Breaking the Wall

Our family ran in the Orem 6th Ward Fun Run today. The course was 2 miles. I was in charge of measuring the course, so I can vouch for its accuracy. It was also marked every quarter mile. The course had certain restrictions - it needed to start and finish at a particular location, and we needed to keep away from major traffic, so with those limitations I could not make it fast - it had some serious hills with grades reaching 6% for stretches 100 meters and longer, and one nasty bump with a 9% grade fortunately only 30 meters long, but quite a rhythm breaker.

We had a family goal to average under 15:00 minutes among me, Sarah, Benjamin, Jenny, Julia, Joseph, and Jacob. So a 40 year old father, 37 year old mother of eight with a 5 month old baby, a 14 year old boy, 12 year old girl, 10 year old girl, 8 year old boy, and a 6 year old boy trying to average 7:30 per mile pace over 2 miles. For each individual category you can find a runner that can go much faster than the target pace, but the challenge is to have them be in the same immediate family. There are some challenges - by the time all the children have been born and grown enough to run 2 miles at a good pace, can you preserve the father and the mother sufficiently that they will not kill the average? That is what made the challenge fun.

Benjamin and I worked together trading quarters. There was another 14 year old boy named Logan in our ward that followed us, but he made it to about 600 meters. After that we were alone. Our splits were 77 (down), 81 (down), 76 (down with the bump), 80 (down, but feeling that 76 with the bump now) - this brought us to the mile in 5:14. Then after 180, 85 (up, recovering from the broken rhythm of the 180), 88 (this one had 100 meters of 3% grade and 200 of 6% climb), then 84 on a slight up. At this point I was struggling, while Benjamin maintained the pressure. With a quarter to go he dropped me and ran the last quarter on a slight uphill in 78 finishing in 10:49, last mile in 5:35. I had no kick and could only manage another 84 finishing second in 10:55. Logan was third in around 12:55 or so.

Then we ran back to finish with the younger children. Joseph finished 4th overall in 14:33. Jenny was the first woman and 5th overall in 14:45. Then Jacob, 6th overall, 14:51, and Julia 7th overall and the second woman in 14:55.

Then we ran back and found Sarah. She ran with her friend Shelly. Shelly kicked and finished in 17:30. Sarah got 17:35. So this gave us the average of 14:03 - almost a minute faster than our goal!

Then we realized that our 4-year-old William was gone. He was not supposed to start the race, but he saw everybody run, so he just started running. So Benjamin, Jenny, and I went on the course to find him. We did. He was picked up by Jenny's friend Anna, and was walking/running with her and stopping for a drink or to mess around whenever he felt like. We joined them. He ended up covering two miles in 33 minutes. 

Then Benjamin and I ran a cool down, and then I added some more miles throwing in a pickup for 0.5 at 5:55 pace just to test the level of fatigue and made it 15.7 total. 

So Benjamin ended up with a total of 8, Jenny 3, Julia 2.5, Jacob 2.5, Joseph 2.5, and William who knows, but at least 1.5 of running I would guess. 

Day of rest. Went to church. It was a Fast Sunday, so we bore testimonies. Then we had Sunday School and the Elder's Quorum. In the Elder's Quorum they asked me if I really could not beat Benjamin in the 2 mile run. I told them yes, he was for real, I gave it all I had and it was not enough. They also asked me if my legs were sore. I told them I lacked the neural drive to make them sore over 2 miles.

A.M. Total of 12 miles. Most with the kids. Benjamin did 8, Jenny 1 (sore throat, probably allergies), Julia 3, Joseph 3, Jacob 1, William 1. Our neighbor Logan joined us for 4 miles.

A.M. Not a whole lot of sleep. Last night as Sarah was going to bed she got stung by some poison-injecting creature. We got rather concerned because we could not find the creature. We wondered if it could have been a scorpion. Eventually the mystery was solved when we found a wasp.

