UTAH MARATHON
If anyone is ever tempted to run two marathons on successive Saturdays, I would advise against it :-)
My thoughts on this race are, "Wow, that hurt!"
I ran or rather jogged this marathon to improve my position in the USATF circuit and I did end up gaining quite a few points, so mission accomplished.
The course was a nasty bugger! Gradual climbing for first 18 or so miles and then bombing downhill the last 6 or so, but I couldn't use it because my legs were completely shot.
Ben ran the first five miles with me before he had to use the restroom, after that it was a solo long distance run around Salt Lake. My legs held up reasonably well until 16 and at that point I knew it was going to be a grind to finish. I got passed right around this point by a guy I had passed three miles earlier.
The last eight miles were extremely painful but I grinded it out and somehow finished. And I actually think 2:51 on this beast of a course one week after a marathon is respectable.
If you care to see my slow splits you can follow the garmin link:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/233051168
The garmin claims it was 1700 feet of climbing and I'm not sure how accurate that is but it may be close; at least it seemed like that much with the constant climbing followed by the constant ups and downs.
And for my troubles and placing 3rd overall I got a sweet medal that looks exactly like my finisher's medal...gee thanks; that's awfully generous of you!
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