Each Day Is a Gift

51st marathon, 4th TOU!

Did not sleep well worrying about hubby during the night! Got out of bed before the alarm at 4:05am.  Went through the motion of getting ready and felt rather fuzzy minded.  Good thing I had Toby there to keep me alert and ready to go! :)  Toby and I talked about our "goals" for the day.  I felt SO relieved when she told me last night that 2015 Boston's registration was closed, that means the pressure of trying to run a 2015 BQ (sub 4:10) is lifted. Now I can focus on the attainable goal of a 2016 BQ (sub 4:25).  Yep, I will be 60 years old for Boston 2016 which gives me an extra 15 min!!! :) :)  In reality, I've only been back to running since middle of May; four months is simply not sufficient time to train for a BQ.  

In 2011 and 2012, I ran TOU 5 min. faster than Pocatello (4:06:07 and 4:01:07;  4:24:19 and 4:18:50).  So based on my 4:28:34 finish time in Pocatello three weeks ago, I felt confident that I can run in the 4:23 neighborhood! :) I printed out a 4:20 course specific pace band, but the numbers are so small that I decided I wouldn't be able to read it anyway.  So instead I wrote down the elapsed times on the odd miles (aid stations miles) and taped it to the bottom of my bib. We took the 5am shuttle to the Park and got on one of the earlier buses!  I ate a yogurt, small blueberry muffin and banana on the bus ride and drank about 20 oz. of sport drink.  Toby got a little car sick because of the many turns in the canyon!  We had sufficient time to use the p-o-p twice.  Got in the tent to stay warm.  Saw Sasha and congratulated him on his new baby.  Then it was time for bag dropoff and walk to the start. We high-fived Allie and wished her luck!  To me TOU and Allie are one and the same!  Both home-grown Utah pride with world class caliber.  I always feel her awesomeness as I run in her "footsteps"!

A quick selfie before the start! :)  Isn't Toby a beautiful girl!!!

The mountain men fired their riffles and the speedies took off.  Toby jumped in after the 3:55 pace group ran past and I wished her a good run.  Then the rifle fired again as I jumped in between the 4:15 and 4:30 groups.  I said to a fella next to me: "I hope no one got shot! :)"  It was pleasantly cold, clear sky and no wind!  I reminded myself of my motto: "SMOOTHFASTRONG", run SMOOTH in the canyon miles, run FAST thru the small town miles and finish STRONG in the Logan miles.  

What a beautiful Fall day with the gorgeous red, pink, orange, yellow and green gracing the canyon.  I ran with a nice girl, Tami Asbell, from Pleasant Grove and her husband, an ultra runner who just ran Wasatch 100.  It was fun chatting with them.  I checked my splits around mile 5 and told them that we're running a bit faster than I should so I bid them a good run and let them go.  (I later passed them at the 22nd mile and finished 3 min. ahead.) Most of the runners around me had someone to run with, a boy/girl friend, husband/wife, or had ear buds on so I didn't strike up any conversation with them.  I encounter something I've never seen before, a big girl smoking cigarette while running a marathon.  I smelled it when I ran past her and then when she passed me I saw her exhale a billow of smoke...eeek...so I passed her for good!

I focused on smooth strides, quick cadence on the downhills and doing the tangents, lots of crossing the road.  I think I must've annoyed the motorcycle cops! :)  My Garmin's mile is at constant 0.04 ahead of the course mile markers.  My elapsed time would come in couple minutes ahead of the pace band so I'd walk and take my time to hydrate adequately at each aid station.  Came through the half in 2:07:35 (pace band is 2:08 at mile 13).  I drank gatorade at every station, Gu'ed with water at mile 7, 13, 17 and 21.  

As we exited the canyon onto Hallow Rd, my mind was flooded with memories of years past when I'd wait there to run with friends to the finish.  So great to have spectators here to cheer us!  I really miss my hubby who isn't able to come to any of my marathons since we came home in May.  Saw a guy in red polo and kaki and pretended it was hubby cheering me and gave him a high five! :)  

