8:23/mi = 8:48/mi up, 8:00/mi down).

Larry committed to help Kent pour concrete at 6am this morning, so Wayne and I skipped going to the track and ran the Lindon loop instead. I was up early so I ran 1.3 easy miles before meeting up with Wayne. I felt fine during the 1.3 miles and the first mile with Wayne, but then I started feeling some tightness and a little pain on the backside of my right knee. My legs have been a little tired from the long run up Timp on Saturday, but generally they've been feeling really good lately. I'm not sure what triggered this pain today. I didn't run hard yesterday, and we weren't pushing the pace very hard this morning. In addition to my quads being a little sore from Saturday, I also felt a little tightness in my right calf. Maybe running the steep Eagles View hill yesterday stressed the already fatigued calf causing it to tighten up into my knee. I may have also bumped my mileage up too quickly over the past couple of weeks. I think I'm going to have to back off a little until I can figure out what's up with this pain I felt this morning. Bummer! I was feeling so good about how my running was going. At least I still have some time before St. George.

I ran the 20-miler from Trefoil to the lake this morning with Larry, Wayne, and Nathan. It was overcast with a light rain falling for most of the run. It was nice not having the hot sun bearing down on us, but by the end of the run I was so wet water was dripping off my shorts.

We all ran together until Nunn's Park, then Nathan and Wayne gradually pulled away never to be seen again until the end. When Larry and I stopped at Will's Pit Stop, Larry convinced me to try to catch up to Nathan and Wayne. I averaged 8:00-8:15/mi for the next four to five miles but then I started to feel the pain behind my right knee again so I backed off and ran the last couple of miles quite slowly. It didn't hurt at all at the slower pace, and wasn't really hurting too badly at the quicker pace, I just didn't want to risk aggravating it.

All in all it was a good run. I finished in under 3 hours and had pretty good energy throughout.

I ran the Lake View course instead of the normal Eagles View course today. I think running the steep Eagles View hill last Monday after running Timp the previous Saturday (after two consecutive weeks of increased mileage) contributed to the minor calf strain that presented itself last Tuesday, and that let me know at about mile 18 this past Saturday that it wasn't completely healed. So, today I decided to skip the morning run and do the flatter Lake View run instead of Eagles View at lunch time. I want my legs to be as well rested and healed as they can be for the Hobble Creek Half Marathon this Saturday.

I decided to run a quick marathon pace today, which meant I tried to maintain good form and rhythm and push the pace a little, but not too hard. I finished the 5.2 miles in 40:22 (7:46/mi). I went out in 20:36 (7:55/mi) and back in 19:45 (7:36/mi). I felt pretty comfortable the whole run. I did feel a little tightness in my right calf, and a little soreness in my left ankle and left achilles tendon. None of these seem very serious, but I think I'll try not to overdue it this week and lean away from training hard and towards tapering for the half marathon Saturday.

I ran 1:32 last year at Hobble Creek and finished 14th in my division and 135th overall. My goal this year is to meet or beat Cory's performance last year. He finished in 1:29, 10th in our division and 99th overall. My goal is to break 1:30 and finish in the top 10 in my division and in the top 100 overall.

I ran 6 easy miles through Lindon with Larry and Wayne this morning. It was a little dark. When it's dark I'm always afraid of stepping on unseen objects or holes in the road. I've done it too many times. It may be time to move all of our early morning runs back to Orem's well-lit streets again. Dang! I'm going to miss the light in the mornings.

I went with Larry this morning over to the THS track. He wanted to try a couple of quick miles this morning prior to the half marathon this Saturday. His neuroma has hampered his training this year, but he's hanging in there.

After we warmed up for a mile or so I ran the first mile with him. I missed starting my watch but I think it was pretty close to 7:51. When he stopped to rest before his second mile I kept going for two more miles, both at exactly 7:01. They felt pretty good. I didn't feel like I was pushing too hard. I was wearing my lighter shoes that I plan to wear Saturday. They are getting old, but still felt pretty good. I'm looking forward to the half marathon on Saturday. It will be fun finding out where I am in my training. I hope I'm not disappointed.