Dave joined us today for the run. Logan joined us for the first 2 miles, then ran back. We repeated our workout from last week. I debated if it would be a good idea for Benjamin to run this long and this hard in the middle only 4 days prior to the half marathon. From the point of view of physiology it was less optimal. But he needed it psychologically after his adventures a week ago even though he had had a good race on Saturday. He needed a second witness of his ability. I knew that his performance in the half would be determined more by psychology than by physiology, so we went ahead with the workout.

We warmed up 5.3 as usual, then started the 3 mile tempo from Bridal Veil Falls. I paced the first two miles. We did the quarters of 84, 82, 81, 83 (5:30), 81, 80, 81, 80 (5:22), then I led for one more quarter in 78. Then Dave had the permission to take over and run as fast as he wanted, and he ran a 77. Benjamin passed me as well and sat on Dave's tail. I was hanging on for dear life during that 77 quarter. But then Dave slowed down to 79, and all of a sudden it became almost enjoyable. In the last quarter I gave it a little push moving closer to the front, and that got Benjamin going. With 200 to go we dropped Dave, and with 100 to go Benjamin dropped me. Our last quarter was 75 for Benjamin, 76 for me, 79 for Dave. The times were 16:01, 16:02, and 16:05 respectively.

So it was total of 10.6 for Benjamin and Dave. I ran another 3 to make the total 13.6. 2 of it was with Joseph and Jacob, and 1 with William. 

A.M. Did 4 with Benjamin, Logan, and Andrew. Jenny did 2, Julia 3, Joseph 3, Jacob 1, William 1. Total of 8 miles for me. A respiratory sickness of some kind has hit our family, and I saw in the last couple of days in Jacob, so I had him run with William today. But he made William run 9:13.

A.M. 6 miles total. 4 with Benjamin, Andrew, and Logan. Jenny and Julia did 2. William was sick - high fever and congestion. I made Joseph and Jacob rest as a precaution.as they did have a little bit of cough and fever as well. At the end of the day made the decision to switch to the half-marathon instead of the full. Several reasons combining together, but the main one was I realized that it was important for me to be with Benjamin in his first half-marathon.

A.M. William is still sick. Sarah got sick as well. I ran 4 miles with Benjamin and Logan, 1 with Joseph and Jacob, 2 with Jenny and 2 with Julia. Pushed the stroller for 2 miles with Mathew in it. Did a few pickups. Total of 9 miles. Considered going more, given that I do not have the marathon, but decided to play it safe. I was having a bit of a cough and a snotty nose, and decided that I needed to be at the starting line of the half in good pacing shape given that I was expecting to be leading at 5:50 for at least a good portion of the half. Pacing is not the same as sitting in a pack, which I would normally do in a race - you have to take the wind, you have to talk occasionally, and you have to focus on the runner you are pacing, so you cannot be in pain.

Utah Valley Half-Marathon pacing Benjamin - 1:15:21, 11th overall, 1st master, $150. Yes, Benjamin ran fast enough today to allow me to win the masters while staying with him the entire race. This was my first race as a master if you do not count the ward "fun run" a week ago.

I was originally planning to run the marathon, but two days ago felt that I should run the half with my 14-year-old son Benjamin. I see now that this was an inspired decision. I know he needed me there. The Lord also gave me a sign of sorts - the stars aligned and with the help of my advanced chronological but not yet quite as advanced biological age, a generous prize structure, and the absence of Iain Hunter, I was able to win $150. Even though we are quite well-off financially nowadays, cash prizes still excite me. It is rare that a cash prize goes unclaimed by a decent competitor. So it does feel good to be the competitor that claimed the prize.

Race account mile by mile.

1 - 5:39 - Downhill. Lots of runners still around, I am recognizing Steve Anderson and Steve Ashbaker. Benjamin is faithfully on my tail with the absolute minimal gap, just like I have taught him. I listened to him, his breathing sounded good. The split was 11 seconds faster than planned, but I sensed that Benjamin's effort was maybe slightly higher that ideal, but not 11 seconds. So I eased the effort maybe by 2 seconds per mile, and continued.

