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St George marathon

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Location:

Providence,UT,

Member Since:

Apr 18, 2008

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Age Division Winner

Running Accomplishments:


no heart attack yet

 

 

Short-Term Running Goals:

turn 50 and have a colonoscopy done


Long-Term Running Goals:

avoid open heart surgery

Personal:

I am a 50 year old biochemistry professor at Utah State University in Logan.

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Mizuno Precision 9 Lifetime Miles: 255.80
Saucony Triumph 5 Lifetime Miles: 97.70
Vibram Five Finger Sprints Lifetime Miles: 242.26
Wave Rider 11 Lifetime Miles: 342.95
Mizuno Wave Ronin Lifetime Miles: 183.31
Brooks T5 Lifetime Miles: 107.40
NB 790 Pair 3 Lifetime Miles: 244.65
Hoka Bondi B Lifetime Miles: 758.08
Hyperspeed 3 Pair 3 Lifetime Miles: 74.03
Nike Free Plus Yellow Lifetime Miles: 70.60
Kinvara 2 Lifetime Miles: 53.52
Race: St George marathon (26.22 Miles) 02:53:00, Place overall: 75, Place in age division: 6
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.0026.220.000.0026.22

it's taken me a while to get up a race report, been very busy at work, and also wanted to wait until my blood sugar was up and my mental capacity was back to a reasonably normal level so I wouldn't say something, or make any jokes, that nonblogging drama queens who troll these blogs behind a veil of anonymity would find insensitive and use to cause me grief. So anyway my wife had to do parent teacher conferences in the evening on Friday so I went solo to this one, but fortunately my good friend Craig Donaldson who was my teacher in the MTC exactly 32 years ago was running, his flight arrived at the St George International Airport at 5:48 PM. I managed to get from Logan to the SG airport with 5 minutes to spare before his flight arrived. I had to double check google map to be sure this was really an airport that handled commercia flights and I hadn't inadvertently strayed to a random crop dusting landing field but sure enough in came the delta connection flight with Craig on it. Another friend from my mission has a second house in St George he gave us for the weekend. It only had 6 bedrooms, 6 baths, 2 family rooms, and 7 TVs but we managed OK with the cramped quarters. We ate the pasta dinner at the expo, then went back to the palatial estate and watched the first half of the BYU-USU game but gave up from boredom after the first half ended at 6-3 and went to bed. Turns out the game ended at 6-3 so we didn't miss anything. Geez what a boring game. oh yeah the marathon....

Craig rolled us out of bed and we drove to the start, caught a bus, and I ditched him to go into the ELITE runner's area. I felt bad leaving poor Crag in steerage, but on the other hand I am an ELITE runner entitled to use the ELITE area, and really I shouldn't be hanging out with the lower class runners anyway. I guess Craig should be grateful I even allowed him to sit by me on the bus, but hey, we ELITE runners like to throw a few crumbs to the little guys now and then. I even offered to sign his bib for him.

In the ELITE runners area I ran into ELITE runners Kelli and Scott and had a nice chat with them. I didn't see any of the other bloggers at the start though. Bummer.

I was surprised how dark it was at the start. I made my classic error of going out too fast, in part because it was too dark to see my watch, and I am really a pretty stupid marathon runner, more heart than brains. Miles 1-7 were 6:19, 6:29, 6:13, 6:09 (dumb dumb dumb), 6:18, 6:04 (really dumb) 6:09 (geez I am dumb).

Well, then came this Vejo hill I had heard about and it was a very unpleasant surprise. I actually never really looked hard at the course map ahead of time or planned a race stategy because, well, I am dumb when it comes to marathons. So I loaf up vejo 7:16, 6:53, 6:50, 7:13, ouch.

Weird thing happened to me at mile 8 though to slow me down, my left foot fell asleep. I was wearing compression sleeves and maybe overtightened the laces on my shoes. I was wearing these saucony kinvaras I had bought but only put 20 miles or so on (dumb) and had never run a long run in them (dumb) and actually I can now say I really don't like saucony. Sorry Jake. I should have stuck with my mizuno ronins, but I am kind of dumb. My foot got so numb at mile 10 I thought I might have to take the shoes off and run barefoot, or at least stop and loosen the laces, but since they were triple tied that might have taken a while. So I wiggled the toes and finally got circulation back but I bet I lost a minute with this unexpected problem.

Well, things rebounded here for a bit with 6:29, 6:28, 6:10, 6:03, 6:28, 6:36 then I got tired, my quads were trashed, my feet hurt, I hate kinvaras, I am a wimp, and so the next miles were 7:10. 6:39, 6:29, 6:58, 6:45, 6:45, 6:56, 7:04, 6:39 for 0.22 miles. My garmin clocked me in right at 26.22.

