I originally signed up for the Utah Valley Marathon at the end of April, 2020. Many of my races had been cancelled or postponed, and I was worried that I didn’t have a Boston 2021 qualifier. So I decided to run the Utah Valley Marathon in June. It seemed the race would happen at the time — Utah wasn’t using Covid 19 restrictions, and the race had pandemic protocols listed on its website. Then, just hours after I signed up, I got an email telling me the race was off.
I had so many cancelled 2020 races, including Boston twice. But the Utah Valley Marathon cancellation made me feel like the entire racing world was just gone. When it was off, I knew it would be a long time until things felt normal again. I realized Covid 19 wasn’t going to just disappear when the weather got warmer.
So this year’s Utah Valley Marathon last Saturday felt like a bookend to the pandemic for me. I know there are still people who are really sick, and people are still dying. Thankfully the daily number of infections and death are far below their peak. And they continue to drop (please get vaccinated if you haven’t already). Covid 19 is still a problem and upending lives, but the nation is opening back up and vaccinated people are able to return to something resembling normalcy. Participating in a large event felt like normal for me.
I ran the Brookings Marathon three weeks ago, but Utah Valley felt much more like a race weekend. It had an expo with many vendors and people milling around. I rode a bus to the starting line, and I got to line up with a few thousand other runners for a nice sized racing field.
I’m so glad I ran the Utah Valley Marathon. Because I came really close to not making the trip up to Provo. Life has been hectic, and my running in between Brookings and last weekend wasn’t great. Then I looked at the weather forecast and saw the predicted temperatures hitting the 90s for the entire weekend. I’ve never run well in hot weather, and I was close to pulling the plug on the race before I even got in the car to drive north to Utah.
But then I thought about 2020. This race had to cancel, and I didn’t have the opportunity to line up. I couldn’t choose not starting in 2021 when my reason was the weather.
So I headed to Provo, picked up my race packet, noted the hot, dry wind, and decided to do my best and finish.
My least favorite part of the Utah Valley Marathon is the bus pickup time. The scheduled race start was 6 a.m. The bus pickup ran from 3:15 a.m. to 4:15 a.m. And on my Pacific Time body clock, that was 2:15-3:15. That was a rough wakeup. The ride itself was fine. Just up, up, up in the dark through Utah mountain passes.
The staging area was a farm. Runners were using space blankets (I didn’t, because it didn’t seem cold at all to me) and laying across the ground in cleared out cow pen. And yes, there were plenty of cow patties to avoid.
The port-a-potties were along a small equipment road and leaning against a wooden fence. And I do mean leaning. I finished my warmup, got in line, and then went into a port-o-potty. I was in a reclined position, but it was not relaxing feeling like the entire thing would flip backward at any moment.
The race started nearly 15 minutes late, mostly because runners clogged the starting area and the buses had to take extra time turning around. Those few minutes ending up costing me.
The sun was up, but we started in the shade. In mile one we ran past a farm full of crowing roosters. There were beautiful rural Utah farm views for the first seven miles. From mile five on, the sun was a problem.
By the time I took my two-minute bathroom break at the start of mile eight, I was already feeling too hot.
Then came rolling uphills for miles 8-9, as the route turned onto the highway. There were a few shaded miles eventually, when we were running through a pass with a towering mountain on our left. But for me and the runners around me, it was full sun most of the way. I kept seeing shaded areas about a half mile ahead, but by the time I reached that section, the sun was too high and I was still getting roasted. I remembered the late start and imagined how shaded an on-time start could have changed the day.
Still, I wasn’t running terribly. I was bracing for the worst, but the worst didn’t come until the final few miles when I was truly overheating.
The course is stunning. Utah mountains, Deer Creek Reservoir, the Provo river, and Bridal Veil Falls all provide beautiful views. The course does have some rolling uphill, but it is mostly a gradual downhill. Just downhill enough to help with speed without making you feel out of control. If the weather was 20 degrees cooler, the Utah Valley Marathon would be a PR type course (although I’m not close to PR shape right now).
For the final miles, I latched on to some runners to help myself keep my legs moving. I was grabbing two cups of water at every aid station. One had ice in a bag, and I put that under my cap. Another had ice water soaked towels, and I grabbed two of those. Nothing seemed to help. My mouth was sticky and parched a minute after I drank water, and I could feel my skin burning and my heart racing. I’ve had heat issues in races before, and I knew I was flirting with serious conditions.
So I slowed down and calculated my pace needed to finish in less than three hours. With 10K to go, I knew I could keep running at a 7:20 pace and finish sub three. Running under three was a big goal for me. Utah wasn’t a new state, but I had never broken 3 there. So I slowed down but kept moving forward.
I had a moment with a few miles left when I decided to keep pushing. I could have stopped to walk, but I knew it was possible to keep going and finish sub 3. It would just be unpleasant for a few more minutes.
The final mile seemed so much longer. The race finishes down a long straight section of the highway (there are zero turns in the final 18 miles). So I could see the finish line from a little more than a mile out. It seemed so far away. I felt such a rush of joy and thankfulness when I crossed the line. My official time was 2:59:38. I hit my goal by 22 seconds.
By that point the temperature was close to 80 with a real feel much higher (it hit mid 90s a little bit later).
I don’t like running in the heat, and I’m not very good at it, but Saturday’s race was a great mental and physical test for me. And I feel like I showed progress.
Now it’s time to embrace the heat running. Boston 2021 training starts in two weeks.