Running on Twinkies

Mesa Falls Marathon

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Location:

Bountiful,UT,USA

Member Since:

Jan 24, 2009

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Other

Running Accomplishments:

Winner of 1994 Teton Dam Half Marathon, 1:25:01.

Best Marathon: 3:23:40. (Deseret News 2006).

Completed Utah Grand Slam (2006).

Completed 8 Marathons in 1 year, the last four were each two weeks apart.

Marathons to date: 25.

Short-Term Running Goals:

Stay Healthy

Sub 3:15 Marathon

Train consistently

Finish in the top 10% at all races 

Long-Term Running Goals:

Sub 3 hr marathon

Complete a 100 miler

1st Overall at any race

 

 

Personal:

Hi, my name is Matt and I love to run! I especially enjoy trail running. I am married to Susie and we have six children Connor-10, Jed-8, Jaxine-7, Evan-4, Eliza-2, and Susanna-0. Look for me at your next race, I wear the same bright yellow Twinkies shirt at all my races.

Favorite Course: Mid-Mountain Marathon, Park City, Utah

Favorite Blogs:

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Race: Mesa Falls Marathon (26.38 Miles) 04:01:22, Place in age division: 6
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
1.0026.380.000.0027.38

Today I ran the Mesa Falls Marathon. I have been waiting for a year to run it. I was registered for it last year, but was unable to run. The race director was nice enough to hold my registration for this year. This was my second time running the course. I ran it back in 2004.

The course is very scenic. It starts in a forested area and the first ten miles are on a gravel road. I really enjoyed this part and settled in at about an 8:35 pace. Everything was feeling great. The next 3 miles are on paved road. The pavement just wasn't that exciting for me, but I kept the pace about the same. At mile 13 we passed all of the half marathoners waiting to start. Their start was 2 hours after ours. I was glad that I made it passed them before the all took off.

Just after that is my favorite part of the course. It's a rail trail with a gradual downhill grade for 3 miles. My body loves to run trails, so without realizing it, I picked up the pace to 8 minute miles. About 1.5 miles down the trail, the first half marathoner blew past me. It really played with my mental game when these guys with fresh legs passed me. The trail wasn't long enough, and soon we were back on the road. This was the first time I saw my family. My parents, wife, and two of my kids were there to cheer me on. The rest of the course is on roads, and none of the roads are closed to traffic, so I saw them several more times. The support was great.

At mile 17 there is a large hill. I was still feeling pretty good, so I went into one of my lower gears and headed up the hill. On top we came out of the forest and ran alongside grain and potato fields all the way into Ashton. The sun was out and it was getting hot. After that there are a few rollings hills but nothing too bad. Between miles 19 and 20, I could tell that I had reached my max for what I had trained for. My longest run this year was sixteen miles and I only started training in June. My body was tired and the heat wasn't helping. I tried to keep some kind of pace up, but the last few miles were slow. I was able to run the whole thing though and finished at 4:01:22. I came in 6th in my age group. I was surprised that my placing was that high. 

At the end of the race when they give each runner their medal, they also give out a coupon to get a free huckleberry milkshake at the local ice cream/soda fountain shop. It was delicious. It was definitely worth running 26.2 miles. This is one of my favorites races and I highly recommend it. 

Comments
From Russ on Sat, Aug 27, 2011 at 20:46:15 from 24.72.198.228

Nice! We did the Grand Teton Relay last week, which started in Ashton and went up to Mesa Falls and around, so I became familiar with many of the roads you described. Some year I'll do the Mesa Falls marathon. There's a great New York Times piece on it from a few years ago and it sounds like a fantastic race. Great job today.

From allie on Sat, Aug 27, 2011 at 22:40:47 from 24.10.191.18

sounds like a very cool race. i especially like the huckleberry milkshake part. nice job, twinkies.

From Rye on Sat, Aug 27, 2011 at 22:55:31 from 174.27.85.204

Congrats, wish I could have been there with ya! Those shakes are awesome. Well deserved. Have a nice weekend and enjoy this Idaho weather... It's been nasty hot!

From Rye on Sat, Aug 27, 2011 at 22:56:16 from 174.27.85.204

I almost forgot... did you run into Jeff Shadley. I'm sure he won the race.

From Kelli on Sat, Aug 27, 2011 at 23:24:30 from 71.219.67.82

OH, had I known the race gave out free ice cream, I would have been there! And Huckleberry to boot! DELISH!

Nice job on the race and powering through those last miles, they are always tough!

From Neil on Sun, Aug 28, 2011 at 00:12:58 from 97.121.4.242

Congrats and enjoyed your report. Mesa Falls was my first marathon. Love that race. The milkshake was so thick you almost needed a spoon. Gotta get back there again.

From Scott Wesemann on Mon, Aug 29, 2011 at 12:52:29 from 205.158.160.209

Huckleberry shakes are soooo good! I'm totally craving one now. Congrats on another marathon! Good to see you back in the game.

From Kam on Mon, Aug 29, 2011 at 18:31:54 from 68.66.163.179

Congrats, Matt. There's nothing like huckleberries in August.

From Bern on Mon, Aug 29, 2011 at 22:02:58 from 71.32.194.39

No milkshake for me. I had my heart set on that Frostop root beer mug across the street.

From Twinkies on Tue, Aug 30, 2011 at 10:22:34 from 72.37.171.44

Thank you for the nice comments everyone. It was a good race to start things back up after my disaster in Layton last year.

From jtshad on Tue, Aug 30, 2011 at 11:37:54 from 204.134.132.225

It was great meeting you and good job on the race. It is indeed scenic (loved the view of the Tetons around mile 4.5!). It is a kinda tricky race between the forest service roads, pavement and trail and the switching you do back and forth.

That hill is tough and the heat this year was a killer! Great job pushing through that last 10k.

Yes, indeed the milkshakes were great! The have great ice cream there as well for which we had to take our kids there twice over the weekend.

Keep up the good running.

From Burt on Tue, Aug 30, 2011 at 15:58:51 from 206.19.214.144

Excellent job Twinkies.

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