Slowest Marathon I've done in 3 years, even slower than my epic blowup in St. George. Am I angry or upset? Absolutely not, accomplished all my goals for today, have fun, chat with bloggers and get back to work in time for my meetings. I was really up in the air on whether I should run this or not, I haven't done any marathon specific training since last fall, and I'm about 15 lbs overweight but when I saw what a large FRB presence there was going to be I decided yesterday to go register. I saw that Jeff Loveless was shooting for a 2:57 which seemed dandy to me so I told him yesterday I would like to run with him. I ran into a plethora of bloggers at the start line, Steve Anderson, Marlin, James, Sasha, Allie, Fritz (as he got out of his Cadillac Escalade limo 2 minutes before the start (JK). The time flew, it was a bit warm for being up on a mountain but felt great while waiting. 5 minutes before the start Jeff found me so we were on target for our plan to run together. I told him we should just shoot for around 6:20 for the first 3 downhill miles and make sure our legs didn't get distroyed. We pretty much stuck to the plan, maybe a little faster but if felt comfortable and we just chatted the first 5 miles, at Little Mountain the uphill bothered my knee and I slowed down, I didn't want to be responsible for Jeff not running a good time and told him he could leave me, so he did. I took it easy up the hill, on purpose and just tried to keep an even effort, I could tell that even the slower pace coming down my legs were hurting already, which probably means you should just blow down the first part since it hurts no matter what. Oh, I forgot at mile 4 Allie and a pretty serious group of Wastach runners blew past us, Jeff told me to go catch them I did but they were way to intense for me that early in the race so I slowed back down to Jeff. Anyway, after Jeff left me I turned on music and just tried to have fun and not hurt, felt good but my legs did hurt from the lack of miles I've put in lately, at mile 13 the sun came out, I thought Oh great a 13 miles death march, then a mile later a gift from the heavens, rain!! Ahh! such a wonderful thing, the rain and clouds made it perfect temps the rest of the race, I just kind of plowed along, there was a guy on a Felt Bike and Felt Jersey that must have been cheering someone right behind me cause he kept passing me and then stopping at each mile marker and telling me good job, I told him I felt like he was my personal cheer leader. I slowed down at each aid station and savored the water, I smiled at all the people and high fived all the kids and just tried to tell myself it was all just for a good workout and feel like I was a runner once again. At mile 17 the virtual 3 hour pacer dropped me, even though I pretty much knew a sub 3:00 wasn't happening at 13. The best part was that after mile 20 instead of what I'm normally used to, getting passed, I started passing people, it was amazing to actually feel like I was stronger at the end, even though splits would say different. The few block on the parade route was fun, I gave lots of little kids high fives, it reminded me of a marathon sign I once saw "Worst Parade Ever" I think that about sums up Marathon watching for my wife. Anyway, I had a fun day, now I get to work the rest of the day, my company is an "International" company, so we don't get Pioneer day off. This is exactly how I would run every marathon from now on (from a feel, standpoint) but next time I hope to be in much better shape so the time is better. I may post splits later but I'm kind of embarrassed by some of them. Great job to all the other Bloggers, sorry Jeff for not being able to stay with you. You looked great. P.S. I have a couple of watches for sale if anyone is interested. Here are my splits for what it's worth. 6:24, 6:15, 6:14, 6:28, 6:32, 7:12, 8:09, 7:26, 6:38, 7:03, 6:47, 6:56, 6:55, 7:00, 7:00, 7:12, 7:10, 7:31, 7:14, 7:19, 7:54, 6:59, 7:27, 7:19, 7:20, 7:43, 1:50
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