Finding marathons to run in the fall months are very difficult because of college football. I managed to find a marathon on a weekend where FSU was playing a weaker team thus freeing me up to run versus taking a trip to TLH to see the game (but seeing it on TV is always nice). The marathon -- The Little Grand Canyon Marathon located near Huntington, UT. Where is Huntington, UT you may ask? Kinda in the middle of nowhere. Sometimes getting to the middle of nowhere can be a problem. I was "lucky" enough to use miles to get out SLC for only $10 but I had to put up with an arrival into SLC at 11:30pm and red-eye return to DC at 9am the day after the race. Now getting in at 11:30pm is normally not too bad even with a 6:30am start but having to drive 2.5 hours to get "near" the race start is another story. Even from my hotel in Price, UT, I still had another 20 minute ride to the bib-pick-up area.
So if one can't do the math, I'll do it for you. I arrived at 11:20pm, got my rental car, departed the airport around 11:45pm and headed towards Price, UT. Thank goodness, SLC has some good radio stations. I arrive at my luxurious hotel – the Super 8 – at 1:45am where I'm greeted with a sign "No Vacancy unless you have a reservation." I go to the counter, ring the bell, once, twice, three, four, five times, finally the guys comes out and gives me my key. He is not looking happy. So when I ask to check out at 12:30 he says "No, 11:30!" I get kinda pissed and say I'm not paying you $60 for 2.5 hours. He responded that he needs time to clean the room for future guests. I tell him the only reason your hotel is full is because of the marathon. So off I go, pissed that I need to take my stuff with me when I leave for the race in the morning.
4:45am comes pretty early for me and once again I'm greeted with darkness, I'm beginning to wonder if the sun shines in Utah since I haven't seen it since I arrived. By 5:15am I'm off to the bib-pick-up area and I arrive a little after 5:30am (I sped the whole way).
I get my bib and go back to my rental to stay warm (its cold in the high desert). As 6am approaches, I go to the bathroom, and while waiting in line, this woman would not shutup on how long it is taking people to use the facilities. "When I take a poop, I'm done in two minutes!", "What are these people doing in there?" Blah, blah, cackle, cackle, for what seemed like 10 minutes. It was probably closer to 5 minutes but still…
The buses that were to take us to the start were supposed to depart at 6am but didn't arrive until 6:15am. It was the first running of this race so it is understandable. The first bus pulls up and not everyone can get on. At this point I'm about 5 people from the front of the line when the second bus pulls right in behind the first bus. I made a comment to this woman in front of me, "I bet everyone behind us (end of the line) gets on the bus first." Well, I should probably look at changing careers. The second bus doesn't fill-up by the time I get on.
After a short bus ride, we are dropped off this time in the middle of nowhere.
View Course Map
After using the toilet on the bus (against the wishes of the bus driver), I go outside to look for Dane. I don't see Dane right away but instead I'm standing next to the race director from the E.T. Full Moon Midnight Marathon. I exchanged a few words with her about the race and then I spot Dane. We exchanged greetings and was introduced to a few of his friends. At this point, I see this woman milling around near us and I say to myself "she looks familiar" but then again I do that with a lot of people. Finally I go up to her and it was Miriam from the Sunburst Marathon (we ran Sunburst together for about 15 miles). She would go onto to win the woman's marathon later that day.
After a few words from the race director, he points out that they do things a little different with the mile makers. While most marathons start out with mile 1, this particular race started out at mile 26.2 and counted down. The first mile marker we come across is "26 more miles to go", meaning we got the .2 miles out of the way first. I think for some people these mile markers are hard to get over. I kinda liked that since I do a countdown at mile 17 of every marathon. That is the first point in the race that there are single digit miles left in the marathon (unless for those of you technicality people who think that once you cross mile 16 then it is single digits).
So finally, on a crystal clear morning with calm winds, temperature of 55F (the low that morning was 48F), and a rising sun in our faces, the marathon gets underway. I run the first .2 miles in 1:17. Not a bad pace but something tells me to slow down a little and I eventually do, running at the same pace of one of the guys that I was introduced to at the starting line – Bryan. I ran with Bryan for the next 13 miles, swapping the occasional marathon story. Come to find out, we both ran the First Light Marathon, both PRed but I outdueled him by 20 seconds. The problem is Bryan is 13 years older than I am. J However, for this race we both agree a time of under 3:30 is just fine. For me, I had not run anything over 10 miles since the last marathon in June, was working on 2.5 hours of sleep and I had my camera with me to take pictures.
