"PRIOR PREPARATION PREVENTS PISS POOR PERFORMANCE"

8 mile am easy run

rest day

8 mi easy run @ 5:am

rest day- Running the Provo Trail 1/2 Mary this Sat.

8.25 mi @ 3:am...  

10 mi @ 3:am......Dark, early, semi-cool, & quiet

10mi @ 3am....its still over 70 at 3am...uck

6 mi tempo trainer.....77 degrees @ 3:30am

rest day for 1/2 mary tomorrow..4 mi for a shake down cruse.....

OK, that was a fun race. I feel really good about my performance on my quest to return to Boston 2014.  Here's my race by the numbers, as per my Garmin and physical placement:

Mile:

1. 6.59

2. 7.09

3. 7.25

4. 7.11

5. 7.22

6. 8.05

7. 8.23

8. 8.30

9. 7.43

10. 7.37

11. 7.13

12. 7.30

13. 7.11

.1. 2.11

Total: 1:40:47, 1st place 60-65 AG, 22nd place overall. Average minutes per mile: 7.35

Not too bad for an Old Guy!

5 mile recovery run this am. 20 days till the Layton Marathon 

6.2 am miles at an easy pace

8 miles at 3am.....

6.33 miles @ 3:30a, easy pace hill run

6.5 mi @ 3:30 a

rest day

10 mi at mid morning temps, 85 degrees. two weeks till the Layton....

10 mi@ 5am

rest day

6 mi @ 3:30am. 72 degrees/45% Humidity

easy 6 mi run this am. I think I saw a skunk! I did, I did!

6 mi tempo run......75 degrees, no wind, 40 + humidity

what a perfect day to take a rest day....It's ride the Harley to work day. Ya!

4 easy miles 

8 mi @ 6am....last week of taper before The Layton Marathon...

6 mi @ 3:30am......show time Saturday!

wow, it almost all done but the crying? It's time to go run the Layton Syracuse Marathon on Saturday morning!!!!! 3.5 mi @ 3:30am...just a shake down run...

thats it, did my last taper run before the Layton Syracuse Marathon on Saturday morning.......it is all done but the crying!   4.5 mi @ 3:30a

No run today or tomorrow, just rest and relaxation.....run Saturday!

rest for the run of my life...

Not much to say about this race except that I really wanted to BQ. I want to return to Boston at least one more time to thumb my nose up at all the terrorists in the world that would bomb people running in the street and their familys watching them. What a bunch of   #@&*#@  cowards!

I did BQ with a 3:50:00 even run at the Layton Marathon. This was a very small group of runners that were bussed out to Antelope Island, my guess is that there were less than 60 marathoners at the starting line. It seems that most of the entrants into this days races were the 1/2 marathon and the 10K rather than the marathon.  It was pitch black out there on the island when the organizers turned off the temporary lighting. You could see the star light shimmering on the water as well as the lighting from the residences of Syracuse and the communities lining the areas adjacent to the lake. It was a beautiful sight.

The race got underway at about 6:00 am with little or no fanfare. I tried to get as close to the front of the small group of runners as possible.

For me the race was on, I had put much hope and hard work into this race so as to be ready to run for my life, I just wanted to get my tired old bod from point A to point B and run a BQ time. The first miles were pretty much roily poly hills until you got to about 6 where you ran the toughest hill on the course, which wasn't really that bad. It seemed like that over about a two mile distance the hill rose about 200 hundred feet in elevation and then dropped gently back down into the 4250 foot area of elevation. While on the Island I saw probably about a hundred head of buffalo that actually stampeded over the road behind me in the race. The island portion of the race was about 10 miles long then we were on the causeway for about 7 miles with the lake or the dried up lake on either side.

After leaving the causeway you were then running in farm land and sparse residential areas all the way back to the finish line at a park between a couple of area schools.

Somewhere out about 7 miles my Garmin let me know that it had filled up all the available space for lap times and all it was good for was telling me my current lap pace and my overall time on the road. It was quite disappointing to lose all my lap/mile pace times to a full Garmin. Oh well, I just did the math in my head and keep pushing my big feet out in front and made my way to the end.

About the time that I was leaving the causeway at about mile 17 the sun was up and getting hot as we all ran towards the east directly into the new days sun. This is where I caught up with a kid that I sat near on the bus out to the island. This was his first race and he was ready to take names and kick butt to the finish. He seemed to be having some cramping problems with his legs when I finally passed him. As I went by I did offer some advise on how to work out the cramps and encouraged him to keep the faith and keep on running as we were at about the last 10k of this race.

I was losing steam and the 3:45:00 pace team leader, who was all by herself, passed me. I tried to stay with her but that didn't seem to happen for me. I did keep her in sight and judged my speed and finish time by her pace. As I worked my way to the finish line I started to pass a lot of other runners that were walking the course road, I thought it was rather strange to see so many walkers. It turned out that they were 1/2 marathoners making their way to the finish line the best that they could. It was really getting hot out there on this course with very little or no shade to escape the rising sun and the heat of the course to the finish line.

As I rounded the last turn on the course and headed into the final 700 yards of two lane black top to the finish line I felt very relieved with a great welling of emotion and pride inside that I would be finishing this marathon with a BQ time. It wasn't the faster time that I was running for, but the 15 minute slower time that it took me to get there at 3:50:00. I couldn't believe that I had done it in an even 230 minutes on the dot.

Just as I finished a very good friend was there to cheer and congratulate me for my finish and shortly after that, the young man that I had ridden the bus to the start  finished his race. He approached me and thanked me for all the advise that I had imparted to him on the bus, at the starting line and on the race course. He stated that this was his first marathon ever and he had taken 1st place in his Age Division (20-24), proudly displaying his medals to me and then giving me the biggest, sweatiest hug ever! I reminded this young man that he had been "Geezered" in this race by little 'ol me ! It was worth a great laugh by both of us!

It was a fine day, I took 1st place in my old mans Age Division (60-64) and 18th overall for the marathon.  TYI......