2 - 11:18 (5:39) - Lesser downhill. Steve Anderson pulled ahead, Steve Ashbaker is with us. I was surprised that we repeated 5:39 with what felt like an easier effort and what looked like a lesser downhill. Probed Benjamin's breathing - it sounded like he was handling the pace fine, so I maintained the effort.

3 - 17:11 (5:53) The Heartbreak Hill of the UVM. Was pleased with the split on the climb and Benjamin's response to it. We dropped Steve Ashbaker and passed Steve Anderson. After that we were in no man's land the rest of the race, but that was what it took to run 1:15 today. Had I gone for the marathon and left Benjamin to fend for himself, he probably would not have had the confidence to break away at this point. Contrary to what I had supposed, there would have been nobody to run with him.

4 - 22:57 (5:46) The end of the UVM Heartbreak Hill followed by a steep decent. Benjamin groaned a couple of times, but it sounded positive - meaning "I am mentally struggling, I have the fear of having to run another 9 miles like this now that I've run 4 and I am quite tired but I am in control of it, I now what it takes to win against it". We passed a water station, and I established the ritual that I would repeat at all water stations later on grabbing a cup, turning around and dumping it all on Benjamin. 

5 - 28:30 (5:33) We hit some nice downhill. Benjamin is still doing well.

6 - 34:10 (5:40) Flatter, also I may have eased off a little sensing that Benjamin might be about to start struggling. I am figuring our 10 K split was around 35:20, which is a PR for Benjamin, and is actually my masters PR as well.

7 - 39:50 (5:40). Nice slight downhill grade. I observed that we had 39:12 split at the 20 mile mark of the the UVM, which means about 10 K to go.

8 - missed the split. Benjamin is hanging in there, groaning more, but maintaining contact.

9  -  51:14 - 11:24 for two miles, 5:42 average. Dave Taylor joined us here for a 4 mile tempo at the end of his 16 mile run.

10 - 57:07 (5:53) - 10 mile PR for Benjamin. We did the last 5 K in 17:55. Benjamin is now in the unchartered territory. He's never run more than 10 miles hard. He worried about being there. I did not as much - I know if someone is holding pace through the first 10 he does not crash too bad in the last 3 in the half. If you are going to crash after 10, there is usually some pace bleeding after 6.

11 - 1:03:08 (6:01) - uphill mile. Benjamin survived it with our encouragement. Now the time to shift gears in the last two miles and see what we can get.

12 - 1:07:57 (5:49) - gentle decent to the finish. I shifted gears mildly to recover from the uphill mile, and Benjamin responded.  

13 - 1:14:44 (5:47) - Benjamin took the initiative and gave it a courageous push in the first half of this mile and I thought I was going to get dropped in the last quarter for a minute or two. But then he ran out of juice and I was in control of the pace again. 

13.1 - 1:15:20 on my watch, 1:15:21 officially. The kick in 36 seconds - 5:30 pace. We finished together side by side, but the official timing was messed up - Benjamin ended up with something really odd - 1:15:26 chip time, 1:15:29 gun time - it should have been 1:15:21/1:15:21 - I wrote to the timing company about it and hopefully they will fix it.

In the afternoon Joseph, Jacob, and Jenny ran in the track meet. I managed to look up the start time in the wrong place, and we got there late. Nevertheless, the meet officials were nice enough to organize a special 800 meter heat  just for us at the end of the meet. Jenny won the battle against the 86F heat and the wind and qualified for the meet in Eugene with 3:01.66. Joseph and Jacob were still feeling the effects of the bug they picked up and struggled - Joseph ran 3:18, Jacob 3:25. Jenny's splits by 200 were 41, 47, 47, 46. I was happy with that - she courageously pushed from the gun and then kept pushing all the way. Now all of our children 6 years and older (Benjamin, Jenny, Julia, Joseph, and Jacob) have the qualifying mark. Benjamin will run 3000 with the goal of setting the Utah state record in the 13-14 year old division, everybody else is running 800 trying to break 3:00 (Jenny, Julia, Joseph) or get to is as close as possible (Jacob).

