In case you didn't know and didn’t get stuck in traffic, today was
the SLC Marathon (not to be confused with the race that was on
Monday). When I showed up I had no idea
who else would be there but I figured a $2,000 purse for a western state
resident would attract at least a couple high teen marathoners. But to my surprise
the only people I saw at the start line running the marathon were the locals,
i.e. James, Dennis S., Rossy, Steve and Bill and then a couple of guys who had
Boulder Running shirts. Of course this didn’t really change my mentality or
strategy for the race but I was still surprised.
The race started promptly at 7 and I went out with Brad, Ben
and Riley who were running the half.
Their first few miles were low 5’s, which felt slightly uncomfortable
for the start of a marathon so I backed off a bit. Passed Jake and Lulu at
about mile 1.5 and pretended that I wasn’t working hard. Went through the first 5k in 16:09 (just
because I had to beat my 17:15 from last week) then had some slower miles as I
rounded SHP and got back to 17th east. Although that out and back in the SHP parking
was a little odd I am glad it was there
or else I would have never known Seth was in the race and wasn’t too far
behind. I didn’t look back again but
just knowing he was there probably kept me more focused. The 17th east stretch felt fine but the hill
up 27th and up Keller Lane felt like it took a little out of
me. Fortunately the Evergreen
cheerleaders were out in full force with pompoms plus I knew that once I got on
23rd and headed south my quads would have some time to recover. The next few
miles felt good and I went through the halfway point at 1:11:33, which is
exactly where I wanted to be. Miles 13
through about 17 were some of my favorite miles because they are slightly
downhill and I oddly enjoyed the isolation and wide road on Van Winkle. After those miles I began the LONG straight
stretch on 5th east. It was
super uneventful and all I can remember is some guy talking to my bike pacer
about the pace car. After 2 hours
staring at it my best guess is a corvette with an ugly white stripe. After the 5th east march it was
nice to merge with the half runners and run the rest of the way with them. One girl sped up as I passed her and we probably
ran .2 miles together, which means I ran solo for the other 26. This was about mile 24 and then I had the fun
time of finishing up state street than running as fast as possible to the
finish on South Temple. Gateway was a
more exciting finish because it got louder but it was still fun to finish with
a downhill stretch.
Overall I feel pretty good about the race. It was a 4.5 min PR on this course and
despite going out a bit too fast, like always, I didn’t lose too much at the
end. My only regret is I let one 6+ mile slip in at the end. :)
Enough about me. I
think the performance of the day goes to Steve who threw down a 2:37 (1st
masters, 3rd overall) only 5 days after Boston. Andrea also had a great come back run winning
the half by 2 minutes. Ben, Allie,
Devra, James, and Rossy plus the two troopers/pacers (Scott and Dan) all ran
well.
After the race it was fun to hang out with Nicolai and Thomas (coolest
kids in the world) and chat with many of the above. 
| 