At the finish I saw some bloggers, James and his family, Walter looking like he was going to throw up (nothing unusual there), Kelli and Scott again. Waited for my nonelite friend Craig to finish. He never really trained for this one but still ran a respectable 3:52. unfortunately he needed a 3:30 for a BQ and missed it so I guess we won;t be going to boston. I saw boston is still open, but I think my marathon days are over, because (1) I hate the training, (2) I don;t like training, (3) I am a wimp, and (4) I don't think I am a very smart marathon runner. Maybe I will stick to halfs and under but who knows.

My impressions of St George: great race, great course, great volunteers and organizers, very professional. I am really glad I ran this even though I didn't break 2:50 which was my goal. But in retrospect I am really not a 2:50 marathoner.

I carried poor Craig back to my truck, I got some consoilation in that he was hurting worse than me. I actually didn;t feel so bad for having run a marathon. Maybe I should have pushed it harder? yeah right.....

Kinvara 2 Miles: 26.22
Comments
From allie on Thu, Oct 11, 2012 at 19:48:38 from 97.117.85.43

i've been waiting for this report...

nice recap of the race. i think you ran it well, and you held together just fine at the end (slow downs are bound to happen, and your pace really didn't slow that much at all).

i don't really know because i've never run the course, but i feel like it would take more than one running of it to get the feel for it and not go out too fast. that's a sweet time, especially because you avoided any hanging seconds. those are just so...messy.

congrats, ELITE scott. and thank you for not cracking any jokes. we need to be serious around here.

From allie on Thu, Oct 11, 2012 at 19:50:49 from 97.117.85.43

also, about the numb foot -- my feet and ankles went numb at CIM. i was wearing compression sleeves -- i'm not sure it had anything to do with it, but that's the only thing i can think of. i know you always wear them though so maybe that wasn't the issue. just blame saucony.

nike free! nike free!

From Steve Piccolo on Thu, Oct 11, 2012 at 21:50:25 from 71.219.92.145

Funny race report. Fast time. I sure wish I could run a "dumb" race and pull off a 2:53 on very little training at that.

From Scott Ensign on Fri, Oct 12, 2012 at 07:58:01 from 67.40.114.105

Allie, thanks, and for reminding me of your similar foot problem at CIM. I bet the compression sleeve had something to do with it. it was a medium and pretty tight. I was actually thinking of rolling them down before I got circulation back. With all that downhill I am now wondering if I should have run i the hoka bondis? I saw some people wearing those!

Steve, thanks, I trained fairly hard I think but part of my limitation is I am just not much more than a 40-60 mile a week runner and never went outside that zone in this run up. It is just too much time and the risk of injury too great for me. I am heading to provo tomorrow- tempted to do the homecoming race- but one week after a marathon wehen I can still hardly walk? hmm.... are you running it?

From Dave S on Fri, Oct 12, 2012 at 09:20:08 from 63.248.248.225

Nice report. It was worth the wait. Seems like a pretty good race and great time! As far as slow downs go, that doesn't seem that bad. I looked around for you a bit at the start but I spent most of the hour before it started in steerage curled up by some trees out of the wind trying to get a little nap before entering the "ELITE" area.

From Jake K on Fri, Oct 12, 2012 at 10:25:20 from 155.100.226.191

Great report Scott, well worth the wait. Glad to hear it went well and you survived the night before the race in the hostel.

I don't take any offense on your Kinvara comments - I would have told you 1) Don't wear Kinvaras for the marathon and 2) Don't wear NEW shoes in a marathon! :-) But then again, at TOU, I ran in shoes that only had ~10 miles on them. So who knows?

Congrats on running 26.2 miles as well. No one ever does that in this day and age of marathoning. Its like, 26.5 or it didn't count! So you may not think you are a smart runner, but the scientist in you at least knows how to run tangents!

From Scott Ensign on Fri, Oct 12, 2012 at 12:20:13 from 129.123.3.84

Dave, sorry I missed you, I heard your name called as you finished but then couldn't find you somehow

Jake- I blame any shoes for my soreness after 26 miles! Saucony was just an easy target this time though I really doubt they had any effect :-) And they held up fine. My bigger problem was the compression sleeves being too tight I think.

But I should have listened to your advice before I ran. next time! if there is a next time....

From Steve Piccolo on Fri, Oct 12, 2012 at 12:27:08 from 155.101.146.105

Hi Scott, I am going to be attending my niece's baptism tomorrow. I wish I could be there for the race. We need to run one together again.

From Paul on Sat, Oct 13, 2012 at 21:30:50 from 67.41.204.67

Nice race Scott. In your humbleness, did you forget to mention that this is a PR for you?

From Scott Ensign on Sun, Oct 14, 2012 at 12:42:49 from 67.40.114.105

thanks Paul. oh yeah a PR, it was a PR I guess. I am impressed you noticed!

From Adam RW on Mon, Oct 15, 2012 at 08:23:40 from 128.110.224.47

PR running is always a good thing. Glad your foot woke up after mile 8 and let you have this great race. Never say never again but there are so many other good races so I am sure you will keep busy even if not at another marathon.

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