Bryce Canyon Half Marathon.... Run?

The alarm clock sounded at 2:20 in the morning and I quickly got up, got ready and headed out the door.  My brother Brian and I were driving up to Bryce Canyon to run the half marathon that started at 6 in the morning.  We left and actually got there at 4:30, which was about a half hour earlier than we expected, so we went in to Ruby's Inn and plopped down and some comfortable chairs to try and get a power nap.  After 30 minutes of not really getting any rest we started to see runners begin to show up for the race.  Our brother Joel met us in the lobby with our packets and we went and got all of our stuff ready for the race.  We had about 7 minutes until the race started so I downed a 5 Hour Energy and we jogged down to the starting line.  I saw a bunch of friends from the St. George Running Club at the starting line including Bryan Wilson, Richard Winn and Jake Green.  This is the course I set a PR of 1:21:13 on 2 years ago so I was hoping to beat that time.  I finished 2nd in my age group that year and was thinking I might be able to finish 1st in my age group this year.  I knew I had to hold a 6:10 pace to beat it.  The gun went off and a pack of 5 guys took off and I tried to go out comfortably.  I hit mile 1 at a 6:04 (this was feeling pretty easy) and was sitting in 8th place overall.  Mile 2 has a little bit of a climb and I was still able to hold a 6:16 (my overall pace right at a 6:10) and still in 8th overall.  Miles 3-5 are all steep downhill and I hit a 5:35, 5:48 and 5:56 (I've banked 1 minute and 11 seconds).  Miles 6-7 it starts to flatten out a little and I still hit 6:00 and 6:06 (passed halfway and I've banked 1 minute 25 seconds).  In these miles I see a guy in a wheelchair with a helmet on come flying by me.  I think 'That's cool.  I've never seen a wheelchair guy in this race before.'  Still in 8th place overall.  Miles 8-11 are just easy rollers but I'm struggling with my turnover in the legs, the suns coming out, I'm having a hard time keeping the negative thoughts out of my head and I hit 6:14, 6:48, 6:47 and 6:48.  During these miles I start to get passed by some solid runners the top 4 women and 1 guy all pass me.  Now I am sitting in 13th place.  I'm thinking things like, 'What am I doing this for?' 'Is it really FUN to torture yourself?' 'Maybe I should just walk through that next aid station.' 'If I walk Jake and Rich will catch me.' 'Does it really matter?' 'I really need to train better.' 'I shouldn't have drank that 5 Hour Energy.  I've been burping it up for miles.' 'The marathon is twice this distance.  How am I going to survive?'  On the bright side I passed the wheelchair guy at mile 8 when he stopped to get some water but he caught me again at mile 10 and passed and I never saw him again.  At this point I realize I am not going to PR today because all of my banked time is gone and I can't pick up the pace.  The last 2 miles, which are just more rollers, I decide to put it into cruise control and I run a 7:28 and a 7:14.  Not real excited about those miles.  I need to figure out how to increase my endurance and push myself in the end.  I get passed by another female runner and a guy that looks like a hippie.  I coast in for 15th place with a time of 1:24:08.  After crossing the line I find out that one of the female runners dropped out so I was thinking I had 14th overall.  Nope.  I still ended up in 15th because the wheelchair guy was counted with the runners.  I checked the time sheet to see where I finished in my age group.  I ended up 2nd in my age group and was only 2 and a half minutes back from first.  My buddy Jake Green ended up getting 3rd in our age group since he finished only about 1 minute behind me.  We stuck around for the awards ceremony to get our medals and when they called our age group up Jake and I went up to get our medals only to find out that the guy in the wheelchair got first in our age group.  I don't mind losing to fast runners but a guy with wheels?.....  I guess my gold medal days are still to come.  I'll get this endurance thing figured out, and maybe try to sleep more than 4 hours next time.  Maybe some Positive Mental Attitude courses will help as well.  Now that the pain and suffering is over it's time to get ready for the next half marathon which is only 3 weeks away.

The final stretch giving High 5's to the nephews

Brian, Joel and myself all done and refueling
Joel PR'd by 3 minutes!

That moment you realize that you just lost gold to a guy in a wheelchair.
Yes, I did shake his hand.

Gold: Wheelchair; Bronze: Jake Green; Silver: Me

Uncle Sam 5K and The CRAPPY Mile

On the way out.  Relaxed and still smiling.

On the way back.  The little girl in the yellow is my daughter
Kali.

This past weekend the family and I were able to participate in the second annual Uncle Sam 5K.  There were about 300 runners this year which was about double what they had last year.  It is just a fun run that is not officially timed (but we all know that I'm timing it).  It's still fun to see how high you can finish though.  It's an out an back course which allows you to see where everyone is on the way back.  The Pine View High School cross country team showed up so I realized that a top 3 wasn't going to happen like it did last year.  The gun went off and the usual thing happened.  A lot of younger kids that aren't really going to compete took off like it was a sprint and 2 blocks into the run they were getting passed by everybody.  This still usually gets me going a little fast in the beginning.  I stayed on the heels of the high school kids for the first mile (5:56) and at the half way point I was still only about 10 seconds behind a good pack of 6 or 7.  That's when the race started for them and I just tried to hang on to my same pace.  Grabbed a quick water at the turn around and headed back.  Mile 2 was a little bit slower (6:04) as I slowed down at the turn around.  It was fun to see a lot of friends and family on the way back to the finish.  I tried saying HI to them all and waving as I was running back.  Mile 3 I picked the pace back up a little bit (5:57) as I had a couple people in front of me that I figured I could pass.  The last 0.1 I ran pretty hard to make sure I didn't get passed by the guys I had just caught and I finished in a time of 18:27 which was good enough for about 8th overall.  Not my fastest 5K but I'll take it.

The next morning I decided to run the last 13.1 miles of the marathon course.  My wife Kristal and one of our friends were running 10.  We caught a ride up with some good friends who were running 16 miles.  I wanted to hold a 6:40 pace for this entire run and try to catch Kristal before the finish.  My first mile was a warm up mile and I still hit a 6:44 so figured that the 6:40 pace wouldn't be to tough to do.  My second mile I hit a 6:24 then mile 3 was a 6:03 (there is some serious downhill here).  I was able to stay pretty consistently between 6:15 and 6:30 for most of the run.  I did have one mile going up Winchester hill where I had a 7:01.  Everything was going great until about mile 10.  I started getting the urge to have to go to the bathroom.  And not the easy kind where you jump off the side of the road and pee on a bush.  I just kept thinking I only had to last 3 more miles.  I was still able to hold on to some fast miles for 11 (where I ended up passing Kristal) and 12.  As soon as I hit 12 it all went south...  I had to use the bathroom so bad that running fast was no longer an option.  I was clenching so bad that holding a 10 minute mile pace was difficult.  Clenching and running is not a pleasant experience.  I knew that there was a bathroom at mile 12.5 and the closer I got to it the worse everything seemed to get.  It was as if my body knew I was almost there and was prepping for delivery.  I wasn't sure if I was going to make it.  The closer I got the slower my running became (if you could call it that).  My biggest fear was that the park bathrooms would be locked.  Luckily I made it there and they were in the process of being cleaned by a city official.  I took care of business and then ran that last half mile to where the marathon finish line is.  I didn't care about my overall pace any more as I was just glad to still have clean shorts and a relieved system.  My last mile with that CRAPPY first half ended up being a 7:44.  Even with that mile I was still happy to end up with a 6:34 overall average pace for the entire run.  Morale of the story... DON'T CRAP YOUR PANTS.