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Deseret News Marathon

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Location:

Salt Lake City,UT,USA

Member Since:

Jan 01, 2009

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Other

Running Accomplishments:

Hood to Coast 2011 (31:32:39)

Wasatch Back 2011 (31:08:54)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RZeUjUmr-o

Wasatch Back 2010 (30:21:29)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaoleQmhjoA

Wasatch Back 2009 (31:01:17)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DBm5Bz2sp8

Wasatch Back 2008 (29:14:47)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yErvZKrPxGQ

Boston Marthon 2008 (3:07:55)

Deseret News Marathon 2011 (2:39:50)

Deseret News Marathon 2010 (2:40:14)

Salt Lake City Marathon 2010 (2:49:28)

Philadelphia Marathon 2009 (2:50:58)

Fight for Air Climb 2011: 31 climbs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC7VrGf8oUU

Short-Term Running Goals:

To run as a member of Shoulda Bought Puts: Team of Sams for the 2011 Wasatch Back!

 

To have fun running three marathons (Salt Lake, D-News, and NYC Marathon) and a trail race (probably the XTERRA Trail Running National Championship) in 2011

 

To improve my agility/balance

 

To take constructive steps to eat healthier

 

To get more quality sleep

Long-Term Running Goals:

To increase my overall strength and conditioning

To return to Hopkinton for the Boston Marathon

To freshen up on my French to run the Paris Marathon

Personal:

Hobbies are studying for the CFA exam and recycling

Favorite Blogs:

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Race: Deseret News Marathon (26.2 Miles) 02:47:35
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.0026.200.000.0026.20

Happy Pioneer Day!  Following a few hours of sleep, my day started at 2:00 am.  You have to love the Deseret News Marathon’s early start time!  After changing into my racing gear; doing some light exercises (i.e., stretches, sit-ups, and push-ups), and confirming that I had everything I needed, I headed up to the University of Utah to catch the bus up to the starting line at Big Mountain.  Once at the starting line, my stomach was feeling a little upset; therefore, I got off my feet and took a nice hour-long nap under the starry sky.  A half-hour before the race, I began to make my final preparations.  Overlooking the lights of the city, I went through some pre-race stretches before dropping off my gear bag and heading to the starting line.

At exactly 5:30 am the race started to the traditional bagpipe music.  Strangely, I look forward to hearing the early morning bagpipe tunes every 24th of July; that is, it singles a time to withdraw all the training miles I deposited in the bank and have some fun!

For nearly the first four miles, I stayed with the lead pack (my miles splits were 5:21, 5:29, 5:29, and 5:50).  These opening miles are straight downhill; therefore, I think we were all relaxing and saving ourselves for the later/tougher parts of the course.  Knowing that I’m no way an elite runner, I knew it was just a matter of time until I was going to slowdown to my goal pace of 6:29 minutes per mile.

Once we hit the two-mile climb up the Little Mountain section of the course (around mile 5.5), the elite runners were pulling away (it’s amazing to watch these guys run; that is, they really make running a marathon look so easy).  Having run the D-News Marathon three times and the Salt Lake 10 Miler once, Little Mountain and I are old friends that unfortunately have not always gotten along.  For this two-mile ascent, I averaged 7:13 minutes per mile.  I was daydreaming about running sub-sevens over this part of the course.  However, running dreams that do not materialize offer great training motivation.

The remaining descent of Emigration Canyon went smoothly to Hogle Zoo.  This is where the course veers off on to Crestview Drive, then to Wasatch Drive, and over to Foothill Boulevard.  This is the segment of the course that has been most difficult for me in years past; therefore, the part of the course that I have trained on the most.  In short, this section is still very challenging to say the least.  Wow, I was not so much trying to run, but more like trying to gut out mile 21, which encompassed a steady climb up Foothill to Sunnyside Avenue.  I’m really just thankful for the 7:09 on this mile. 

Knowing that a sub-2:50 marathon was within my grasp, for the last part of the race I just focused on the fundamentals--breathing, remaining relaxed, picking-up my long legs, and drinking plenty of water.  In addition, there was a runner from Heber that was keeping a good fifth-of-a-mile in front of me for a good portion of the race, which really helped me keep up my pace; that is, without him I would just be racing my Garmin.  The runner in fourth place had some distance between us two; therefore, I sort of felt bad for this runner from Heber in that he had no one to push him along.  I absolutely wanted to catch up to him so that we could push each other, but he was just too fast.  

It felt absolutely awesome to finish in Liberty Park and the cheering crowd was beyond supportive!  I crossed the line with a time of 2:47:35 (i.e., a 6:23 minutes-per-mile pace), which happens to be a personal record.  For anyone that is wondering, the two Yasso 800 workouts that I did leading up to the race projected finish times of 2:48 and 2:45; therefore, this workout is pretty accurate in predicting marathon finishing times. 

My post-race recovery simply consisted of water, a few popsicles, bags of ice, a shady tree to lie under, and the excitement involved with watching the other runners come in along with the Days of 47 Parade festivities.  You have to love the 24th!  Participating in our state’s holiday always makes me proud to be a Utahan and I look forward to doing it again next year.

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00
Comments
From Sasha Pachev on Mon, Jul 27, 2009 at 15:42:08 from 64.81.245.109

Congratulations on a PR!

Regarding Yasso workout, this race, and your potential. I think a) you could have done the Yasso workout at 2:35, you could have run a normal marathon properly paced maybe in 2:43, and c) overtime you could go under 2:30 if you keep on putting in the miles. That said, Yasso workout does little for your marathon training until you start being limited by speed. Which a stripling young man like you would not be until he is running the marathon under 2:25.

From Rossy on Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at 11:33:46 from 151.151.73.168

Sasha, thanks for the feedback and the vote of confidence! This really puts everything in perspective in that your advice reminds me of the Theory of Constraints (TOC) concept that my Operations Management professor always lectured about. I can absolutely see how my biggest constraint is millage, not speed (i.e., I always tend to fall off pace more than normal at the end of long races). At the end of 2008, I was running a minimum of 52 miles per week (i.e., Mon-Sun), then I read the number one mistake you listed on your "Top 10 Training Mistakes." Consequently, just to achieve compliance for speed training, I upped my weekly millage to a minimum of 56. So I'm currently just running the bare minimum average of 8 miles per day to justify speed workouts. However, I bet these extra four miles (in the form of longer weekend runs) are paying the real dividends. Thanks again and great job on the 10k (i.e., I can only run a 32-minute 10k in my dreams and I'm not wearing Five Fingers--I have not dared to run off the treadmill in my Vibrams yet).

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