This was my first trip to Utah and hopefully the beginning of many more. The setting is absolutely breathe taking. I woke up at 3:15 jumped in the shower quickly and proceeded to get my racing attire on. I noticed that I forgot to pack band-aids so I took and used some duct tape that I had bought to tape my gu's to my water bottles just so happen to have some American flags on them.( boy howdy they were fun taking off ..but they worked)
I made my way down to the gas station and bought a big ol cup of coffee for the bus ride up. I sat down with a dude from St Petersburg FL his name was Charles Ryan. We hit it off well and talked the entire way up. This was his 2nd STG and he pretty much knew what to expect. I hung out with him for a while and decided to head over to the elite corral and try to meet some of the frb guys that I never met.
I used the port and came out and sat down for a bit and recognized Riley and Ben as they came into the corral. I gave them a wave and met them and chatted for a bit. I also met Fritz and Scott. I hung out and shadowed Ben and Riley till gun time. Two super nice guys that have really been putting it a lot of hard work. I actually called Riley to win at STG on Strava a few weeks back.
I chatted with Scott just before the gun and decided to run with him on the first half. We wanted to go through about 1:15-1:16. We went through the first mile right at 5:50 but slowed to 6:10 on the 2nd mile. I almost twisted my ankle real good in a wake up rut cut in the middle of the road. I was very cautious after that when hitting tangents. After the first 3 miles I could tell my breathing was off (I think due to the altitude) and Scott took off at the first water stop where I slowed to get my bottle that I actually never got. The rest of the water stops were spot on..they actually used walkie talkies to communicate and someone was standing out holding my nuun for me to take... I tried not to panic so much knowing the big downhill to come on the backend. I really wanted to make it over the hills without redlining.
I made it to Veyo and knew if I got over this hill it would be the worst part. It slowed me considerably and I tried not to pay too much attention to my watch. I got to half way and was concerned that the sub 2:30 might be out of my reach with the clock at 1:17:50.
I told myself to just trust in my training and it was still possible. I let loose pretty good about mile 15. It was really weird to look down at the pace in the middle of a marathon and see the pace going faster than my 5k pace. I was feeling pretty good so I just continued on. I passed several guys there at Snow Canyon and finally caught a couple more down on the final 10k.
I was feeling really strong on the last 10 till about the last mile with about .5 to go I turned down toward the finish line and was so ready to be done. The road coming into the finish was cracked and a bit uneven and it really bothered me.
I came across the finish line knowing I had a PR which really felt good. A lot of the leaders were standing around chatting and I asked Riley how he did and he was pretty excited and rightly so. He told me that he missed the record by a few seconds but he had a huge PR and Ben did as well. I congratulated Scott for winning the masters and made my way for a quick massage.
After my massage I had to get my stuff and book it to the hotel, shower and get out of there by 11 checkout time. I forgot to check and see if I had won anything in the early bus drawing and tried to go back down to see but failed to find a parking place close enough to get out of there for my 1:30 flight.
I also didn't make it to the awards but talked to a woman that told me they would mail it to me.
I made my flight home but didn't get to eat anything till about 6:00 pm Oklahoma time. I did manage to eat a few cashew packets and pretzels from the race. I really wasn't too hungry after anyway.
Had a great time and felt fortunate to meet some really nice folks.
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