Day of rest. Went to church. We had another missionary farewell. The elder is going to Mexico this time. Then in Sunday school we discussed Doctrine and Covenants 76 which talks about the three degrees of glory. For me this doctrine has a special significance. When the missionaries first taught me, my reaction was more or less - that's nice, let's move on. However, a year later while translating a missionary discussion for my friends it hit me that Christ really loves all of us and wants to give us the absolute best that we will take. Even the worst sinners eventually get the telestial kingdom, which is much better than the best we can get on the earth. I suppose I can mark that point when I really accepted Christ as my Savior. Prior to that I obeyed out of fear - I could not deny that Joseph Smith had seen the Father and the Son, therefore I knew there was some power above me that had certain expectation that I better follow, but I did not understand the love of Christ. When I realized that there is a kingdom of glory prepared for all of us, I saw things in a new light.

A.M. Total of 12.5. About half of it with the kids. Benjamin and Andrew did 4. Joseph and William did 0.5. Jenny and Julia did 2.

A.M. Benjamin was out on a hike with the scouts. I ran total of 12. Jenny did 2, Andrew 4, Joseph and Jacob 1. I did a 3 mile tempo run from the Provo Canyon to the house in 17:29. Felt sluggish. Could not tell if it was because it was warm, or because I was just feeling sluggish.

P.M. Benjamin called from the hike - he had a sore throat and possibly a fever as well. He probably could have toughed it out, but neither of us thought it was a good idea. The scouts were doing their "tough thing" for the year - 37 mile hike in 2 days, but as far as I am concerned, Benjamin has done his "tough thing" already - 13.11 miles in 1 hour 15 minutes and 21 seconds. So I drove all the way to Cedar City to pick him up.  I had three cars to choose from - GMC Savana Van 2011, Dodge RAM Van 1996 - CNG, or Ford Escort Wagon 1993. For the sake of the quickest trip time I chose the Savana, and it did not disappoint me - I was impressed with its ability to do the Scipio hill all the way at 85 with the pedal not floored. Benjamin's condition was not as bad as I thought it could have been, but I did not want him to be out in the heat and away from adequate opportunities to eat and drink with it anymore.

A.M. Total of 13. Benjamin and Jenny did 3, Joseph and Jacob 1, William 1, Julia 2. I noticed that Julia had had a hard time getting her feet off the ground, and decided it was time to address it. So we did 2x200 in the middle of her run, first down about 3% grade, second mostly flat. Her times were 44.3 and 42.9. I repeated the same 3 mile tempo run as the day before, except I did it earlier before it got warm. Not surprisingly it went better - I did not feel slugging and ran it in 17:03.

P.M. Pushed Stephen and Matthew to the church and back in the stroller - total of 0.5 miles.

A.M. 13 miles total. Andrew and Benjamin did 4, Jenny 3, Julia 3, Joseph and Jacob 1, William 1.

P.M. 3 miles with Matthew in the stroller. 

A.M. Total of 13. Did a workout. Started with a 400 up the canyon in 84.6 - got blown off by the wind, also was a little sluggish at the start, I suppose. Then on the second 400, also up the canyon got 76.3 - better, less wind. Then turned around, and did 400 72.1. Then my mark was too faded and it was too sunny, so I decided to do 300 - 500 instead of 400-400. I did 300 in 54.3, and 500 in 1:30.8. Then ran with the kids. Benjamin and Andrew did 4, Jenny 3, Joseph and Jacob 1, William 0.5, Julia 3. Julia and I did 2x200 - downhill in 40.7, rolling in 42.9.

P.M. 3 miles with Matthew in the stroller. 

A.M. Ran 20 miles with Chad in 2:29:38. We jogged most of the time, but did a few pickups in the middle. The idea was to do something that puts the body to sleep so it is running primarily off fats, then speed up just enough so it is some kind of a race pace but not so fast that we wake up the carbohydrate energy supply too quickly and thus the body is hopefully tricked into running off fats. I am pretty sure this trick works although I do not have a lab to prove it. There is unique sluggishness in those intervals that would be characteristic of the body being reluctant to release carbs, and therefore having to pull the energy out of the fats.

