Salt Lake City Marathon Recap

On Saturday, I finished the Salt Lake City Marathon. After months of training and anticipation, I was ready for this race. The only concern I had was whether or not my being sick for a week would put a serious dent in my plan.

I'll sum of the race rather than doing a play by play.

What went well:

• Starting slower and giving my legs some time to warm up.
• Using the Honeybucket before the race even though the gun had gone off.
• Focusing on continuing to run even when everything said "stop".
• Having my wife there at the finish line and supporting me in my efforts!! 
• Feeling the sense of accomplishment from finishing.
• Hydrating well the week of the race.

What didn't work so well:

• Getting to the starting line later than planned. This happened because the light rail shuttle had mechanical problems.
• Having a slightly upset stomach that didn't allow me to fuel well before the race.
• Drinking so much that I had to pee during the race.
• Slowing down rather than pushing it to the max. 

In the end, the race course was a lot more hilly than I anticipated. My 13 mile split was 1:50 which was exactly where I wanted to be for my time. The last 13 however was 2:05 which put me way over. A couple  of the factors that led to the long second split included:

• Lack of being able to eat well before the race. 
• Stopping to stretch my shins and mile 16.
• Stopping for Honeybucket at mile 17. 
• Slowing down before I really needed too. 
• In part...not being able to taper very well. I went from a stellar last week of training to nothing because of sickness. 

I finished the race in 3:55:50 which was better than my 4:30 performance last fall, but off of my 3:40 goal. 

The post-race offerings were good and the race medal was the best of the three years I have participated (either in the half or the full).

I doubt I will ever do the SLC Full Marathon again, but it was a nice to have it done. Because of a not-so-great finish, I get to revisit my training plan for my next race in June.