A Balance, Redefined

Utah Valley Half Marathon

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Location:

Vestavia,AL,USA

Member Since:

May 31, 2007

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Other

Running Accomplishments:

Marathon Top 10 Finishes: 7 Bridges ('15), Utah Valley ('13), Salt Lake City ('08), Top of Utah ('07), and St. Louis ('04). Ran around the equator (24901.55) in 4,388 days.

Personal Records
Marathon 2:39 (SLC '08)
1/2 Marathon 1:12.30 (Provo River, aided '08)
10K 34:16 (Track, sea level '00)
10K 33:15 (Des 10K, aided '08)
8K 25:32 (Crack of Dawn, aided '13)
5K 16:44 (Track, sea level '00)
5K 16:07 (Running of the Leopards, aided '12)
 

Short-Term Running Goals:

NYC Marathon November 3, 2019 done 

London Marathon October 3, 2021 done

Tokyo Marathon March 3, 2024!!!

And my largest challenge to date, raise $20,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in honor of my cancer survivorship and in memory of those lost to blood cancer...
DONE! $26,403.70

https://pages.lls.org/tnt/al/london2021/awende

Long-Term Running Goals:

Enjoy being a Masters Runner.

Get under 3 hours one more time...

Personal:

Grew up outside Chicago and joined the blog while I lived in Salt Lake City. Now living outside Birmingham. I am married with two daughters. Wife thinks I'm crazy for doing marathons. And yes I am crazy I'm a scientist for a living...

Click to donate
to Ukraine's Armed Forces
Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 331.25
RM 090416 Lifetime Miles: 136.06
Saucony Type A Lifetime Miles: 200.18
Nike Vaporfly Pink Lifetime Miles: 122.22
Saucony Ride #37 - Black Lifetime Miles: 56.50
Saucony Ride #38 - Neon Lifetime Miles: 53.50
Saucony Ride #39 - Grey Lifetime Miles: 59.50
Brooks Launch #38 - Grey Lifetime Miles: 65.25
Brooks Launch #39 - White Lifetime Miles: 57.50
Brooks Launch #40 - Blue Lifetime Miles: 54.00
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTrainer 1 MilesTrainer 2 MilesRacer MilesTotal Distance
26.0013.000.000.000.000.000.0039.00
Saucony Rides #6 Miles: 10.50RM 090416 Miles: 0.04Brooks Launch #1 Miles: 7.00Saucony Rides #7 Miles: 2.50Adidas Adistar (flats) #2 Miles: 19.00
Night Sleep Time: 29.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 29.00Weight: 0.00
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTrainer 1 MilesTrainer 2 MilesRacer MilesTotal Distance
0.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.00

18 hr work day. No time for a run. Good news is I managed to finish by midnight.

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTrainer 1 MilesTrainer 2 MilesRacer MilesTotal Distance
4.000.000.000.000.000.000.004.00

A little too tired to do much more. The meeting went well and both my poster and talk were well received. I did a brief hike after the practice and then did what I could before heading home.

Saucony Rides #6 Miles: 4.00
Night Sleep Time: 5.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 5.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTrainer 1 MilesTrainer 2 MilesRacer MilesTotal Distance
7.000.000.000.000.000.000.007.00

Well the weekend caught up with me and I have a little of my wife's cold. Good news is that I don't feel as bad as I sound. The day went very well and got some good experimental results so that is always a plus. Finished the day doing the Suicide Loop run with a friend from work. Either still the fatigue of the weekend or the fact that I was running with someone else but it sure felt like I was pushing it some today. 

Avg.  7:26 HR 145

RM 090416 Miles: 0.03Brooks Launch #1 Miles: 7.00
Night Sleep Time: 6.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 6.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTrainer 1 MilesTrainer 2 MilesRacer MilesTotal Distance
0.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.00

Not exactly the week I had planned for my intro back into racing. I decided to go to sleep early to hopefully kick this cold before Saturday...

Night Sleep Time: 6.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 6.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTrainer 1 MilesTrainer 2 MilesRacer MilesTotal Distance
6.500.000.000.000.000.000.006.50

Home loop. Just trying to not let this cold get me down.

RM 090416 Miles: 0.01Saucony Rides #6 Miles: 6.50
Night Sleep Time: 6.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 6.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTrainer 1 MilesTrainer 2 MilesRacer MilesTotal Distance
2.500.000.000.000.000.000.002.50

Commute run. Tonight head to Provo. Still coughing a little but looking forward to tomorrow.