So about 2.5 miles into it we ran a mile uphill into a headwind in 6:14.3. Then about 6.5 miles into the run we did a mile uphill without much headwind in 6:06.7. Then about 12.5 miles into the run we did 5:55.4 going down, and about 16.5 miles into the run we did 1 mile going down in 5:59.1. Then we ran the last 0.5 uphill in 3:14.

Kids ran on their own. Benjamin did 4.5, Andrew did 4, Jenny 3, Julia 2, Joseph 2, Jacob 1, William 0.5. 

Day of rest. Stephen was sick, so Sarah and I took turns staying home. I made it to the second half of Sunday school where the discussion was on the Word of Wisdom, and the entire Elder's Quorum lesson which talked about tithing.

With it being the Father's Day I thought about what I wanted for my children as a father. Here is what I came up with - I want them to have the business aptitude of an American, analytic ability of a Russian, running speed of a Kenyan, and faith of a Tongan. 

A.M. Andrew did a 400 meter time trial. Benjamin and Logan had the following assignment - sense Andrew's starting pace for the first 50-70 meters, then move in front and hold that pace to 200 meters. Then continue at that pace to the finish regardless of whether Andrew could do it or not. So we ended up doing 38 for the first 200, then Benjamin and Logan sped up, I stayed back with Andrew for 100 meters, then surged and caught up to Benjamin and Logan. So we ended up with around 74.5 for 400, Andrew got 77.8. This gives us a starting point for his speed to work from. Andrew and Logan ended up running 5.25 miles total. Benjamin added another mile with William which gave him 6.25 for the day.

Joseph, Jacob, Jenny, and Julia did a workout as well. 2x200 in the middle of 2 miles. First one downhill all the way, second mostly flat but with a downhill in the last 30 meters or so. On the first one we had: Jenny 35.7, Julia and Joseph 42.3, Jacob 45.9. On the second - Jenny 40.7, Joseph 44.3, Julia 45.0, Jacob 47.0. Afterwards Jenny and Julia ran one more mile to make it 3 for them. I pushed the stroller on this part with Matthew and Stephen, and stayed with Jenny. 

I ended up with the total of 12.25 miles. 

P.M. 3 miles with Stephen and Matthew in the stroller. 

A.M. Total of 15 miles. Did a workout with Dave Taylor. The same 3 mile tempo run course down the Provo Canyon except we changed it making it 5:30 all the way except for the last 500 meters, which we did as fast as possible with the target of 1:30. First mile was 5:29, then 5:28, the last mile was 5:15. Last 500 in 1:29.5, total time 16:12.2. Dave handled it very well and was strong in the kick.

Then I ran with the kids. Benjamin did 7, Jenny and Julia 3, Joseph 2, Jacob 1, William 1.

P.M. 3 with Matthew in the stroller. 

A.M. Did a workout with Benjamin, Jenny, Andrew and Logan. The purpose of the workout was to awaken Benjamin's speed in preparation for the USATF regional championship this Saturday, and for others to test their speed and experience the misery of 2:06:35 marathon pace. For me it did not really have a purpose except observe as a coach, but the best place for a coach to observe, I believe, is right there in the middle of the workout. Good thoughts come when you sense pace variations and feel the pain.

So Benjamin's target was to run 1:48 evenly paced for the first 600, then run the last 200 in 34 or faster. Logan's assignment was to make it to the first 600. Andrew's and Jenny's assignment was to run the pace until they got dropped, then be done. Benjamin did 36 - 72 - 1:49 and finished in 2:23.5. I stayed with him until about 70 meters to go and finished in 2:24.9. Logan made it to about 530 meters, then coasted in to finish the 800 in 2:38.5. Jenny made it to 200, Andrew made it to 250. Benjamin led all the way, which was part of the plan - we want to be prepared to run a good time if he has to do it on Saturday.

I felt that the pace felt more aerobic than I would have expected, but at the same time I did not feel I could go faster which is why I got dropped at the end. I suppose I should expect it from the recent increase in mileage.

Then I ran more with the kids. Joseph and Jacob did their own workout - 2x200 on the road on the standard stretches.  Joseph did 37.6/43.4, Jacob 39.2/45.4.