Nathan and I ran the Lake View course at lunch time. We're both running the Hobble Creek half marathon in a couple of days so we took it at an easy conversational pace. The weather was cooler than it has been and was quite enjoyable. We averaged 7:55/mi for the 5.2 miles. I felt like it was closer to an 8:30 pace, and was pleasantly surprised that it was 7:55. That's about the pace for a 3:27 marathon. I felt like it was an "easy marathon pace" effort, so I'm encouraged that my St. George marathon goal of 3:20 may be within reach. But I guess I need to take it "one game at a time" and not look past Hobble Creek. I'm looking forward to it.

I ran the Hobble Creek Half Marathon this morning. I picked up Doug Eddy around 5:40 and we got an a bus a little after 6:00. I was a little concerned when the bus driver asked, "Does anybody know where we're going?" He was planning to just follow the other busses but the ones in front of him had all left. With some directions from us runners he made it up the canyon just fine.

After unloading from the bus, Doug and I decided to jog up the 3/4 mile or so to the start. One purpose was to loosen up our legs, the other was to make sure I had time to use a portapotty. It turns out we needn't have worried about the portapotty. I made it in time to get to the start line before the starting time, but the race ended up starting about 35 minutes late. The rumors were that a few of the scheduled buses didn't show up so they had to send some of the earlier buses back for a second trip.

I found Nathan near the start. Wayne was on one of the late busses and we all started together. We had what we thought was a good spot near the starting line, but with all the late arrivals a number of slower runners clogged the area a bit. With a little darting and weaving I eventually got through the congestion. Nathan joined me shortly. I guess Wayne chose not to follow us. I never saw him again until after the race.

Nathan and I were planning/hoping to average about a 6:30 pace for the first 6 downhill miles. Along the way Michael Nelson (a former neighbor of mine in his 20's) caught us and ran with us until the water station at mile 6 1/2. At that point he pulled away and ended up finishing in 1:25.

I noticed a short young woman in blue shorts ahead of us, as well as a runner that looked like Rich Lamereaux (basketball player from my stake, we both stayed in Kent Gassman's in-law's home in Cape Cod for the Boston Marathon this year), but I wasn't sure it was him.

Three times I passed the young woman in the blue shorts, and three times she passed me back. She ended up finishing just ahead of me.

We caught Rich when he stopped for water (at 6 1/2 I think). He caught back up and eventually pulled ahead a little, but I would always catch back up when he stopped for water. I kicked and caught him at mile 13, but when I shouted "Come on, Rich" he did, and pulled away at the end.

At mile 8, there was a water station just before the mile marker. Rich was a little ahead of Nathan and me. He took a cup of water but didn't stop to drink it until he had pushed his watch at the mile marker. He stopped pretty suddenly right at the point where we turn off the road onto the jogging path. I nearly collided with him, and Nathan did. The collision popped one of the pins on Nathan's Garmin so it was only hanging on the wrist band on one side. I had a velcro pocket so I put the loose pin in it for safe keeping. I offered to carry the Garmin in the large pocket on the back of my Race Ready shorts. Nathan initially declined, but eventually took me up on my offer. The watch must have been holding him back because shortly thereafter he starting pulling away and ended up finishing in 1:26.

The official clock said I finished in 1:28:03, but my watch said 1:27:02. My goals were to run sub-1:30, finish in the top 10 in my age division, and in the top 100 overall. I haven't seen official results yet, but I think I achieved all three goals. (1) Whether my time was 1:27 or 1:28, it was a new PR (was 1:29) and I beat 1:30. (2) I was very surprised when they called my name as the 3rd Place finisher in the Male 45-49 division. I was only 14th last year. (3) As for finishing in the top 100, I got an Elite 100 medal for finishing in the top 100 men. Wayne finished in 1:31 and he said they told him he was the 65th male runner to finish. I figure there's a good chance I was in the top 100 overall (including women). I'm thrilled with my performance. I think I prepared for and managed the race well. It was tough near the end, but I hung in there. I felt light headed a couple of times just after I finished, so I must have given just about all I had.

