Salt Lake City Marathon: April 21, 2007

In a way, I almost feel like I've sold my soul. I swore, or nearly swore, that I'd never give Devine Racing another penny after what they did with the Salt Lake City Marathon and the 2006 date change. Well, after they reversed that date change this year, I somehow convinced myself that I needed to run it.

Still, I ended up having a pretty good time.

The weather was the big question in the days and hours leading up to the start. Weather predictions had a high for the day vacillating between 40° and 50°, and the chance for precipitation between 10% and 30%. If the drive up Saturday morning was to be any indication of what the race would be like, it was going to be wet. Fortunately, it wasn't.

I arrived at the Energy Solutions Arena (formerly the Delta Center) and boarded TRAX and headed east to the starting line. I found myself alone amongst hundreds of other runners and bikers. Oh well, I've been "alone" since February 23, 2004. I can handle it.

The Bike Tour got started at 6:00 and I was a casual observer of that. One poor guy was clipped into his bike raring to go, but got stopped due to the ebb and flow of the crowded start. My guess is that he unclipped his right shoe but leaned left. With his left foot still clipped in, he couldn't get back up. With the help of others he managed to almost get back up twice only to fall back down each time. Finally, he got all the way up and humbly exited the scene.

By the time my race began, I had run across 3 persons of whom I have an association. One of which was going to allow me to run with her for as long as I could. (I made it one mile.) We lined up close to the 4 hour pace group and listened to a lovely rendition of the National Anthem performed by the One Voice Children's Choir. America's Mayor, Rocky Anderson, the biggest freaking idiot around these parts, said a few words and then they started us.

I almost made it a whole mile before I had to peel off and find a tree. I'll note here that it was the exact same group of trees, if not the same tree, that I peed behind in 2005. I lost my running buddy at that point and ran the rest of the way, all 25.2 miles, all by my little old lonesome self...

My splits:

• Mile 1: 9:36
• Mile 2: 7:38
• Mile 3: 8:18
• Mile 4: 7:33
• Mile 5: 8:07
• Mile 6: 8:36
• Mile 7: 8:41
• Mile 8: 11:27 (Port-a-potty stop)
• Mile 9: 8:49
• Mile 10: 8:30
• Mile 11: 11:53 (Port-a-potty stop #2-way early in the mile)
• Mile 12: 10:11 (Port-a-potty stop #3-way late in the mile)
• Mile 13: 8:49
• Mile 14: 8:29
• Mile 15: 8:44
• Mile 16: 9:06
• Mile 17: 8:48
• Mile 18: 11:01
• Mile 19: 8:51
• Mile 20: 10:01
• Mile 21: 9:40
• Mile 22: 10:00
• Mile 23: 10:26
• Mile 24: 9:52
• Mile 25: 10:46
• Mile 26: 9:37
• Mile 26.2: 2:50
• Total: 4:06:25

The cool thing about wearing a Garmin Forerunner is that it will tell you what your actual time moving was and, according to Garmin, I "ran" my marathon in 3:58:49! Seriously sweet!

I guess.

I won't allow myself to use that time for anything. Still...

So, there you have it. Happy now?

5 Days...

5 days remain until the SLCM.

CBS Fires Don Imus...

I don't like or dislike Don Imus. Never listened to a word he's ever said until this recent brouhaha over his comments regarding the Rutger's women's basketball team. Deplorable comments. Completely unacceptable.

Enough to fire someone over though? That I'm not sure of.

What really bugs me is the perception that activists Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson were instrumental in his firing. I can't think of two more hypocritical people on this earth.

If the firing of Imus is the result of offense after offense after offense, fine. If it's a result of this one issue and two loud-mouth activists spouting off, not cool.

I've been a bit negligent in blogging as of late. Much of that stems from the chewing out I got after my last post. Sheesh! Oh well.

Nine days until the Salt Lake City Marathon. I'm as ready as I'm going to get. Since my last reported run (7.1 miles on March 26th), I've run 7 times.

• March 28-10.14 miles at a 8:41 pace
• March 30-5.04 miles at a 8:36 pace
• April 02-9.04 miles at a 8:32 pace
• April 04-9.1 miles at a 8:56 pace
• April 07-12.49 miles at a 8:42 pace
• April 09-6.11 miles at a 8:40 pace
• April 11-6.11 miles at a 8:19 pace

All were good runs, especially yesterdays. My last mile was done in 7:42--and I had more to give.

Not included was a 21.5 mile bike ride on April 06. I'll probably ride the bike again tomorrow, weather permitting.

Anyways, 9 days to the marathon. I missed/cut short my really long runs and I hope that doesn't come back to bite me in the arse. I'd like to come in close to 4 hours, but anything under 4 1/2 will be acceptable. Weather.com, on it's 10-day forecast, is predicting showers, a low of 44° and a high of 60° on race day. The temperatures sound fine, but I'll pass on the rain, thank you very much. (As if I even had the choice...)

Exactly 4 weeks after Salt Lake is the Ogden Marathon. This is the one I'm really hoping to come through on. My fastest time at Ogden is 4:05 despite my contention that I'm going to PR there. My marathon PR is 3:35 so I've got 30 minutes plus to cut. With the training I've done (and the long training run SLCM is providing) I really hope that 2007 is my year to break 4 hours up there. Who knows, maybe I'll even get my PR! I wonder if I should get a hotel room up there this year?