Benjamin ran 8 miles, Logan 5.5, Andrew a little over 5, Jenny 3, Julia 3, Joseph and Jacob 2, William 1. Julia did the 2x200 workout as well - 42.2/42.7. 

P.M. 3 miles with Matthew in the stroller. 

A.M. 12 miles total. Benjamin did 8, Andrew 5, Joseph 2, Jacob 1, William 1, Jenny 3, Julia 3. I did a pickup uphill over 1.02 miles in 5:56.

P.M. Went to the chess tournament with Benjamin. He's been on a roll lately in chess - has not lost a game since February I think - it's been a while since he lost. Of course, we only have the time for two games, and play every other Thursday. But those are tough players - rated as high at 1900+ and rarely below 1400. In any case, he won both games, and his rating now is 1764 - another 36 points and he will move into class A. After that we've got 2000 - expert, 2200 - national master, 2400 (plus tournament performance) - international master, 2500 (plus tournament performance) - grandmaster. The way he is progressing makes it look like he will quite likely be expert as an adult, and possibly national master.

I had one draw and one win, and recovered some of the points I lost recently - I am now at 1643. It is interesting that Benjamin is pulling away from me in chess and in running at around the same time. 

A.M. Total of 12. Took Benjamin, Logan, and Jenny to the track. Looking at Benjamin's 800 on Wednesday, splits and how he felt, there were two possibilities - his was either asleep, or still not recovered from the half-marathon and the cold afterwards. It was no use analyzing the latter, so we assumed the former. We did a mini-workout to try to wake him up. 600 meters roughly targeting 1:45. Logan joined us for the first 400, Jenny for the last 100. So I paced him through the first 200 in 35, then he took over and I almost ran into him. Then he sped up as I tried to pass him on the home stretch, and we made it to 400 in 71 - Logan stayed with us. Then he fell asleep on the curve and we were 1:30 at 500, but with Jenny's help he was able to shift gears and hit a 16 - total 1:46.4. Jenny stayed with him which pleased me - she has more speed than I realized. They both dropped me - I got 1:47.9. In the last two workouts I felt reasonable at speeds 72 per lap and slower, but as soon as it got faster I just could not find that extra gear.

Benjamin did total of 5, Logan 5 as well. Joseph and Jacob did 1, Jenny 2, Julia 2, William 1. Julia did 300 pickup in 1:09.4. I did total of 12. While running with Julia the stroller broke - the swivel brace got bent and the front wheel fell off. 

A.M. Ran 12 miles with Chad. Had to cut it short due to Benjamin's 1500 meter race in the USATF regional championship. We did a mini-workout. First 1 mile up the Provo Canyon starting from the little bridge over the Provo River at the mouth near the power plant. The goal was to break 6:00. We did it in 5:47.7. Then on the way back our favorite 3 mile tempo run with the target of 5:40 - 5:33 - 5:25. We ended up with 5:39 - 5:32 - 5:30 - 16:41. Chad struggled in the last mile. I think the fact that it was late into the run on top of running a hard mile uphill earlier played a factor. 

Then Chad ran 8 more while I got dressed and took Benjamin to his race. Chad showed up later as well to watch. We hoped Benjamin would run under 4:29.36 taking the state record in the 13-14 age division, but he did not have it in him. He apparently was still suffering the effects of post-half marathon fatigue and the cold. 

The conditions were as good as they could be. Hardly any wind (by UVU track standards that is), not too warm. Still early in the day - sunlight not too direct. Good competition - they put all youth 13 and older in one heat. Benjamin went through the first lap in 72.2. By the end of it he moved into second place in the heat with the first being a boy in an older age division. He stayed in that position for the rest of the race. His second lap was slow - 74.0, and I knew something was not right. I told Benjamin to do his best to run 2:23 for the first 800. I could tell he was trying, but just did not have it. His next lap was 78, and his last 300 was 56 - official finish time 4:41.23. He still won his age division by 11 seconds - second place was his friend Grant Gardner who ran 4:52. I do not think it would be too bold to assume that this is the first time a USATF Regional race was won in Crocs.