My mile splits were:

Mile 1 - 6:37
Mile 2 - 6:20
Mile 3-4 - 12:34 (6:17/mi)
Mile 5 - 6:28
Mile 6 - 6:20
Mile 7 - 6:33
Mile 8 - 6:30
Mile 9 - 6:44
Mile 10 - 6:59
Mile 11 - 7:14
Mile 12 - 7:10
Mile 13 - 6:53
Mile 13.1 - 0:41
Overall - 1:27:02

There don't seem to be any anomalies in my splits, so I'm going to claim a time of 1:27, instead of the 1:28:03 I saw on the finish line clock.

Even though the race was late starting, and we were all worried about it getting too hot, I never really felt too hot. We were in the sun more than we would have been had the race started on time, but even in the sun I felt a cool breeze for most of the race. It was a beautiful day, on a beautiful course. I had a good performance and was able to share it with good friends. It was awesome!

(Tom - Running on a treadmill in a hot, humid hotel fitness room in India might top this experience...but somehow I doubt it. Welcome back home!)

Man, have my calves been tight and sore since the Hobble Creek half marathon on Saturday. I've been massaging them with The Stick, which has helped a little. I skipped my normal run this morning and ran at noon. I hoped walking around during the morning would loosen them up a little.

I ran (jogged) the Lake View course alone. It was a little warm, and I had to make an unplanned bio-stop at the park, but overall it was a pretty enjoyable run. My legs started out pretty stiff, but loosened up some during the run. I didn't set any speed records. I averaged a little over 9:30/mi out and around 9:00/mi back.

I did an easy run with Larry and Wayne this morning. I got confused on which course we were running and contributed to our turning at the wrong corner, resulting in us getting back to the neighborhood after only 4 miles instead of 6. We're all still recovering from Hobble Creek, so no one complained too much. My legs were feeling a little better but the right calf was still a little tight. I may go out again later today if my legs feel up to it.

I ran the Lake View course with Nathan at noon today. It was pretty warm, and I didn't feel like I wanted to run very fast, but it ended up being a pretty good run. We ran the 5.2 miles in 39:30 (7:36/mi), out in 20:37 (7:56/mi) and back in 18:54 (7:16/mi).

Larry, Wayne and I ran the big hill up 2000 N this morning. It was the first time I remember it feeling cool in the morning for a long time. There was a light rain as I walked to the corner. This was another easy pace run. My legs actually felt pretty good this morning, and I was tempted to do a couple of speedy fartleks, but I resisted the urge. I didn't want to risk pulling something for no good reason, and I'm still focusing on getting my legs recovered and ready for the 20-miler Saturday.

I ran up Provo Canyon with Kerry, Tom, Will, Wayne and Larry. A young woman named Sheena missed the Sojourners group that was running Hope to Hobble, so Will invited her to run with us. I think she was 24. My daughter is 22, and I couldn't imagine her hooking up with a group of six old men she didn't know for a 20 mile run. Half of us were more than twice her age. Sheena must be a good judge of character, because she couldn't have picked a better bunch of old guys to run with.

Larry didn't want to run the steeper run up to Trefoil so he and Wayne headed up to Deer Creek from Vivian Park. Sheena decided to go with them. Tom wasn't going 20 so he turned back at Vivian. Kerry, Will, and I continued on up South Fork. We ran together until Kerry and I stopped for water and Will continued on (he had to get back). We met up with Will again at the awesome water fountain 3/4 mile from the bottom. He was having some knee trouble which had slowed him down. We drank deeply, multiple times, from the fountain. It runs continuously, supplying delicious cool mountain water.

The weather and the canyons were beautiful, and the company was excellent. I really enjoyed the run, and finished the 20 miles feeling pretty good. I did feel a little tightness in my right calf near the end, but I don't think it is anything serious, probably just a carryover from the fast half marathon the previous weekend.

