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Deseret News Marathon

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Location:

Salt Lake City,UT,USA

Member Since:

Sep 25, 2007

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Marathon Finish

Running Accomplishments:

All running accomplishments are Post Teenage Years:

17:06 5K--Murray 2014

16:58 5K (aided)--Running of the Leopards 2010

34:41--10K Deseret News 2018 (aided)

1:16--(aided) Hobble Creek Half 2009

2:43--St. George Marathon 2012

Short-Term Running Goals:

Sub 2:50 Ogden Marathon

Sub 17:00 at Draper 5K

Long-Term Running Goals:

Sub 2:40 Marathon

 

Personal:

Married to Elizabeth (she got me running in 2003). We have three boys, Lucas (12) , Sam (8) and Ollie (5).

Many years ago, I read that the AVERAGE male is capable of a 2:40 marathon.  I decided to test that theory.  I began running in 2003 with Top of Utah as my first marathon (4:24).  I need 3 more minutes.

"Life is short...running makes it seem longer."--Baron Hansen

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Race: Deseret News Marathon (26.22 Miles) 02:51:42, Place overall: 10, Place in age division: 2
Total Distance
27.50

Not sure of my place or my exact time (seconds), but I will update it when the folks at Striders post it.

Super early morning wake-up call for this one.  Caught a 3:30 AM bus at the U. stadium then had over an hour to kill before the 5:30 AM race start.  Hanging out with Stephen Gonzalez at the start...he tried to pee in the woods, but a female forest ranger shined a spotlight on him and asked him to stop...true story.  We watched this lady for about 15 minutes afterwards.  She would sit in the dark then as some guy got ready to pee she would turn on the spotlight and yell at them!  Awesome.

After that bit of excitement, we did a short warm-up run then lined up for the race.  Nice to see so many fellow bloggers at the start.

Mile 1: 5:59  Nice easy pace with steep downhill.  Stephen and I were pretty deep and behind in a pack.  We talked Pirate baseball for the next few miles

Mile 2: 5:57

Mile 3: 5:53 (probably the biggest drop of the entire race)

Mile 4: 6:10

Mile 5: 6:20  Lost Stephen while he made a pit stop and slowed a little so he could catch back up

Mile 6: 6:35  So begins the climb up Little Mountain

Mile 7: 7:20 We were focusing on catching the lead girl, Annie, at the top.

Mile 8: 6:52  We are now a pack of 3.

Mile 9: 6:14

Mile 10: 6:41  This is the turn up Pine View(?).  I was not expecting this!  It sucked, but everyone had to run it.  Took a GUI and salt tablet

Mile 11: 6:03  Back down the canyon!

Mile 12: 6:10

Mile 13: 6:11  Our 13.1 split was 1:23:00.  Right on pace

Mile 14: 6:19  Really cool rainbow over the entire city

Mile 15: 6:21  Lost Stephen to another potty break, so Annie and I ventured alone.  I would not see Stephen again until he finished (but he had a good race)

Mile 16: 6:29   Short climb up above the zoo, but felt good

Mile 17: 6:25  Good downhill before you hit the rollers on Wasatch and Foothill

Mile 18: 6:44  Slow, but had a GUI and another salt tablet

Mile 19: 6:26

Mile 20: 6:41 So begins the slow climb on Foothill

Mile 21: 7:08  The hill on Foothill close to Sunnyside is not super steep, but it took a good toll on me.  I knew I was in trouble when I saw this split (it was going to be work to get sub 2:50)

Mile 22: 6:18  Very nice downhill before you hit 1300 East

Mile 23 6:49  1300 East!  Little climb to get on South Temple

Mile 24 6:46  My friend Craig picked me up here and ran the rest of the race with me.  I was counting on sub 6:30 during this section, but I was cooked

Mile 25: 6:56  Miriam, another running friend, had an ice cold sponge waiting on me...heaven!  Also, I saw several more running friends during this stretch (they ran the 10K earlier that morning)

Mile 26: 7:20  Ouch.  OK, this race needs to end.  Unfortunatley, I hit 26.22 on the Garmin, but still had 0.13 to go.  I would have made the sub 2:50 goal if I could have run the tangents better! 

Mile 26.22: 2:23.  Second half 1:28.  5 minutes slower than the first half which is not that bad considering the course.  Total time 2:51:30 (estimate on the seconds).  Elizabeth and kids were there to greet me at the finish line.  Annie, female winner, was just a couple of minutes back.  Stephen arrived couple of minutes later.

According to my friends, I was the first Hoka shoe finisher...lol.  Overall, A good race.  Well organized and saw lots of bloggers.  I wanted to be a little faster, but maybe at St. George I can get that 2:45:00.  Now, its off to work!  Luckily, I'm not sore, but that will probably change on Wednesday.


Comments
From Rob Murphy on Tue, Jul 24, 2012 at 14:28:28 from 24.10.249.165

Work right after a marathon? They probably let you sit at your desk and snooze right?

Nice race. If there ever was a road race where Hokas might come in handy, it's this one.

Congratulations on the great race.

From Rob on Tue, Jul 24, 2012 at 14:54:27 from 206.71.84.68

FYI!

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/765591923/Deseret-News-Marathon-results.html?pg=6

Looks like you got 10th place, nice job.

From MarkP on Tue, Jul 24, 2012 at 15:02:55 from 65.130.127.40

Thanks for posting the results Rob. I don't know where the 9th place guy came from...I could see Trent and James for the last 5 miles, then all of sudden that guy showed up on 800 South. Hopefully, James can comment on running/passing the guy.

From RileyCook on Tue, Jul 24, 2012 at 16:54:29 from 132.3.57.68

Nice race Mark.

From allie on Tue, Jul 24, 2012 at 17:07:56 from 97.126.221.48

way to go, mark! great time. i think you can definitely hit your goal for st. george.

the forest ranger story is cracking me up. what a job.

From Tara on Tue, Jul 24, 2012 at 17:53:26 from 75.169.158.161

Way to go Mark!

From Jake K on Thu, Jul 26, 2012 at 10:22:22 from 155.100.226.54

Really nice race Mark. I think you can go after that 2:45 this fall.

Glad the Hokas worked out, too!

From fiddy on Thu, Jul 26, 2012 at 10:28:35 from 155.101.96.137

The 9th place guy was about 3mins ahead of me at 20miles and maybe 1:30 ahead at 25 miles. He just seemed to crack running only 3rd East.

From Andrea on Fri, Jul 27, 2012 at 11:59:38 from 72.37.171.52

Great job Mark! It looks like I need to start doing more workouts with you as we both try to go for 2:45!

From MarkP on Fri, Jul 27, 2012 at 13:39:15 from 75.162.235.59

Thanks. A few more visits to Jeremy Ranch on Saturday will help!

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