We left for Provo fairly early. I took the whole family. We ate lunch at The Jerk Shack when we got there. It was great food. I hadn't had Jamaican food in years other than what I've made myself. The family liked it for the most part. We then headed for the mall to get my packet. I ran into Mark and his wife and chatted with him for a while. We then checked into our hotel at the Courtyard. We were able to meet up with Ivan, Leah, and Jamon for dinner so that was a good time.
We went back to the room for a quick swim. I got to bed about 9:20 pm. I woke up a couple of times, but overall it was the best nights sleep I've ever got before a marathon. Woke up at 3:30 am because Dace and Laurie were picking me up at 4 am. for the bus ride up the canyon.
I ran into Don Vines at the start line. It was good to see him. They started the race 15 mins. late so we got rained on a bit before the race. It continued to rain for the first 13 miles or so.
Mile 1- 7:15 Dace took off a little at the first and I let him go because I didn't want to give too much away at the beginning.
2- 7:14 I continued to let Dace go because my lungs were feeling the effects of the elevation. I just kept within 50 yards or so.
3- 7:26 There were some rolling hills in miles 3 and 4 so I slowed the pace a little.
4- 7:29
5- 7:26 More little hills on 5 and 6.
6- 7:30
7- 7:44 Miles 7 and 8 had the biggest uphill sections of the race. I caught Dace on one of these miles as he had slowed a little.
8- 7:47 We pushed through the hills together and were back on the pace that Dace had figured for the race.
9- 7:10 Time for the downhill. We took turns in the front for the next 6 or so.
10- 7:14
11- 7:32 A lot of little uphill sections that slowed the time.
12- 7:12
13- 7:13 Hit the halfway point about where we wanted to. We were at 1:36:14
14- 7:26
15- 7:52 Another nice uphill section here. So we slowed the pace considerably.
16- 7:06 I pushed out ahead on this mile and stayed ahead for the next few. Nice downhill with a tailwind pushing me. I started to think maybe I could do this thing at this point but the left leg was starting to tighten up a bit. I was hoping it would go away.
17- 7:13 More downhill.
18- 7:23 The course is starting to flatten out more at this point. The leg is still tight.
19- 7:32 Somewhere here or mile 20 Dace came up and said we needed to go. I knew I didn't have it in me, but didn't want to say anything.
20- 7:39 We're not at the 7:30 or so that we need to be at and the pace is slowing. I wanted to shut it down so bad and just jog it in, but I kept on trucking.
21- 7:46 Dace pulled away on this one to make a push for the BQ. I let him go knowing I couldn't finish strong at that pace.
22- 7:54
Miles 23-26.38- My watch reached it's limit on laps so it beeped nonstop until the finish. Man was this ever annoying, but I didn't want to stop to fix it. These laps all showed up as one lap. I kept it under 8:30 on all of them. My average pace was 8:27. I hit the curb turning off of University Ave., and I went down hard on my right hand. I didn't get my foot up high enough I guess. It wasn't pretty. On the next turn my MP3 fell off my arm due to the previous fall I'm sure so I had to stop and pick that up as well. I saw Dace make the turn ahead of me. Steph and the kids were there yelling for me near the finish. I wasn't too happy after the fall. I looked at them and waved, but she said I looked pissed. She knew why after she saw my hand dripping with blood.
I talked to Don and Dace briefly at the finish as I saw them shortly after I finished. It took us about 15 mins. to find someone to get me some bandages for my hand. I tried to eat a little, but the stomach couldn't take much. I then headed to get my bag and ran into Mark and chatted with him for a while.
I didn't get the BQ that I wanted, but overall I felt good about the race considering all of the injuries I battled with the calves and achilles and the ribs from the bicycle accident during training.
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