We finished in around 3:02, just over 9:00/mi average. It wasn't a PR for the course, but it was a pretty good run.

I slept in a little because of the holiday, and didn't leave until 7:25am. I'm considering running the Spanish Fork half marathon this Saturday. Kerry is planning to run it as a long threshold pace training run and I'm inclined to join him. Kerry is thinking about running about a 7:30 pace, so I thought I'd see what that felt like this morning.

I wanted to run a fairly level course, without stoplights or intersections to get in the way, so I decided to run on the canal road. I decided to warm up for a mile, run 3 miles at around a 7:30 pace, then run another 6 miles at an easy pace.

As usual, I started the first fast mile too fast. My splits for those 3 miles were 7:16, 7:33, and 7:31 (average 7:27/mi). The next 6 miles were 8:45, 8:59, 8:29, 8:47, 8:36, and 7:59 (average 8:36/mi). I could have pushed the fast miles faster, but I knew I had 6 miles to go afterward. I ran those 6 miles at an "easy" pace, but they weren't all that easy. I may have still been feeling some effects from the 20 mile run on Saturday. Still, it felt good to work and I enjoyed the run.

I'm glad I didn't start any later than I did. It felt good most of the run, and it was nice not starting in the dark, but it was starting to get pretty warm the last few miles.

I ran some hills and some easy miles with Larry and Wayne this morning. We worked our way uphill until we eventually went up to the top of 2000 N. We then came back down and looped around Lindon.

I ran the Lake View course with Tom at noon. I didn't run this morning like I normally do so I went down early and got in three miles on the treadmill before Tom showed up. As I recall, the first mile was a little over 9:00 and the next two were sub-8:00, around 7:45 I think.

I was hoping that moving outside to run with Tom would be more comfortable, but it was warm and humid and not really very pleasant weather-wise. Running with Tom made it bearable, enjoyable even. I had us finishing the 5.2 miles in 41:57 (8:04/mi), 21:24 (8:14/mi) out, 20:33 (7:54/mi) back.

I got out a little early this morning and got in 2.25 easy miles before meeting up with Larry and Wayne. The weather was cooler this morning. It's about time! I especially enjoyed it after yesterday's warm and muggy noon run, although it was still muggy this morning. When we finished there was water literally dripping off the brim of my hat, and it hadn't rained at all.

After I met up with Larry and Wayne we ran the water tank road. After hill three I pushed ahead and pushed the last two hills pretty hard. We took it easy coming down as it was still kind of dark and we couldn't see the rocks on the road very well. When we got to 400 East on 1600 North I decided to try some speed down that perfect downhill half mile to Main, which is just before we turn into our neighborhood and end. I averaged 5:59/mi for that stretch. It always feels good for me to get under a 6:00 pace, even if it is only for a half mile on a perfect downhill. I felt strong and comfortable running this morning.

I only wanted to go a few easy miles today. I was undecided between running the Spanish Fork Half Marathon or doing a long run with Larry and Wayne. Either way I didn't want to beat myself up too hard today. It was so nice at noon today, quite a bit cooler than it has been, that I decided to just do some laps on the sidewalk/trail around the greater Novell campus.

I didn't have my Garmin, but according the my measurements using Google maps it's roughly a 1.36 mile loop. I ran three loops plus about another 0.4 miles getting to and from the loop via Novell's main entrance. My time for the roughly 4.5 miles was 36:31 (8:07/mi). With the waterways, sleeping ducks (I think I counted 16 in one spot), grass, and trees along the loop, and the cooler temperatures, I really enjoyed the run.

 I've decided to do the long run with Larry and Wayne tomorrow. They are planning to run from Wasatch Mountain State Park in Midway, along the northwest side of Deer Creek, and down to the mouth of Provo Canyon (20+) miles. Mark and Michael Nelson, and maybe Curt Gassman, are planning to join them. Larry says Michael might be bailing out at Bridal Veil. I may do the same. We'll see. This should be a fun adventure. I've never run this route before. At least I'll be with good company.