It is good to have races like that. This is a chance to learn resilience. It also allowed us to document the pattern of how Benjamin runs in workouts when his adrenal glands are worn out. He will have another chance at the state record - Utah Summer Games in a week. I do not know if we have enough time to rebuild before then but we will do our best. 

More races to follow this afternoon - Jenny, Julia, Joseph, and Jacob are running the 800.

P.M. 800 meter race for the younger kids in the USATF regionals. Jenny ran a PR of 2:55.23 - her splits were 86/89. Julia ran a decent race as well - 3:12.04 - not quite a PR, but close. Joseph won the 8 and under division with 3:08.99 - this more than 8 seconds off his time trial PR, and 3 seconds off his official race PR, but it not only won, but set a regional meet record. His splits were 92/96. He said he felt like his legs were not moving. Probably still some leftovers from the sickness.

We discovered that Jacob has a mild form of exercise-induced asthma. He has had some trouble breathing in workouts before, but never to the extent that he did after this race. He was wheezing for about 7 minutes after he finished and we were seriously concerned. Our blogger Teena was there and ran to get her inhaler, but he recovered before she got back . He still managed to run 3:21.00 which was good enough for 4th, and was less than 5 seconds off his PR. Apparently the try air in combination with the dust coming off I-15 was too much when combined with race effort - and Jacob can push himself very hard. We are going to take him to the doctor and get an inhaler just in case for things like this.

Later I ran 4.25 with Benjamin. 

Day of rest. Went to church. We had our regular set of meetings. Then in the evening there was a special missionary fireside. The leaders of the Church announced that will be some changes in the way we do missionary work with missionaries doing tours of meeting houses, and using social media to reach out to those who may be interested.

I think there are two major obstacles that we as Latter-Day Saints need to overcome if we are going to be effective missionaries:

• People do not really know us. They might see us, they might even occasionally associate with us, they may think they know us but they do not really understand what makes us tick.
• We at times do not live our religion as well as we should which is perhaps because we do not understand it as well as we should. Over the course of the years I have been privileged to have spent time with people that understood Mosiah 2-4, Alma 34, Moroni 7, and other powerful parts of the Book of Mormon. What a difference that made! Unfortunately in the majority of wards such people are found in minority. The average active member is a nice guy - he just does not understand some things, and because of that is not able to exert the power of the Gospel in his life in sufficient measure. The outsider looks at him as says - well, I am a nice guy too, why do I have to change anything?

A.M. Did 12 miles total.  Benjamin did 8. Jenny and Julia did 3. Joseph  did 3, Jacob 2, William 1. I did 1.5 miles to the house uphill in 8:33.

A.M. Total of 12. Benjamin and I paced Logan on the track to an 800 PR of 2:29.7. Benjamin and Logan did 5.5, Andrew did 5.25. Jenny did 3, Julia 3, Joseph 3, Jacob 2, William 0.5.

P.M. 3 miles.

A.M. 12 total. Benjamin and I did a 200 pickup in 34.3. Benjamin did total of 7. Jenny did 4, Julia did not run - she sliced her foot in an accident, and will be out of commission for a couple of days. Joseph did 3, Jacob 2, William 0.5, Andrew and Logan 5.

P.M. I had a thought to ask our friend Lou who is a professional car mechanic to fix our stroller. My faith in car mechanic's ability to fix mechanical things of other nature was confirmed. Lou figured out how to bend the swivel brace back into shape and I was able to run 3 miles with Matthew in the stroller.

A.M. 12 miles total. Benjamin did 7, Logan and Andrew 5, Jenny 4, Joseph 3, Jacob 1. Benjamin and I did a couple of pickups to help him feel race pace - 300 in 53.3, and 200 in 34.6.

P.M. Took Benjamin, Jenny, Julia, Joseph and Jacob to chess instruction by GM Rashad Babaev. This was the first time any of us have met a grandmaster. It was an educational experience. We were studying a position where there was only one right move. We had 10 minutes to find it. Benjamin did. I asked GM Babaev how long it takes a GM to see something like this. His response that he sees it right away, it feels good, and because it does he starts calculating what would happen if he made it.

