A Lean and Hungry Look

Salt Lake Half (Sports Am)

Recent EntriesHomeJoin Fast Running Blog Community!PredictorHealthy RecipesJed's RacesFind BlogsMileage BoardTop Ten Excuses for Missing a RunTop Ten Training MistakesDiscussion ForumRace Reports Send A Private MessageWeek ViewMonth ViewYear View
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
200620072008200920102011201220132014
15% off for Fast Running Blog members at St. George Running Center!

Location:

Salt Lake City,UT,USA

Member Since:

May 06, 2006

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Local Elite

Running Accomplishments:

Won Park City Marathon (tiny field, slow course, no purse) and Utah Grand Slam in 2006

Marathon: 2:37:04 (St. George 2009)

Short-Term Running Goals:

Train for as solid a race in Boston 2011 as my schedule will allow.  Accept the fact that there isn't room in my life to train for a breakthrough performance and do the best I can under the circumstances.

Long-Term Running Goals:

Lose the all-or-nothing mentality and start using running as an outlet instead of an additional source of stress.

Personal:

I'm married with 4 kids (2 boys, 2 girls) and live in Salt Lake City, where I work as a real estate attorney. 

Let me have men about me that are fat,
Sleek-headed men and such as sleep a-nights.
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look,
He thinks too much; such men are dangerous.

"Julius Caesar," Act I, scene 2, 190-95

Favorite Blogs:

Click to donate
to Ukraine's Armed Forces
Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Kayano Blue Lifetime Miles: 352.51
Kayano Orange Lifetime Miles: 413.88
DS Trainer Lifetime Miles: 259.32
Nike Free Lifetime Miles: 164.78
Kayano Red Lifetime Miles: 371.34
Kayano 15A Lifetime Miles: 310.02
Kayano 15B Lifetime Miles: 340.36
Vibram Five Fingers Lifetime Miles: 66.50
DS Trainer 15A Lifetime Miles: 310.92
DS Trainer 15B Lifetime Miles: 297.94
DS Trainer 16C Lifetime Miles: 308.08
DS Trainer 16D Lifetime Miles: 207.49
DS Racer Lifetime Miles: 72.98
DS Trainer 16E Lifetime Miles: 66.73
DS Trainer 16F Lifetime Miles: 48.80
Race: Salt Lake Half (Sports Am) (13.1 Miles) 01:16:20, Place overall: 2, Place in age division: 1
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTrainer 1 MilesTrainer 2 MilesRacer MilesTotal Distance
3.000.0013.100.000.000.000.0016.10

This was kind of a hokey race.  As much as I hate to dump on volunteers, I've never seen people at aid stations who appeared to have less of a clue about their purpose than today's crew did.  Not only did they not hold cups up or jog alongside runners (even the top runners, who were spaced widely apart), but in some cases they were even obstructing the aid stations (I had to try to dodge a girl at the final aid station at Ruth's Diner (there were only 3 in the race) to even grab a cup, and by the time I got it, it was empty.  As a result of the crappy aid stations, I only got two small swigs of water for the race.  I took part of a gel at the second aid station around mile 6.5, and as I was not able to get enough to drink from the partially filled Dixie cup I managed to grab from the table, the gel sort of sat in my stomach and made me a little miserable for a couple of miles.  I realize that this was not a major race and that it's always hard to get good volunteers, but if you're doing aid stations, it seems to me that you should at least train your volunteers to be as useful as possible.

The award ceremony was a waste of two hours.  There were computer problems that delayed the men's results over and over again (they didn't start the men's awards until 90 minutes after I finished).  Finally, after wading through a million age-group awards, they finally announced James Moore as the overall winner, essentially as an afterthought, since most people had long since left.  Then they announced the relay winners and thanked us for coming.  I had left my kids home alone (my oldest turns 14 on Saturday, so she was my babysitter), figuring that I'd be home no more than an hour after finishing, so I was a little frustrated when it had been two hours and they still hadn't announced the overall results.  I approached the race director and asked him about it, and he replied, "Oh, we only recognize the overall winner."  Great.  They go three deep for every imaginable age group and give no recognition to even the top 3.  Note to self: if I ever come back, remember to leave as soon as the race is over.  Waiting two hours was about 90 minutes too long.