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, I had been considering running the Spanish Fork half marathon, but when Kerry's plans changed that meant I would be running it alone, so I decided to do the long run Larry and Wayne were planning.

Wayne dropped his Jeep at the mouth of the canyon and Larry, Wayne, Kurt Gassman, and I rode up in Larry's truck to Wasatch Mountain State Park. Kent Gassman came along to drive Larry's truck back home so we wouldn't have to go back up and get it. We miss Kent running with us, but it was nice of him to help us out. We dropped some drinks at the head of the Deer Creek North Trail along the way. We also called Mark Nelson who lives in Midway so he could meet up with us. His son Michael ended up not coming along for the run.

We started running about 6:20am. It was still dark and the weather was cool but not cold. The weather was actually awesome the whole run. It was cool most of the time, and didn't ever get too warm.

I had never run on the Deer Creek North Trail before. I really enjoyed it. It is wide and in good condition. The Deer Creek Reservoir is really low as they have drained a lot of it so they can do some maintenance on the dam. Along the way we saw geese, cranes, deer, chipmunks, and some other large bird we couldn't identify. The mountains were beautiful, with many of the leaves beginning to turn red. As planned, Mark turned and headed back home before we reached the dam.

After we reached the dam and the end of the trail, things got interesting. With all the road construction going on around there, we ended up doing some running on new roads, old roads, torn up roads, railroad tracks, and up one short steep hill between roads. It was actually pretty fun. We finally reached Vivian Park and the familiar territory of the Provo River trail. The distance to this point was 16.75 miles.

Kurt's hip and knee had started to bother him earlier and, with him planning to run the Top of Utah marathon next weekend, he wisely decided to cut the run short. He called his dad (Kent) who was waiting for him when we reached Vivian.

As we ran from Vivian down the trail we saw many of the searchers that are still looking for Camille, the BYU co-ed who has been missing for over a week now. Near Timpanogos Park we were asked by volunteers (who ran along side us) if we had been up the canyon since the time of her disappearance. Since we ran up there last Saturday, we said yes and they asked for our names and phone numbers. It was hard to stop 21.5 miles into a 22.5 mile run, especially with the awesome continuously running fountain only 1/4 mile ahead, but I did (the young lady looked like she was getting tired) and gave her the information. When we reached the end of the run at the parking lot, there was a large group of orange-vested volunteers heading out. A few of them asked us again.

Just after the last fountain a young woman passed us, accompanied by another young woman on a bike. We couldn't let her pass us this close to the end (no one had all day) so picked up the pace. She asked if we were training for a marathon. She is training for her first marathon at St. George this year and asked for advice. This helped the last part of the run go by rather quickly and easily.

Overall, on a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give the run nearly a 10. Great company, beautiful weather, beautiful scenery. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and survived with only some tired muscles.

We finished the 22.5 miles in 3:38:44 (9:44/mi). This is almost 20 minutes longer than I plan to be running during the St. George marathon next month, so the marathon will be easier, right? It won't be harder to run a 7:40 pace for 26.2 miles than it was to run a 9:40 pace for 22.5 miles will it? It will? Ah, dang!

I ran 6.5 easy miles through the flat, well-lit streets of Orem this morning. Two downsides of running down into Orem are 1) crossing a couple of busy streets (800N and Center) and 2) the wind that always seems to be blowing out of Provo Canyon. The wind seemed especially strong this morning. It was also quite a bit cooler this morning, but I didn't mind that. I wore a long sleeve shirt (first time since spring) and the coolness was actually quite refreshing.

With Cory's bad foot and Tom running so many miles on Monday morning, the Monday noon run had basically been reduced to Nathan and me. I was excited today when Bill Rieske IM-ed me and asked to run with us. Then I ran into Darin in the locker room and he asked to run with us, too. I think Darin and Nathan had to hold back to stay with Bill and me, but it was a very enjoyable run as we conversed a lot and ran just over an 8:00 pace. The weather was very nice.