The difference between a class A player or even an expert and myself (class B) is that they see tactical traps more consistently. However a GM sees more than that - he sees long-term positional weaknesses that can actually be exploited, and he sees the path to make it happen. He also intuitively knows if he can deal with various tactical issues that may arise on his way to exploiting the weakness - there are many lower skill players that can observe the weakness, but unlike a GM they only observe - they cannot do much about it.

A.M. Total of 10.5. Benjamin did 3, Andrew and Logan 5, Jenny 4, William 0.5, Joseph 3, Jacob 2. Drove to Cedar City with Benjamin for the Utah Summer Games.

P.M. Benjamin ran 800 in the Utah Summer Games in 2:16.25 missing the official Utah State Youth record by 1.74 seconds. The official record belongs to Eli Oftedal and is 2:14.51. However, the Utah Summer Games record is listed as 2:11.00 by Sam Hoyal in 1993. I contacted USATF about the discrepancy, and what we were able to figure out is that in 1993 Utah Summer Games was not sanctioned by USATF, thus the record was not official.

Regardless, I was happy with Benjamin's performance. The temperature was 100 F. When we got out of the van I told Benjamin he would gain an appreciation for J. Golden Kimball's "If I had a choice to go to St. George or to hell, I'd go to hell". We did a trick though. We brought the vehicle with the best A/C system of the ones we own. So Benjamin sat in the van until it was time to warm up. He jogged for 5 minutes, then did 2 strides. Back in the van to cool off for 5 minutes, and out to the start of his race.

They combined the Youth division with everybody younger, and the other heat had everybody older. This was unfortunate because that resulted in Benjamin running alone.

His opening lap was 65.5, and he closed with 70.6 on my watch - 2.16.1 total. Official time was slower likely due to automatic timing which is always a little slower than hand timing. Ironically, our blogger Eric Lambert who is 15 and with whose family we are staying ran the race as well in the other heat and finished in 2:16.29 with the opening lap of 62. Had they been in the same heat we might have seen Eli's record go down with them duking it out in the last 200.

The good news is that they are scheduled to run in the same heat tomorrow.

Later in the evening I ran 5 miles with Eric.

A.M. Ran 16 miles in Cedar Cit. First 6.6 with Eric Lambert's father Adam. Then 2 with Benjamin for his morning shakeout. Then I wanted to find a place that was flat. The only flat place was the track. To help time pass quicker I decided to do a 5 K tempo run. Figured at 5700 feet and with the sun coming up 18:00 would take work, and I was not mistaken. I started out with 86 laps, but once I got to 3K all of a sudden the same effort started giving me 89 laps. At this point I understood why distances over 3K receive a much higher altitude adjustment. I decided to maintain the effort instead of forcing the pace. Then in the last lap I ran 81 and finished the 5 K in 18:04.2. I could really feel the lack of oxygen. Then I ran some more to make the total 16 miles.

Then I watched Benjamin and Eric races the 1500. The race started at around 11:20 AM, and the temperature was 88 F. Eric took the lead and hit the first 300 in 55.3. Benjamin heard that and took over. Their next lap was 71.8. Eric took over at the 600 mark. Then he heat got to both of them and their next lap was 74.0. I yelled at Benjamin to floor it, and they shifted gears. Their last lap was 70.2. Benjamin got 4:31.58 - Eric outleaned him by 0.08 with 4:31.50. For Benjamin this is a new PR. He missed Josh's record set in the same race 17 years ago by 2.22 seconds.

I was quite happy with Benjamin's performance. This is on pace for 2:07:19 marathon. Now he officially advanced his ability to run that pace to the 1.5 K point. Another 40 K to go. Maybe less - this was in 88 F and at 5700 feet. He would last longer at that pace at sea level in ideal conditions.

Day of rest. Went to church. Lots of missionaries going out now with the recent age change announcement. We had another departing missionary speak. 

Took a long much needed nap in the afternoon.