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. | 