|
2003 Top of Utah Marathon (Saturday, September 20, 2003)
My 2nd marathon
This was the 2nd marathon for my wife Becky and I. It was the first marathon
for our nephew Josiah, who attends college in Logan, Utah, where the marathon
is based.
I had knee problems training for this one, and never got in a training run of
more than 12 miles. About a month before the marathon, I sat myself down, and
decided that I still wanted to do the marathon, even though I clearly
wouldn't be able to run the whole thing. I started adding some walking workouts to
my schedule. My goal was pretty modest; I would use a run-walk approach, and
simply try to beat the six hour cutoff time for the marathon.
Logan is a scenic little town of about 43,000 people, located in the northern
part of Utah (the "Top of Utah", get it?). The marathon starts off in a
canyon southeast of town, at an elevation of 5,850 feet, and finishes downtown at
an elevation of 4,535 feet. The canyon is closed to vehicular traffic for the
duration of the marathon. All runners congregate at the finish area before the
race, and ride school buses to the start.
At 5:00 AM Saturday morning, we were riding the bus to the top of the canyon.
It was pitch black outside, and the ride seemed to take forever. I found
plenty of time to question my sanity for running a race that I hadn't been able to
prepare for. At the starting area it was 35 degrees; however, there was no
wind, so it didn't feel too bad. At 7:00 AM, the race was officially started
when some people dressed in old-style frontier apparel fired a couple of
rifleshots into the air.
As soon as we started, I stopped worrying. All I had to do was traverse 26.2
miles. I could do this. I adopted a 20-10 pace (20 minutes running, followed
by 10 minutes walking). I also walked through a lot of the rest stops. This
worked out pretty well; I was able to maintain this pace for the duration of the
marathon. I had lots of time during my walk breaks to admire the gorgeous
scenery. All in all, it was a great experience. The volunteers were wonderful,
and the other runners were great as well.
In the end, I finished up at 5:08:49. This was slower than my first marathon,
and near the back of my age group, but I finished in much better shape, and I
never hit the wall. I came up with a list of the differences that made this a
better experience than my first marathon:
- I didn't work out at all during the week before the marathon
- I made sure that I started slowly
- I walked a lot more frequently
- I ate earlier and more frequently during the marathon
- I drank more
My wife and my nephew also had good marathon experiences. Becky had a PR of
5:43:53, beating her previous time by 30 minutes. Josiah had a time of 3:48:20.
Not bad for a first-timer!
If anyone wants to run a small marathon (capped at 2,200 runners) in a scenic
location, I can strongly recommend the Top of Utah marathon.
Ed
|