Wayne and I unexpectedly ended up on a "Follow the Larry" run this morning. We started by going up the big hill on 2000 N then coming back down and heading north into Lindon near the Jr. High like we often do. When we got to the hill we normally go down, Larry told us to keep going up the hill which dead ends a little farther up. Shortly after we started back Larry told us to take a left turn which led up a very long and very steep hill. It turns out he was really just kidding. He thought we knew about the big hill and would refuse. We didn't know, and didn't refuse. I think it was after we reached the top of the hill that he referred to it as the "Follow the Larry" run. He ended up combining portions of various runs and at the end of six miles we ended up back in the neighborhood. It was really kind of fun.

My legs felt surprisingly good this morning. I charged a couple of uphill sections and a couple of downhill sections (not very far each time) just because I felt like it. Granted, we weren't going very fast, and the "charges" were probably just getting up to marathon pace, but it was still fun.

I'm driving the high school car pool this week, so I got to drive my daughter and her two friends to the high school. Then Karen and I (and our golden retriever) walked my two youngest daughters to the elementary school. What a fun morning (honest...no sarcasm).

I love driving the car pool. I drove to the Jr. High for 10 consecutive years as my four oldest took their turns attending. Most years I drove everyday, some years I took turns driving with other parents. I've got a year off Jr. High to drive Sophomores to the high school this year, every third week. I'll return to the Jr. High drive next year for another 5 years for our two youngest. I've found driving my teenage kids to school is a great opportunity to get a glimpse into their social lives and get to know their friends. Sometimes I'm cool, and sometimes I just embarass my children, but at least I get to be a part of their lives just a tiny bit more.

At noon I decided to burn a little of that excess energy I felt in my legs this morning. I decided to run to Kuhni Road, where it is straight and flat, and do some "get a feel for what marathon pace feels like" miles. I've done this in previous years and found it beneficial for me. I run at marathon pace effort, not at my target marathon pace, but what I think marathon pace is going to feel like on race day. I do this without looking at my watch until the end of each mile. I then try analyze the results and see what I can draw from them.

Today I decided to run 4 miles at "marathon pace effort", with a mile warmup to get over to the road and a mile cool down to get back. My splits for the four "marathon pace effort" miles were 7:40, 8:03, 7:56, 7:59, and I averaged 8:12/mi overall for the six miles.

Now the analysis (rationalization?): My goal pace for a 3:20 marathon is 7:38/mi, so I was pleased with the first mile (7:40), but I knew that I tend to run the first mile faster in these sorts of runs, so I wasn't surprised by the remaining miles being slower (7:59/mi avg). Here are some reasons I'm still optimistic about the results:

1. This pace would still be a Boston qualifier (sub-3:30) and only a couple minutes off my PR.

2. I ran nearly 60 miles last week (high for me), including a 22.5 mile long run on Saturday. I also ran twice yesterday (11.5 total) and this was my second run today (12.1 total).

3. My legs still feel pretty good after the run. I could have pushed faster but tried to stick faithfully to "marathon pace effort", a pace I could hold for 26.2 miles. I'm confident I could have held this pace for many more miles.

4. This course was flat, St. George is net downhill.

5. Extra energy always comes from somewhere on race day. It seems to be a combination of taper, carbo loading, aid stations, excitement, and drawing energy from all the other runners and the crowd.

7. I wasn't wearing very good shoes today (the oldest pair I'm still using). I have a better lighter pair (not quite racing flats) I wear for racing.

8. I plan to run by feel this year, without looking at my watch too much, maybe only at the mile splits like today. I plan to do some more marathon pace runs in the next week or two, but today helped me feel confident that I already have a pretty good feel for what level of effort I'll need to put forth to meet my goal.

All of this analysis is probably meaningless except for the confidence it gives me to "go for it".

I apologize if this entry is too long...but nobody told you you had to read it. :)