Every Race is an Adventure!

AM. I enjoyed an easy run this morning. It was great to have both Larry and Kevin come out this morning. Yesterday Lyle said he was coming out, but we never saw him. We ran the normal Tri-City route. The weather was excellent. It was a beautiful morning.

PM. I thought I'd be running 5 or 6 miles alone at noon, but I bumped into Cory in the locker room and we decided to run together. He's still battling back from his foot surgery, running only one day a week. He seemed to be running fine today, and finished the 5.1 mile Lake View route in 44:25 (8:43/mi). I sneaked in a 6:43 fartlek mile just after the turnaround then jogged back and finished the run with Cory, averaging 8:16/mi for 5.4 miles.

I ran the Tuesday 2000 N route with Larry and Wayne this morning. I pushed pretty hard up the 2nd half of the uphill. On the downhill, with an eye towards the Provo River Half this Saturday, I decided to run what felt like 1/2 marathon effort. It ended up being 5:56/mi pace for the 3/4 of a mile. The rest of the run was just at an easy pace, except for a brief sprint when I raced Hal Henderson in his truck as he passed us. I need to be more prudent about those sudden sprints. Shortly after racing Hal I felt a little cramping in my right thigh and my calf felt pretty tight. I certainly don't want an injury from being foolish.

AM. I ran the water tank hills with Larry and Wayne. On hills 2-5 I would charge the hill then jog back to the others and run with them until the next hill then I would charge that hill. It was a pretty good work out. I ran easy with them on the way back until the last mile, my traditional "fast mile". I was pretty tired so I decided to see if I could run 6:20 pace (my goal for downhill miles on Saturday) with tired legs. I managed 6:19 but it took some effort.

I plan on some more easy miles at noon and our normal 10 miler tomorrow morning, also at an easy pace. I'll probably taper by playing basketball on Friday.

PM. Ran 3 easy miles with Tom (avg 8:46/mi). The conversation was far more pleasant than the (he warned me in advance) boring 3 mile route we ran (it wasn't really that bad). It's good the run wasn't much longer. I made a bathroom stop just before the run, but I still had some stomach distress by the end.

I guess I should record a milestone of sorts. The scale in the fitness center is the standard "doctor" scale with sliding weights on a bar. There is a big weight that you set on 50, 100, 150, etc., and a smaller weight that slides within a 50 pound range. My weight has been hovering around the low 150's for a couple of years, down from 170+ in the preceding years. I've been wanting to drop under 150 so I could set the big weight on 100 instead of 150. Today I set the big weight on 100 and the little weight on 49 3/4 and the indicator on the scale achieved separation. It's good to take time to enjoy even small victories. I don't really feel like I want or need to lose too much weight, but our Wii Fit said my "ideal" weight would be around 145. I ran St. George last year at around 150 and my goal has been, and I guess still is, to run this year at around 145. There's still time (and it's not that big of deal anyway).

Every year our neighborhood has a 5K Fun Run, and every year someone says that "Fun Run" is an oxymoron. I don't know about that, but I do believe that "an easy 10" is definitely an oxymoron. Larry, Wayne and I did "an easy 10" this morning (9:15/mi avg), but it wasn't easy. Larry says "Fun Run" is just short for "Fun When It's Done Run", so I guess "an easy 10" might just be short for "10 miles at an easy (slower than marathon) pace", but I don't know how any one can think of getting up at 4:45am to start running at 5:30am and then running 10 miles as being easy...very satisfying...but not easy.

My plan is still to play basketball tomorrow morning as my mini-taper for the Provo River half marathon on Saturday.

I stopped at Bridal Veil Park on my way home last night at about 7:00pm. The trail was still closed. I asked a man standing there by his truck (I think he was with the fire fighters) if he knew the status of the fire. He said the fire was basically out and that the crews were about to leave. I mentioned the race on Saturday and asked if he knew when the trail might be open. He said he heard the old road to the upper falls was going to be open Saturday, but that the trail might be closed until September because of all the loose debris at the top of the cliffs. I'm not sure if he was a reliable source of information, but it will be interesting to see if/how the race comes off on Saturday.

Addendum: If the race goes forward, I decided it would be good to have some goals to keep things interesting. Since I don't know what the course will be (maybe nobody does at this point) and I've never run it before (nobody has), I decided on some non-time-related goals. The time the goal would have required last year is in parentheses.