Saucony Rides #7 Miles: 2.50
Night Sleep Time: 6.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 6.00Weight: 0.00
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Race: Utah Valley Half Marathon (13.14 Miles) 01:16:37, Place overall: 8, Place in age division: 1
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTrainer 1 MilesTrainer 2 MilesRacer MilesTotal Distance
6.0013.000.000.000.000.000.0019.00

Overall I’m very happy with this weekend. After the girls went down on Friday I drove down to Provo for packet pick-up. On my way out I saw Jeff and caught up with him for a while. I even got to meet his family. I then slept at a friend’s parents’ house. It was nice being able to sleep into 3am on Saturday. My head hit the pillow and I was out until my alarm went off. The morning was good and I was up near the start with plenty of time to spare. The start area was well stocked with port’o potties though for the first time in history I had a zero star race. This had me nervous how my guts would respond to the descent. I saw James and Fritz at the start, but knew I would be hanging way back from them. In fact I had no idea what I was doing. I realistically thought anything from a 1:15 to a 1:25 was possible and expected. I was hoping to at least hit the 1:20 mark and would be happy with anything under that. However I did not go into this race with a game plan other than to enjoy being at a starting line with a fun race ahead of me. I did about a mile of warm up.

 

The gun went off exactly at 6:00 am and we were off. I knew this course was fast as the last time I raced down this Canyon I ran a 1:12 (Provo River ½ 2008). So I just hung back and watched the lead pack take off. I found myself in a group of about 3-4 other guys with one lone woman (I think Andrea) in between the leaders and us. Two of those guys started to go so I went with them. One soon dropped off and me and the other guy passed the women but the other guy soon left me as well. I counted about 9 runners ahead and was happy to be running in ~10th place. I ran on my own for a brief moment until a BYU student (Michael) caught me and asked what I was shooting for. I told him about 1:20 and we ran together for a couple miles chatting most of them. However, the canyon and the need to push myself soon took over and I started to leave him. I was solo running from that point on until about mile 10. At that point an SUU runner caught me. At the time I heard someone gaining on me I was convinced it would be Andrea as I figured from her recent 10K she should be finishing right around me. In any case this guy was a good kick in the butt and we chatted briefly as he got me to pick back up the pace. He miss judged the course and said we had one mile to go when we had two. He dropped me then I caught him again and he dropped me one more time before the finish. It was good to have the distraction and get in a little racing at the end. When I saw the clock I couldn’t believe my eyes. I finished and chatted with Fritz and James briefly. I was able to meet Andrea and talk to her for a short time as well. She had an amazing 1:17 and I was right to have suspected her on my heals. After a brief break, Fritz and I took a cool down back to the cars and then back in time to see Paul finish a very amazing 2nd in the full in 2:19. We stuck around to see a number of the St. George contingent cross the line and then I ran back to find Jeff and run him in the last mile or so. It got a little warm there at the end for the marathoners. Total I did about 5 miles of cool down. After that I caught up with a number of the guys I hadn’t seen in over a year. It was nice talking with them again however briefly.

 

Here are the race details; Split (HR)

5:43 (166)

5:50 (174)

6:01 (178)

5:42 (179)

5:30 (179)

5:42 (178)

5:47 (180)

5:44 (181)

6:00 (180)

5:56 (180)

6:06 (182)

5:51 (181)

My Garmin messed up here and didn’t record the last split and the “change”. I saw 1:16 something with 13.14 miles.

5:59 (?)

0:45 (?)

 

8th Overall, 1st Age, Gun Time 1:16:37

 

As I said I am super happy with this performance. The way I feel tonight makes me believe I could start training for a marathon again and overall just really enjoyed seeing so many of you out there. It had been too long.

Adidas Adistar (flats) #2 Miles: 19.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(11)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTrainer 1 MilesTrainer 2 MilesRacer MilesTotal Distance
26.0013.000.000.000.000.000.0039.00
Saucony Rides #6 Miles: 10.50RM 090416 Miles: 0.04Brooks Launch #1 Miles: 7.00Saucony Rides #7 Miles: 2.50Adidas Adistar (flats) #2 Miles: 19.00
Night Sleep Time: 29.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 29.00Weight: 0.00
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