At about "20 miles to go" we are passed by 4 runners and Bryan and I ask each other are we slowing down? The answer was no, these guys were obviously in a hurry to get somewhere. As we approached mile 13, I told Bryan about my "pass but don't be passed rule" and that I would press it up a bit once we got to 13. I hit the halfway point at 1:43:51 and after a pit-stop, I was off to catch the pack in front of me.
I started using fixtures on the side of the road to time how far I was back. The first time hack had me back 1:50. That is a long time in running but with 13 miles to go that is manageable. By "11 miles to go" I had caught two of the four people I could see and I had my sites set on the third runner. At "10 miles to go", I caught the third runner. As I caught up next to him, he asks "How old are you?", I reply I'll be 37 on Tuesday. His reply, I'm 52 and that guy up there is 57. My reply, "Well then you are in perfect place because you have a guy who is 50 right on your tail."
Also, at "10 miles to go" we entered the area around the "Little Grand Canyon" and the camera came out. I must be somewhat demoralizing when someone passes you and that person has a camera out taking pictures every few seconds/minutes.
While this is not the Grand Canyon, it was still impressive.
So impressive that I would put it right up there next to Antarctica and Egypt as far as scenery goes in a marathon. I think looking around took my attention away from running because the mile markers just seemed to fly by. I did manage to close within 20 seconds of the fourth guy but then we rounded a bend and there just 30 feet off the course were the BuckHorn Wash Panel Pictographs. The main pictograph panel was painted over 2,000 years ago by the Barrier Canyon culture (Fremont Indians).
Can you spot the runner? Kinda grainy but look for a blue speck on the road
I must have stayed at this spot for almost a minute taking pictures, it is not every day that you get to see something like this. After being a tourist, it was time to become a runner again. The guy in front of me who I'd been chasing was no where to been seen. I had "3 miles to go" to catch him. When I finally spotted him again, I was about 1:50 behind him again. At this point of the course, while still overall downhill as it had been since "20 miles to go", there were a few more dips which meant there were a few areas where we had to run "uphill" a bit.
With about 1 mile to go, I passed the last aide station and asked for a beer and the college freshmen volunteers looked stunned but then I hear from the side of the road about 100 feet away, "We have beer over here!" It was some campers who obviously heard me but they were a little too far away from the course to go over and have a cool refreshing beverage. I still had a runner catch. With about .5 mile to go I pass some half-marathoners or 10Kers who mentioned that the runner in front of me appeared to be slowing down. In deed he was or I was speeding up. I was closing but I think I realized that this point with less than .5 mile to go I would not catch him.
As I approached the finish line, I could feel my foot begin to cramp which is usually a warning sign that a leg cramp is about to happen (70% of the time this happens). Well after tip-toeing across the last cattle crossing (which didn't have a plank to run across), my left hamstring/calf cramped up on me. With about 75 yards to go the cramp was manageable and I came across the line in 3:24:41. Good enough for 3rd in my age and 9th overall but 20 seconds behind the guy I had been chasing for 13 miles.
Looking pretty bloated for some reason
Overall, a great race. 2nd fastest marathon of the year (out of 8 marathons). My median time for marathons this year is down by almost 10 minutes/ average time is down by 14 minutes from 2007. It was more of a return to running long distances. I think it gives me a bit of confidence heading into the later fall races. First race that I have ever run that was primarily downhill. I'm one who prefers hilly races and have excelled on hilly courses. Some of my flat course times have been slower or the same as some of the hilly courses that I have run (i.e. Sunburst vs. Hatfield McCoy vs Flying Monkey) Even my PR came on a somewhat hilly First Light course. So eventually I'll need to turn it up a notch on flat/down hill courses in the future (and if a boring course, leave the camera at home).
Up next Crazy Horse/Mount Rushmore.
PS, the hotel, I went back there and because I bitched at him, he didn't bother the room – I left my room after taking a shower at 12:30pm.
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