Running

Oh boy, was this one intimidating. I haven't done a half marathon since the 2022 Thankful 13, and since that time I've put on at least 70lbs, and that makes me a lot slower and heavier. It's a long time to be on your feed and carrying around this much weight. But Sara and I both wanted to do it. The majority of this run is down the Provo Canyon which has a gentle downhill slope. The first 4 miles are a lot steeper coming down the inner canyon, but after that it evens out until about mile 9 which is fairly flat from then on. My goal was to hit sub 3 hours with where I was at physically I thought that was a good goal, and I hit it, just barely. But I did. I was also running in costume, which makes things a little more tricky, but really the hardest part of my costume setup was my compression shorts I were wearing kept sliding down and were just hanging on for dear life! Since my costume is a onesie I couldn't really reach down my pants and pull them up! My other issue with this race was that I woke up with a sore throat and sinus infection the morning of the race. I don't know how much that affected my performance, but it was bad timing. Sara ended up finishing about 17 or 18 minutes after I did. They had already started taking down the cones on the route, so they had the group that was around her skip a small section of the run cutting off essentially the .1 of the 13.1. But I'm proud of her for completing it!

Sara and I decided to tackle the 10k together because it was a special occasion. David Bell the CEO of Runtastic had recently passed away during a vacation in which he was trying to save friends who were stuck in a whirlpool. We wanted to honor David's memory by running in this race. For this race we each went at our own pace. I had a good race, this course is very steep, especially for the half marathon. The 10k gives you a few miles of steep downhill and then it levels out into rolling hills but with a gradual downhill slope. I put more effort into this run and had good times for the speeds which I have normally been getting.

I did this race with Sara. This is one I've done for a few years now, it's to support the group Addict II Athlete which helps those suffering from addiction find a way to replace their addiction with running or other athletic endeavors. I've had friends and family struggle and fight against addiction so it's a issue that's near and dear to my heart. Because I had also just got a scratch on my cornea I had to take it pretty easy, I didn't want to get any sweat in my eye. But Sara and I had a good run. We got it done. And that's what matters.

I do this race every year, but this is the first time I've done the 10k. I ran the first half with Scott Whaley, and after that he pushed on ahead to do some extra speed work. The group running the 10k is a lot smaller than that running the 5k, so there was definitely a lot more space to have your own and by the time you get to the 5k starting area they have all cleared out which was nice. It's always fun running through the parade route on University Ave, there are lots of people sitting out waiting for the parade and cheering the runners on. I was happy to have run the entire race, even with some difficult elevation gains in the latter third. Definitely not the fastest time, but it wasn't the worst.

I did the virtual race with Sara. We started from home and ran down to Ranches Parkway and then to Eagle Mountain Blvd and back. Sara was walking so I decided to let her go ahead and then run and catch up, once we were on Ranches Parkway I would start each block by running to the next block and then back to her and then walk with her back to the end of the block and repeat the process. Sara was really pushing the pace so I struggled to catch up with her initially. I do a few extra loops so it didn't help that I had farther to run, but I did eventually catch up with her, it just took way longer than usual. All in all, I'm pleased with the race. It's a good cause, I got a good workout, I was really spent by the end of it, having done some fartlek sections that pushed my pace up into the 9:30 range which I haven't been at in years. Total miles: 4.37 Total time: 0:57:05 Pace: 13:02