Top of Utah

Intended this to be a quick post - it's late, and I'm tired after a busy weekend. But it got long. Oh well. Have barely had time to check my e-mail let alone blog or download any photos. Tomorrow I will download some pictures and get them on here.

Friday pm Sue and I drove the 90 miles or so to Logan for the Top of Utah (TOU) marathon. We were coaching Amber, Abbra, and Mark. Amber & Abbra were first time marathoners; Mark was on his 4th or 5th marathon but hoping for a 3:30 or less to qualify for the Boston Marathon and a 3:15 or less for a new PR. He is a very talented runner! He's also had several family members with blood cancer so he was motivated and excited to raise the $ for TNT.

We checked in our hotel (a nice Holiday Inn Express on the north end of town) and then went to packet pickup and got our bibs, shirts, etc., including a pearl necklace from Overstock.com. Nice race schwag! The expo was small but decent; they had some $5 technical shirts, pants, and sports bras in sale bins. I thought about getting some but decided I probably had enough gear :).

After that we went to our inspiration diner at Le Nonne, a fabulous little Italian restaurant downtown. We ate on the patio, as the weather was perfect for it. Great food, too! At the end of our dinner, Ian & his dad came to talk to us. Ian is a leukemia survivor, and I think he's about 8 years old. Always good to hear a reminder of why we are doing this.

The race in brief - this is getting longer and I need some rest - Sue took everyone to the start but I waited at mile 14. Wanted to split it up because of my foot and the Portland marathon in 2 weeks. I ran hard with Mark for about 0.3-0.4 miles at mile 14; he was doing probably 6:30/mile when I was with him. Amazing. I couldn't keep up for long and was worried about hurting my foot with the running, and besides, he looked great so I left him. He said he was doing well and was optimistic for his BQ.

Then I went back & waited for Sue, Amber & Abbra. Saw them about an hour later and racewalked Amber & Abbra in to the finish. It was slow going; Sue had carefully started them slowly (2:30 half marathon) to help them save something for the end as they hadn't done enough of the long training miles, but even so, it was hard for them. Miles 19-26 were particularly hard with lots of walking, etc. I did my best to keep them going, and it worked OK, since they finished the race. Amber got a bit ahead of us, so Sue took her into the finish from mile 24, and I took Abbra all the way to 26.2. I racewalked most of it but at the finish Abbra sprinted hard and I did have to run hard to stay with her the last tenth. It was impressive!

Oh, about mile 19 or 20 I called Sue and she put Mark on the phone - he finished in 3:14:40, getting a new PR and his BQ! He was 67th finisher out of about 2400 runners, and 6th in his age group. Awesome!

Amber & Abbra finished in about 5:30 and 5:40 respectively. They were justifiably proud of gritting it out to the finish. It was Amber's 26th b-day that day, and she did her 26.2 :)!

With the back & forth I did with Mark and also at mile 16ish (I chatted with a walker from Cedar City, Chris, and walked with her a while before going back for Amber & Abbra, who were behind her), my total miles were about 13.5. My foot ached the whole time, pretty much, but it wasn't too awful. The pain was pretty subdued. I did put on a lidocaine patch but it would NOT stay put and ended up by my toes. I guess I won't be able to use them for the race, sadly :(. But at least the pain wasn't too bad, and it's only been a achy today, not painful.

It was a very scenic race, and one that might be fun to racewalk someday. It has a 6 hour time limit, so not good for slower walkers, but fine for racewalking. I'd recommend it highly. The aid stations & volunteers were great. There were not a lot of spectators (small town marathon) but the ones who were out there were enthusiastic.

Stay tuned for a post about the rest of the weekend - relaxed a lot w/Loren and it was great! Will also post some photos of the race, etc... but not until tomorrow. I am way too tired and up too late!