1. Top 3 in age division (1:35:15)
2. Top 5% overall (1:34:43)
3. Keep chicked count under 10 (1:30:43)

Addendum #2: I just received an email update on the Provo River 1/2. It looks the race will start up South Fork after all (like previous years), run on the highway from Vivian to Nunn's (because the trail is closed due to fire...this means no uphill loop), run on the trail to Shops@Riverwoods (like previous years), and then have a loop at the end (to make up for no loop at Bridal Veil). Seems like a pretty good plan to me. Should be fun!

I went ahead with my plan to play basketball this morning as my taper/cross training for today. We ended up with 5-on-5 and I really had a great time. I'm not sure how effective it was at resting and recovering. We played pretty hard, and longer than usual. I was soaking with sweat and pretty tired when we were done, and even for a while before we were done.

I took a knee to the calf and a swat to my nose, but thankfully no ankle sprains or shoulders to the chest. Some may think I'm foolish to risk injury playing basketball. I used to feel that way, too. I gave up basketball for most of a year once, and rolled my my ankle 3 or 4 times while running. I've said this before I think, but I decided that a life lived in fear is a life half lived (from Strictly Ballroom). I stubbed my toe walking up the stairs this morning, but I'm not going to avoid walking up stairs.

The calf is fine now. So is the toe. The nose is still a little sore, but nothing serious. I should be good to go tomorrow for the race. In fact, I'm probably as close to 100% as I've been for a while. I'm ready for adventure.

I feel pretty good about today's efforts and the results. I got to interact with so many running friends that I won't try to list them all, but it was great to see everyone.

I picked up Lyle at 4:45am. He's a new runner from my neighborhood in his early 50's (I think). He was training for St. George last year but got injured, so he's trying again this year. This was not only his first 1/2 marathon, but his first race ever. He was a little nervous I think, but he handled everything like an old pro. His goal was around 2:00 hours and he finished in 2:01.

We met Tom and Kerry as planned, and Terry and Greg joined us for the bus ride to the start. The pre-race porta-potty activities went smoothly, I ran a mile or so with Kerry to warm up, waited for the race to finally start (a little late), and then I was off.

I didn't have any plans to run with anyone. I let gravity have it's way with me and started moving down the hill. I seem to pass people on downhills and get passed on uphills, so I guess I must like downhills. Early in the race I was gradually passing a number of runners, including Kolby and Jonathon, and eventually came up behind Josse who was running along with a couple of other runners. I remember well Josse running easily past me around mile 18 of the Utah Valley Marathon, pacing herself perfectly to go on and win $1000 while I finished in pain running 9:30 miles, so I decided to fall in with them and not push on ahead. I ended up running with Josse until the top of the big hill between Vivian and Nunns.

My splits down South Fork were: 6:07, 6:30, 6:32, 6:28. The next three miles, which included the big hill, were: 6:56, 7:01, 6:21. As we started the steep downhill I felt gravity pulling me again and pulled ahead of Josse, although I spent the rest of the race expecting her to pass me. I did get passed by several women in the last miles. Every time I heard feminine breathing or footfalls overtaking me I expected it to be her, and I have to admit I was a little relieved each time it wasn't.

After the big downhill, when we got onto the trail, I started feeling fatigued for the first time and just tried to keep running smoothly, within myself, and moving forward. My splits for the next four miles were: 6:45, 6:51, 7:04, and 6:58.

The last two miles were loopy - both meanings: 1) having or characterized by loops, and 2) crazy or bizarre. These were definitely "hang on" miles, but I didn't crash. My splits were: 7:28 and 7:21. I threw in a kick near the end and finished the last bit at a 5:59/mi pace.

Since the official race times were off by as much as 20-30 seconds, I'm just using the time from my Garmin, which was 1:29:06 (avg pace 6:47/mi). It registered the distance at 13.13.

My morning running buddies Larry, Wayne, and Kevin didn't run the race, but it meant a lot to me that they planned their long run so they could be at the finish line to cheer me in and hang out after the race. I hung around mingling with friends, and cheering in Lyle (2:01) and Carolyn (2:02). Carolyn is the 20-something daughter of our former morning running buddy Kent. Kent has taken a hiatus from running for the past couple of years, but his wife Melinda (also a runner) said today that while he was watching the finish he kept going back and forth between whether he should start running again. He was recently called as a bishop at BYU, so he's a pretty busy man. Anyway, after I saw the results and that I finished 4th in my AD I decided to head home. I left very satisfied, having enjoyed a wonderful morning that I think only runners can truly appreciate.