I had a great support group at the marathon this year.  I could even feel the support from Morgan and Adrienne who stayed in Provo since Morgan had a cross country meet.  Their team qualified for the state meet, so it was a good weekend all around.

I slept much better this year than last the night before the race.  It still took a while to get to sleep, but I didn't keep waking up once I got to sleep.  I got up at 4:15am, ate a banana and pop tart and a few drinks of water.  Everything was laid out ready to go the night before, so I got ready and had Deana pick me up at 4:45.  One thing I forgot was to know how to get to the bus pickup, but we figured that out pretty quickly thanks for smartphones.  When I got to the buses with 5700 people being picked up, I got in line right when Katy Andrews (one of my graduate students who ended up 4th overall in her first marathon ever), Carl Hansen (one of my former teammates and now coworker at BYU), and Larry Lawrence (my former equipment manager now financial adviser  showed up.  So, we enjoyed the bus ride together.  It was great to have some friends to talk with instead of just thinking "This sure is a long drive".

At the startling, I had a little over one hour to wait until start time.  I had to wait zero seconds to get into the port-o-potty.  Everything happened the way it should in there, so I felt confident about the day.  It's always a relief for a marathoner to know their GI tract is acting normally on race day.  I chatted with a few friends in the elite corral.  Then, I laid on the ground near a fire barrel for a while until it was time to warm up.  Twenty-five minutes before the start I ran slowly for about 3 minutes, walked back towards the start, and did a few strides at race pace to feel ready.

There was a great tailwind as we got to the start line.  That got everybody excited.   Some people got too excited and when the gun went off, they left at 5:08 for the first mile.  I had memorized the times I should run for the first 5 miles and every 5 mile split from that point.  I decided to let them go ahead realizing that at least two of those four would not be able to hold the fast pace.  So, I went 5:15 and let them continue on running fast for the next 6 miles.  Eventually, they were about 90 seconds ahead of me and I couldn't hear anyone behind me.  That's when we got to the first uphill.  From miles 7-11, we run uphill or flat.  During that time 2 of the 4 ahead of me faded away from my training partner (Jon Kotter) and Fritz Van de Kamp (winner of the SLC, Deseret News, and Ogden marathons within the last year).  So, I caught up to Pepe (the other master's division runner) and then Aaron (winner of the 2010 St George marathon).  The held on fairly well, but I think had exhausted too much energy early in the race to run as fast as they could have.  I came through the half marathon at 1:10:20.  That was over a minute faster than I had planned and attributed that to the tailwind, but I think I still ran faster than I should have.  By mile 15, I caught up to Jon and Fritz, but as soon as Fritz saw me, he put in a  surge that I didn't want to match and Jon went with him.  The rest of the way I stayed about 30 seconds behind them.  At about mile 21, Fritz started to pull away from Jon.  I think all of us were starting to slow down, but Fritz slowed the least.  Just after mile 23, I caught up to Jon and offered some encouragement.  He ran with me for a minute or so, but was too exhausted due to the fast early pace and the tough races he had recently run and not fully recovered from.  So, he faded back.  With two miles to go, I was 5 seconds slower than my goal (getting my best time for the course).  I realized I was very fatigued, but knew I was exhausted during the last two miles when I set my previous PR (personal record).  So, I soldiered on hoping  I could still get my goal time.  With about 1 1/2 miles to go, Rebecca (my sister-in-law) was there cheering me on.  I could hear her all the way down a road that was about 1/4 mile.  That helped so much mentally, but physically, I was just about finished.  The last mile especially was too slow, but I was still happy to finish in 2:22:16.  Fritz also ran a relatively slow last two miles, but mine were a little slower than his.  So, he won in 2:21:19.

I was quite dehydrated when I crossed the finish line and wanted to lie down, but also wanted to see family.  So, I went over and hugged a few people on the sideline.  There were so many people there supporting me, so I was very happy that things went as well as they did.  It took a lot of water and some time, but I recovered fairly quickly and enjoyed begin with family and friends seeing how they did.  I also enjoyed watching people that I didn't know cross the finish line.  It's fun to think about what their stories and motivations are.

Paul Rosser (a teammate at BYU from when I was a freshman)

On the awards stand, I was pleased to find that I got some great prizes for finishing second, but also another collection of prizes for winning the master's division (40 and older).  I still feel like I'm in my 20's, so it's fun but feels a little bit like cheating to take master's prizes.  One of those prizes is a trip to Japan to run a race over in Ibigawa.  That will be in November.  I did that trip once before and loved it.  So, I'm very excited to go back and do that again.