Salt Lake 1/2 Marathon

Me again looking slow

Me after the race with Alexis, Gavin and Cole

Well as expected the race was hard. I was still not feeling good when I started and it didn't get much better by the end.  The good news is that I made my goal of being under 2 hours @ 1:56:20.63.  I was 18th of 26 in my division and 180th of 392.  I think that if I was feeling better I would have come in closer to 1:45 minutes. 







Here are the top 10 things I learned from the race:

1.  If you are sick it is going to suck.
2.  It will take twice as long to recover from your cold if you do it anyway. (still sick)
3.  I really don't care about being sick.
4.  Hill/speed work might be a bad idea 3 days before a race.  ( I really felt it when running up the hills)
5.  I don't like my New Balance 1065's.  They are too heavy for longer runs.  That being said I didn't have any blisters.
6.  The people who are fast are really fast.  I pretty much lost site of them by the 3rd mile.  I have a long ways to go.
7.  On the downhill I was running at my goal pace of 7min/mile for about a mile.  Wow that would be hard to go 26 miles that fast.  I need to be at least 10 - 15 lbs lighter.
8.  I need to have my wife take pictures at the beginning of the race rather than the end.  I always look so tired when I finish.
9.  I had too much gear on.  I had a Garmin GPS watch, my Blackberry in an armband for music, and a Camelback for water. 
10.  I need to run more, sprint more, do hills more, and train harder.  Finishing isn't a big deal but finishing strong is.

Well that's about it.  I haven't written lately because I have been sick and not doing a lot of working out.  Immediately after the race I went to Village Sports Den and picked up my bike an rode it home.  It felt great to ride all downhill after the race.

Last weekend I went for a 26 mile bike ride on my favorite route.  I go from my house up to Wasatch blvd. and go south to about 8200 south and go back.  I keep feeling like I am better but that bike ride almost killed me.  I thought I was going to throw up multiple times and I wasn't even going that hard.  I am going to try and go on a ride tomorrow and hopefully it will be better.
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Out of the water and on to land

It is 5:30 am and I am sitting on a bus on my way to another race. This race is the Salt Lake 1/2 marathon. A lot of things have changed from my last post including the purchase of a new bike! As bad as ot might sound I have not been back in the water since the last race. I have been running off and on for the past few weeks including a 10 mile run with my father in-law. That was an interesting run. We stopped at mile 6 for an espresso.
Today I am feeling sick. I have been fighting off a cold all week. Usually when I get sick it goes straight to my lungs. This time I only started coughing last night. Over the years I have done numerous dumb things in training before a race. On wednesday I decided to take the family to sugarhouse park to run hills for speed work. It seemed like a good idea at the time but my legs are still sore. I bet I will pau for it on the uphill portion of the race. I am 100 percent focused mentally for this race. Hopefully that will overcome the 80 percent my body wants to give.