Mission Accomplished

Everyone has a bucket list. Even the people who claim they don't have a bucket list secretly do. I didn't realize until this last Saturday that I had checked one off my list.

With the completion of the Provo City Marathon, I had just completed two marathons and a half marathon in a 3 week period of time. My bucket list item wasn't necessarily to complete this multiple, but there was always a longing to see if I could do multiple races in a row. The answer is a definite YES. I learned a lot from these past three weeks which I'll share in another post, but first here is a recap of the race.

The Provo City Marathon was a good finale. My pace time was a 3:55 finish time which was much closer to where my current level of fitness is compared to the 4:30 finish for the Salt Lake City Marathon two weeks before. I was a little apprehensive about the race, but it all turned out good.

We boarded the bus to go to the start line around 4:00 am. They were giving out some free swag to people who took the bus early. I ended up with some free coupons for Yogurt and a 2XL shirt from another race the group sponsors. The best thing about getting to a race start early is that there is no waiting for the honey buckets.

The weather was cool, but the wind was calm unlike the 30 mph wind at my house when I left. The race started 7 miles up the canyon with the marathon start time at 7:00 am and the half marathon at 7:15 am. The course started on the road, but after a mile it turned onto a bike path that wound down to the bottom of the canyon. My group was about 5 miles into the race when the top half marathon finishers past us.

From the bottom of the canyon until mile 13 the course was a gradual downward run. At the 13 mile mark, the race changed. The marathon and half marathon started at the same spot and ran together until the half marathon finished and the full marathon continued. The rest of the course was relatively flat. From 13 until 18 the course was uninteresting–just roads. At 18, the course turned onto a trail that followed the river which was a nice change from the boring road. At 23, the course looped back onto the road until the finish.

Overall the race was good. It was nice to put this race behind me so I can focus on the Utah Valley Marathon.