Utah Valley Marathon Report

Let's get the most important part of this blog out of the way first. I set a personal record of 3:35:37! I beat my other PR by 17 minutes. So I am pretty pumped to write this report because of that. Quick recap of the weekend - Audrey and I left Friday morning for Provo, UT - Made it to the Race Expo in the afternoon - Got our Bibs & SWAG Bags and checked out the booths at the Expo - Checked into our motel - Drove our morning route to make sure we knew where the buses were going to pick us up - Walked around the Mall for a little bit - Picked up my Subway supper - Set out all our gear for the morning - Went to bed.

Saturday morning started at 2:45 a.m. when the first of our three alarms went off. We have missed a race once because our alarm clock died; won't happen again. Audrey and I started getting everything ready; shower, breakfast, race clothes, warm clothes to wear to the start, etc... The one thing about this race that was different than all of our other races was that we were running two different distances in different starting places. Audrey had to drop me off at my bus pickup at 3:45 a.m. so I could be bused the 26.2 miles up Provo Canyon to the start. Then she had to drive to the half marathon pickup for her. She went for the half because she didn't have enough time this Spring to do the training she needed for the full. You'll have to check out her blog http://www.audreyross.blogspot.com/ to hear about her race.

I loaded onto my bus around 4:00 a.m., headed to the back, and sat down. After about 10 minutes the bus filled and we headed up the canyon. I sat next to a high school kid from Cleveland, Ohio who was running his 2nd marathon and his parents were there with him. The ride took about 45 minutes, and they dropped us off at this little side road in Wallsburg, Utah. It was dark and cold, and I still had an hour and fifteen minutes to wait until the start. Luckily I had an over sized XXL coat that I was going to get rid of at the race start to keep warm. They had fire rings set up in different places, but breathing in all the smoke wasn't very beneficial. And then people started burning their clothes because there was no more wood. I steered clear of those.

Finally it was time for the race to start. The canon went off, I threw off my coat and headed into the moving pack of runners. The first couple of miles go through the small town of Wallsburg, and I was just trying to get feeling to come back into my feet and legs after being out in the cold for so long just sitting and waiting.
I warmed up after about 3 or 4 miles and was moving along a decent pace, not wanting to get drawn in by others who were going faster, still wanting to remain pretty comfortable.
The mountains were amazing to look at while running, and a couple of horses along the course made me laugh because they were running around all excited. I think because they saw 1,500 other people running they thought they should too.
I decided to carry my own water bottle for the entire course. The Camelbak Pro Chill.

It worked out great to be able to drink whenever I wanted and not wait for the Aid Stations. I think I refilled my bottle 4 or 5 times throughout the entire race, twice with Powerade. I also carried 4 energy gels and 4 electrolyte tablets and used them all. I even got 2 more gels and 2 half bananas from other Aid Stations and ate those too. I never felt hungry and I really didn't want to run out of energy.
From mile 7-9 there are a couple of good uphills, but the rest of the course was pretty much down the canyon. I felt pretty good up to the halfway point; 13.1 miles. I was wearing my Saucony Kinvaras which don't have a lot of support on the upper, and the longest run I had done in them up to the marathon was 10 miles. So my feet started to ache some then.
From there until about mile 22 I tried to focus on listening to my music, keeping a steady pace, watching other people, looking at the scenery; just about everything to keep on going.
At mile 22 I experienced a little bit of crampage and had to stop a couple of times for a quick stretch to hopefully loosen up the muscles that were causing me massive amounts of pain. I kept going and they actually subsided a little bit, and by that I mean enough for me to not have to stop and walk.
The last 3 miles I took it one mile at a time and was gutting it out. I knew that I could still finish under 3 hours and 40 minutes if I ran 10 minute miles at that point, and I knew I could at least do that.
Within the last half mile I realized that if I pushed a little harder I could possibly finish in 3:35, so I picked up the pace some and came across the line in 3 hours 35 minutes and 37 seconds.

I got my finisher medal and started hobbling around knowing that it was going to take a while for my legs to stop cramping. Audrey found me and took this wonderful picture. I was in some definite pain at this point. It's kind of amazing how your body feels okay while you are running that far and then when you stop it hurts so much worse.
I got some water and sat for a while, stretched some, walked around a little, got my results, and then ate 2 pieces of pizza and an ice cream bar, and then headed for the motel to shower. Overall, I really enjoyed the race because 1. the weather was just about perfect 2. I set a new record and ran really well 3. I got to do something that I love. Things I would have changed 1. The early bus ride and waiting for over an hour 2. Not being with Audrey.
Here are some other pictures:

Mile Marker 21 on the pavement

My results in my age division

The back of the shirts

Mass of people coming down the canyon