Loved the occasional cooling breeze and shady trees through Hyrum, Nibley, Melville and Providence.  I had to stay focus to not get lazy.  I thought I was running fast but the mile splits showed otherwise.  But I was still on target or couple min. ahead the elapsed times taped on my bib!  I took two ibuprofen and a salt cap at mile 17.  I only walked once at mile 19 to take couple puff of inhaler!  My quads were getting a bit tight on the incline and my shins were vascillating on the decline so I'd change my strides a bit.  I concentrated on reeling people in.  It wasn't hard as there were quite a few people walking.  At the mile 24 aid station, a lady looked at me cheering and said:  "Look at you... still smiling, and still has your lipsticks on!"  Ummm!  smiling yes, but lipsticks no, I don't wear lipsticks, it must be the gatorade! :)  The uphill on Main street to 300N. is not as long as I remembered, still a bugger though with inhaling the motor's exhaust fumes.  When I got to the top, I gave a thumbs up and said thank you to the traffic cop.  At the last aid station, I took a cup of water and dumped it on my head.  With one mile to go, I figured a sub 4:20 is possible if I don't cramp up and stay above 11mm.  

This year the finish is moved to the east side of the park so we had to run one more block before turning north; but then the finish line is within sight, 0.2 mile ahead.  I was so happy to see my watch ticking away at 4:15:xx and 4:20 is well within my reach.  I finished in 4:18:33; 10 minutes faster than Pocatello; good enough to take a mini moose home to keep the other mini moose company!!! :) 

Toby waited for me at the finish with a huge smile...only I had to keep jogging around!  I forgot to warn her that's what I do to keep charlie horse from sudden attack.  I called hubby immediately and found out that he's been changing bloody dressings and putting compression on the PD cath exit site.  I felt so bad.  He was happy to hear that I had a good run! After gathering our bags, we sat on the grass and waited forever for the shuttle bus to take us back to the hotel.  The hotel shower felt heavenly!  We had lunch at Cafe Rio.  We both had a fun time and great run; did not feel any dark moments nor any issues at all.  Toby is such a wonderful friend, great driver and travel companion; not to mention an AWESOME mother, wife and daughter! :) :) :)  

So glad they let me pick up my moose before the award ceremony! :) 

One last selfie while waiting for the shuttle!  THANKS Toby for a GREAT TOU weekend!  You're the best!

I'm pretty proud of how well I ran the tangent with my garmin showing 26.23 miles! :)

Summary

 

Distance:	26.23 mi
Time:	4:18:35
Avg Pace:	9:50 min/mi
Elevation Gain:	274 ft
Calories:	2,263 C

 

 

Details

 

 

Timing

Time:	4:18:35
Moving Time:	4:18:10
Elapsed Time:	4:18:35

Avg Pace:	9:50 min/mi
Avg Moving Pace:	9:51 min/mi
Best Pace:	7:42 min/mi

Speed

Pace

 

 

Elevation

Elevation Gain:	274 ft
Elevation Loss:	1,351 ft
Min Elevation:	4,508 ft
Max Elevation:	5,617 ft

 

 

Running Dynamics 

Avg Run Cadence:	194 spm
Max Run Cadence:	218 spm
Avg Stride Length:	0.84 m

 

 

Laps27

View Splits

Split Time Distance Avg Pace Summary 4:18:35.0 26.23 9:50 1 9:38.4 1.00 9:38 2 9:16.8 1.00 9:17 3 9:07.4 1.00 9:07 4 9:26.6 1.00 9:27 5 9:15.1 1.00 9:15 6 9:56.9 1.00 9:57 7 9:52.8 1.00 9:53 8 9:37.8 1.00 9:38 9 9:40.8 1.00 9:41 10 9:54.2 1.00 9:54 11 9:52.0 1.00 9:52 12 9:59.6 1.00 10:00 13 9:43.1 1.00 9:43 14 9:26.8 1.00 9:27 15 9:34.2 1.00 9:34 16 9:42.5 1.00 9:42 17 9:27.6 1.00 9:28 18 10:15.1 1.00 10:15 19 10:12.0 1.00 10:12 20 10:08.2 1.00 10:08 21 9:31.5 1.00 9:32 22 10:32.5 1.00 10:32 23 10:30.2 1.00 10:30 24 10:34.4 1.00 10:34 25 10:53.8 1.00 10:54 26 10:09.6 1.00 10:10 27 2:15.0 0.23 9:52

 

Weather

 

48°

Feels like 48°

0 mph N wind

Humidity 93%

Source: KLGU

 

Additional Information

Device:

Garmin Forerunner 220, 2.60.0.0

Elevation Corrections   :

Enabled

Summary Data:

Edited

 

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