Utah Valley Marathon – Provo, UT

April 12, 2008

I decided to give another road marathon a try.   When I started running, I went straight to ultras, skipping the marathon stuff because I hate running roads.   In 2006 I gave the Deseret News Marathon  a try for fun to see what I could do.  I didn’t do any special training for it and ended up with a 3:44.   I suspected I could do better but I have low motivation training to shave off minutes.  I would rather train to push distance.

Well, I signed up for a new marathon in nearby Provo.  I knew it would be different from a typical road marathon because much of it runs on the Provo River Parkway, a paved trail the winds along the Provo River to Utah Lake.  (Once I ran this trail end-to-end and back.)  Also, there would be several miles of dirt road around the Provo airport.  This would be quite a bit more technical than the typical city marathon.

I didn’t do any special training, nor did I really taper for it.  In the days before it, I discovered a new training route near my home along a high ridge above the Ranches in Eagle Mountain.   I came up with a nice 11-mile loop that I could complete in about two hours before work.   It is great fun because it climbs up to the ridge and then rolls up and down, and winds in and out among the cedars.  Down below are great views of the city lights.   I ran that loop three consecutive mornings and then took Friday off for a very short rest.   Not a great way to taper for a race.   On top of all that, I finished the Moab 100 two weeks previous in 23:33.    I had little road training, just a couple 10Ks last month.  I was curious to know how fast I could do this marathon course with this silly training and lack of tapering.

The field was small for this new marathon, only about 100.  Also affecting it, the large Salt Lake City Marathon is scheduled for the following week.   But still, I saw several friends at the start as we shivered, standing around some barrel-fires in the sub-freezing temperature near Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon, waiting for the start.

Provo River Parkway down Provo Canyon

At 6:00 a.m. we were away, running down the canyon on the paved trail.   I was one of the few with a flashlight.  I’ve face-planted too many early miles in races, so I brought a small headlamp that I carried in my hand.   I felt great, and during the early miles probably ran in the top 10.   My first few miles were 6:52, 6:51, 7:05, 6:59, and 7:06.    We left the paved trail and spilled out on some streets as the dawn arrived.  My pace slowed as the downhill disappeared. 

The roads were somewhat annoying because they kept us near the shoulder and we ran along many crowned roads, with a slope to the left.  At times when the car traffic was light, I jumped out in the car lane to get a more level surface.  At times I also jumped off the road onto dirt or grassy areas.   We had a couple uphills that actually felt pretty good.   My mile times from miles 6-10 were: 7:45, 7:50, 7:01, 8:41, and 7:27.

Near the LDS motion picture studio, we started an out-and-back that involved a loop for a few miles.   It was a moderate uphill until the top of the loop, then downhill back.   This also gave me a chance to see other running friends.  I was several miles ahead of Jarom Thurston, who was doing a training run with a backpack, training for Badwater.  I also saw Julie Nelson.

I was excited to rejoin the Provo River Parkway (paved trail) that winds along the Provo River, down below the city streets.  It became much more technical than a typical marathon because of the uneven paved surface and the dips to go underneath bridges.  But I loved it.   We ran along the river for about six miles until we reached Utah Lake.   My mile times from 11-15 were:  7:43, 8:05, 7:27, 8:02, and 8:05.   I hoped to continue to average below 8-minute miles for awhile more.

I caught up with some older guys, not in the race, who were just running along the trail for a morning run.   As I caught up, I encouraged them to keep up with me.  One of them did for about a half mile and we had fun talking.  He then bid good-bye and waited for his friends.

Read near the outlet of Provo River, heading to the airport

Next up was a long loop around the Provo Airport, along the banks of Utah Lake.  I looked across the lake and spied my hometown, Saratoga Springs about 11 miles to the northwest.   At mile 18, just before we reached a fun dirt road section, I felt a sharp burning pain in my tight left calf.   Oh, know!  I knew I had a small tear.   I immediately started to limp.   This was going to be a bad problem.  I was disappointed because I knew I was on pace for a sub-3:30 finish.   I did everything I could do to keep a good pace going without risking further injury.   I didn’t want to jeopardize my upcoming races.

It was very tough, I hobbled poorly and a couple runners caught up.   But others ahead were slowing down.   I had plenty of energy left, but the muscle just wouldn’t cooperate.   A further difficulty was the rough dirt road.  I would normally thrill in running on such a surface, but it caused bad pain in my left leg.   On I plodded doing an ultra shuffle.  Several times I stopped to try to massage the calf, but I discovered that each time I stopped, it got tighter and was more difficult to get the pace going again.  But I kept it up.   I reset my finishing goal and wanted to at least shoot for a 2009 Boston Marathon qualifying time for me of 3:35.  I knew to do it, I needed to try to keep the mile times near 9 minutes.  My mile times from 16-22 were:  8:11, 8:27, 9:10, 8:00, 8:50, 8:13, and a slow 11:32 as I really started to suffer. 

Near the finish area

Finally we were again on straight paved roads for the final miles.   I tried to push my pace with smaller, faster, strides.  I could hear a runner behind me and managed well to keep ahead of them.   Well, I kept it together and finished miles 23-26 in: 9:11, 9:34, 9:15, and 8:59.  In the home-stretch there were some slow-moving runners ahead of me but I just couldn ‘t risk a sprint.    I finished in 20th place with a 3:34:06.  

Despite my difficulties during the final miles, I was pleased with the finish.   I ended up in 5th place for my age group.  The two slow moving runners who finished less than a minute before me were in my group.   Oh well.

So, I did better than I expected for an old guy, almost 50, who runs much slower ultra paces.