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2006 Top of Utah Marathon Race Journal
We were riding back to our hotel after running the 2006 Top of Utah marathon. I’d just run the fastest marathon of my life, and was having a pleasant conversation with a woman who helps to organize the Kansas City Marathon. The bus was speeding up a county road through the Cache Valley between Providence and Logan, and we were surrounded by beautiful snow-capped mountains. Suddenly the driver accelerated, and then hit a bump hard. The four of us held our breath as the school bus left the ground. We landed a second later with a bang. Nervous laughter – “I hope you don’t do that with the kids riding” one passenger said. The driver chuckled and replied “They like the smaller bumps”. Oh. The Top of Utah Marathon was a bit like the bus ride. If you relaxed and enjoyed the scenery, the company of fellow crazy people, and the bumps, it was a lot of fun.
Several months back, I had a difficult marathon in Deadwood South Dakota. I’d had two bad races in a row, and this last one cost me plane fare, hotel, and three days away from my family. Time is precious – I need to make these miles count! After listening to me whine about Deadwood for a few minutes, my good friend Landy suggested that I might have taken the distance for granted. He pointed out that after running 10 marathons, I might not have focused enough on training quality. It made a lot of sense – I was running enough miles, but there wasn’t a lot of structure or purpose to them. Based on this, I began doing the ESR track workouts regularly. If I couldn’t run with the group, I did the workouts independently. My brain and body learned to push themselves harder. Right around this time Ed Sobey suggested I might enjoy the Danny Dreyer book Chi Running. Dreyer’s idea is that you can train yourself to run more efficiently by applying the principles of T’ai Chi. The focal points Dreyer lays out are small adjustments. Taken together they can change the way you think about running. A quick read proved intriguing to me, and I began applying the principles of Chi Running. Within a week, I’d had the opportunity to try these adjustments out on both a track workout, and during a 21 mile training run. I wasn’t sure at first whether the positive effects were mental or physical, but I couldn’t dispute that running felt easier. Now that I’d changed how I run, all I had to do was decide on a race. We’d considered the Marine Corps Marathon in DC, but I was captivated by a smaller race in northern Utah that my wife found on http://www.marathonguide.com/. “It’s mostly downhill” she said. She couldn’t ramp her training quickly enough to do it, but thought I might be interested. I read through the guide comments, looked over the course information, and then laid out my training schedule to confirm that the race timing worked for me. There was one last adventure ten days before the race. I jammed my toe while running in along the Ardmore Park trail. According to my orthopedist, the diagnosis was “Turf Toe”. It’s ordinarily a football injury, aka “toe sprain”. I took some extra days off running, loaded up with Aleve, hoped for the best, and swore off full-contact running until after the race. I arrived in Logan Utah two days before the race, wanting to rest up and acclimate a bit. Until arriving I’d been concerned that it might be too warm during the race. I need not have worried. The rain came down steadily for those two days, and in the mountains above Logan there was a thin blanket of snow.
My wakeup call came at 4:15 on race day. I ate a bagel, drank a little water, and headed down to catch the bus. By sunup we were huddled in the warm bus at the Hardware Ranch, an elk preserve in the Blacksmith Fork Canyon. It was actually warmer than expected – 30 degrees! At 6:45, I reluctantly pulled off my long sleeved shirt and lined up for the start. At 7:02, musket shots signaled the start of the race. We wound along a somewhat steep downhill through the ranch buildings. I was alarmed to see my heart rate go to 165, and worried about having another long day like Deadwood. In a few minutes, the grade lessened. Then the benefits of some concentrated belly-breathing kicked in, bringing my heart rate down to a nice low 145.
I was running a nice easy pace, and was a bit surprised when I clicked off the first mile in about 8:11. I checked my heart rate continually – each time I was comfortably below 150 – meaning I was not depleting myself unreasonably. The miles went by, and each mile split was another sub-8:30. It seemed nice and easy. I checked my cadence a number of times, and each time found it a consistent (and on-target) 78-80 strides per minute. I was consciously softening the muscles in my legs and leaning forward gently. The course was stunning – just a narrow ribbon of road unwinding through a beautiful canyon. The hillsides had patches of red and gold leaves. Everything was coming together nicely. So being the worrier that I am, did I sit back and enjoy this? I weighed whether to throw out my goal pace and believe that my low heart rate meant I should expect a good day. I’d planned on doing 8:45 miles for the downhill, and then kicking into high gear for the last 8 miles. I did some quick arithmetic around mile 10 and figured that I should be well within PR range even if I needed to slow down later.
By the time we came out of the canyon and into Hyrum just after mile 14, the downhill grade was no longer discernable. My heart rate began touching 160, so I throttled back a bit. My mile splits were still consistently under 8:30, which surprised me. By the time we began the only protracted climb of the race around mile 18, we were winding through the neighborhoods of Nibley and Millville. The crowds were out at each corner, and gave us a nice boost with their cheering and their signs. When I hit mile 21, I was definitely feeling fatigue as we ran past the upscale new housing developments in Providence. My heart rate was routinely up into the 160s and higher by now. I was alarmed to feel some shooting pain in my left foot (Turf Toe again!). I breathed deeply, contracted my foot a little (to avoid extending the toe), and pushed it out of my mind. I was very consciously relaxing my tired hams and quads, shortening my stride, and drawing deep breaths as we ran into the city of Logan and blew past mile 24. As we turned onto Main Street we went up a quick hill that peaked just in front of the Logan Tabernacle (the late 19th century centerpiece of downtown Logan). By now, I was just about screaming for each mile marker. Everything was going so well and I just didn’t want time to screw it up (ever feel like that?). I hit mile 26 with an 8:11 split and my heart rate around 175. We made the final turn into Merlin Olsen Park. While squinting and trying to read the clock, I stepped into a little pothole, almost turning an ankle. A near disaster averted, I kept my eyes on the road and ran as fast as I could. I crossed the finish at 3:40:24, nearly six minutes better than my previous PR. With the many cultural pursuits available in Logan Utah, I chose my celebration carefully. I went out to a movie and enjoyed an entire box of Reese’s Pieces. I suspect there isn’t very much Chi in those, but they tasted pretty good anyway. As I write these words on the flight home, I feel proud of my effort. But as it is with anything worthwhile, many factors contribute to good results. I think I ran a smart race, staying within sensible limits in the first half, and then pushing hard at the right time. I figure that the long downhill section accounted for perhaps 5 to 10 minutes of time. I think the quality of my training put me in good position to PR even on a flat course. I negative split too – a surprise given that the first half was easier running. I’m also mindful that we never do these things alone. Kris
found the race for me, then she and the girls allowed me to disappear for
three days. I’m also appreciative of the wisdom I got from my friends that
led me to refocus my training and change my form. Charts and Graphs for Running GeeksThe pictures tell the story of the race. Look at the course profile (down for 18, then level - 180 ft of ascent, 1310 ft of descent), the slight upward trend in heart rate, and the fairly steady pace line. Average pace line (second chart down) is also fairly flat (varying only 5-7 seconds from start to finish). This was a pretty well-disciplined race.
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