One of the items on my bucket list has been to run a marathon. On Pioneer Day this year (July 24th), I was able to run the Deseret News Marathon in Salt Lake. Here are some highlights.
- I trained by running mostly just on Saturdays, doing long runs while Anders rode his bike along side me. He’s a champ.
- The longest I ran before the marathon was 18 miles. I tried running longer but had all kinds of pains and didn’t want to be injured for the race.
- I didn’t really ever run during the week. Because running is hard. And not fun.
- I clocked a 2:09 half-marathon during a couple of runs, so that’s better than my two official half marathons.
- I downloaded an audiobook the night before the marathon, which made the run way easier. Thank you, Orson Scott Card, for writing Pastwatch. I’m almost done with it now.
- I thought I broke my foot during training. Turns out the super-arch support insoles in my shoes were screwing up my feet. I removed them after my second 18 mile run and had no more issues. There was a lot of limping going on for days and days, though.
- I had IT band issues but was able to overcome those.
- The marathon went well but I definitely couldn’t run the whole time. My goal was to continue my routine of running for ten minutes and then walking one. Instead I ran the first hour (all down hill) then did the rotation, then had to start walking more by 15 or 16 miles.
- All went well – no major pains or issues, just blisters. I finished in 4:48.
And now for some photos.