With that rant out of the way, here are my splits:

1: 6:26 (I fell in behind James Moore and a guy with a Penn State XC shirt on about 400 meters in and gradually lost them on the long uphill) (AHR 175, MHR 200)

2: 7:19 (this is a steep section, and I decided to back off and save something for the rest of the race, but I had no idea that I had backed off THAT much!) (177/191)

3: 6:25 (176/179)

4: 6:51 (177/179) (Little Mountain is the 4-mile mark)

5: 5:18 (172/176) (ahh, this feels better)

6: 5:20 (170/172)

7: 5:39 (167/172) (settled into sort of MP effort here)

8: 5:36 (168/172)

9: 5:34 (170/172)

10: 5:32 (172/174)

11: 5:33 (173/176)

12: 5:15 (175/177) (Lisa Madsen and my friend Tom Wilkinson were cheering at the trailhead for the Shoreline Trail and gave me a nice boost!)

13: 5:29 (177/181) (my Garmin measured the course at 12.95, so this was a partial mile)

The complaints above notwithstanding, it was great to be running down Emigration with a partially closed road--the car and bike traffic volume was down about 80% from a normal Saturday, so I was able to run the tangents for the most part and didn't have to scream at a single group of 6-abreast slow cyclists.  In addition, the weather was perfect from start to finish.

This was my first half, and other than the rather dumpy support, it was a great first experience at this distance.  My goal was to finish under 1:17 and I accomplished that.  The purpose behind registering for this a few days ago was to provide a tune-up for St. George next month.  I think it was perfect for that.

DS Racer Miles: 16.10
Weight: 0.00
Comments
From allie on Sat, Sep 03, 2011 at 16:09:19 from 24.10.191.18

nice race, and nice job on meeting your goal. looks like it was definitely a good tune-up for SGM.

sorry about the disappointments with the volunteers and awards. it's tradition for awards ceremonies to be extremely long and painful :)

From Seth on Sat, Sep 03, 2011 at 18:01:27 from 67.177.36.131

Nice work! That's sounds like a pretty tuff course.

From Burt on Mon, Sep 05, 2011 at 00:32:53 from 72.223.91.148

Great time! Even if you didn't have a great time.

From Walter on Mon, Sep 05, 2011 at 11:34:25 from 24.2.69.110

I dont know if ive met you at a race but you did great even with the flops along the course. I ran Mammoth Marathon in Mesquite and they had a table at the 16th aid station I think it was and nobody was there. Just a table with a jug of water and some cups that hadnt been opened yet. I had to actually open the package, get the cup out and fill it up! haha Great job my friend.

From Jed on Mon, Sep 05, 2011 at 18:30:58 from 67.2.16.192

Thanks to all for your encouragement. I was in kind of a crappy mood after waiting around for the overall results, which led to an unusually negative report. The timing of the race was perfect for SGM and the course was great.

@Walter: I think we may have met at the finish line at SGM 2009 (didn't you run 2:31 and win our age group?). Your Mammoth Marathon story had me laughing out loud and feeling a little sheepish for complaining so loudly about the aid stations on Saturday. Thanks for putting it in perspective!

From MarkP on Mon, Sep 05, 2011 at 23:01:05 from 97.117.127.158

I ran a Sports Am 5K snow shoe race in Park City several years ago and won. I am still waiting on my running store gift certificate. I have never run another Sports Am event.

Good job with the race with little support!

Add Your Comment.
  • Keep it family-safe. No vulgar or profane language. To discourage anonymous comments of cowardly nature, your IP address will be logged and posted next to your comment.
  • Do not respond to another person's comment out of context. If he made the original comment on another page/blog entry, go to that entry and respond there.
  • If all you want to do is contact the blogger and your comment is not connected with this entry and has no relevance to others, send a private message instead.
Only registered users with public blogs are allowed to post comments. Log in with your username and password or create an account and set up a blog.
Debt Reduction Calculator
Featured Announcements
Recent Comments: