Utah Valley Marathon. 
I love seeing so many friends before and after the race. Rode up with Dustin E, Mike W, and Wild Bull who talked me into at least seeing if I could hit sub 3. I figured, what the heck. Unfortunately, I had nothing for the flats and uphills, oh well. Start was a bit unorganized, but when it finally got going at least the rain was not a constant downpour.
| 1 |
| 6:44 | |
Although my training has been limited by my injury, I finally feel like I'm making some progress. Controlled on the downhills.
| | 2 |
| 6:40 | 13:24 | Feeling good, nice gradual downhill. Horses running along with us in their fields.
| | 3 |
| 6:43 | 20:07 | Very nice part of the course.
| | 4 |
| 6:50 | 26:58 | Miles are going
by comfortably.
| | 5 |
| 6:42 | 33:40 | Feeling good.
Breathing is good.
| | 6 |
| 6:45 | 40:26 | Last of the nice downhill start.
| | 7 |
| 7:24 | 47:50 | Tried to ease back on hills by Deercreek. I can tell I've not done any real uphill training.
| | 8 |
| 7:25 | 55:16 | Didn't like the uphill, slowed too much in hindsight. Time to do more uphill treadmill running.
| | 9 |
| 6:32 | 1:01:49 | Nice to have some downhill again. Just worked on leg turnover and the pace increased for me nicely.
| | 10 |
| 6:50 | 1:08:40 | One of the race highlights was seeing Andy Browning and his kids at the aid station just after mile nine. Heading in I was shouting, "I need poweraide from a Browning." One of his darling daughters handed me some as I took it from her on the run. Andy, had a Diet Dew ready for me (what a guy) and I actually felt bad that I had to turn him down. The gesture was awesome.
| | 11 |
| 7:14 | 1:15:54 | These rollers were no fun.
| | 12 |
| 6:47 | 1:22:41 | Still feeling alright on the rollers, BUT the in the rain my right foot is starting to blister.
| | 13 |
| 6:57 | 1:29:39 | Again, trying not to press but the flat and uphills are slowing me too much.
Half in 1:30:50 Bummer (mentally I don't think I will be able to negative split to a sub 3 so I sort of give in)
| | 14 |
| 7:08 | 1:36:47 | Mentally just wasn't willing to push it on the uphill.
| | 15 |
| 7:20 | 1:44:08 | Really starting to feel the blister in the center of my right foot.
| | 16 |
| 6:31 | 1:50:39 | Needed the downhill and only tailwind of the whole marathon.
| | 17 |
| 6:46
| 1:57:26 | Good mile.
| | 18 |
| 7:01 | 2:04:28 | Some rolling and headwind. Not a good time for headwind.
| | 19 |
| 7:13 | 2:11:41 | Blister in hurting.
| | 20 |
| 7:26 | 2:19:08 | Shifted to just cruising in. Satisfied with a good effort given limited time to train, but need more endurance.
| | 21 |
| 7:29 | 2:26:37 | Just on auto. Thinking 8xs would be ok, but glad still in the 7xs.
| | 22 |
| 7:26 | 2:34:03 | Effort is not too difficult, which means I'm being a wuss. Not pressing at all. I need to work on this. Blister is constant pain.
| | 23 |
| 7:46 | 2:41:50 | Weak sauce, giving up more time. I think it was this mile the person directing traffic let a bunch of cars and a bus pull right in front of me. I had to actually turn 90 degrees and run around a bus blocking the lane to get back on course. Lame.
| | 24 |
| 7:28 | 2:49:18 | Just trying to finish, at least I have not stopped.
| | 25 |
| 8:03 | 2:57:22 | Oops, let an 8 creep in.
| | 26 |
| 7:48 | 3:05:10 | Very lazy, I know I had enough to push in but didn't.
| 26.2
|
| 2:00 (.29 on my garmin) (7:15 pace)
| 3:07:11
| Just glad to finish.
|
Overall, satisfied that I have made some progress in the limited 7 weeks of running after trying to recover from my achilles. Never really pushed things, just didn't have the overall fitness (mental and physical) to push things to the next level. Achilles still is a bit sore, but I'm just learning to deal with it. I need to learn how to push myself to discomfort, as I take things too easy. 
Now, after the race, when I finally looked at my blister it was almost 2 inches in length and sort of pear shaped wider than 1 inch at the widest part, right in the middle of the ball of my foot. 
Nasty-ouch.
| 
