St. George, Utah
Getting to the start
line has been a challenge for this race. I have struggled with the injured calf
issue and I have been sleeping on the couch for a week because Lori has been horribly
sick. I didn’t want to risk getting sick. Sleeping on the couch contributed to
poor sleep and my back going out two days before the race. I had a foot scare
too. My right foot became painful to walk on a week before the race at the same
time the my friend Bill Hagan called me and told me that after 8 months of
training for this race his St. George dream was over because he stress fractured
his foot on his final training run.
St. George is the race
I feared more than any other this year other than Ironman Arizona which I will
do at the end of the year. Every time someone would mention it, I would get a
pit in my stomach. I seriously questioned whether I would be able to finish
this race in the 8 hour time limit.
It was a great trip. We got up successfully at
4:00 a.m. on Thursday and headed out of Phoenix. We missed all early morning
Phoenix traffic and were playing around in Las Vegas by 10 a.m. We went to the
awesome Buffet that Lori picked out at Caesar’s Palace. It was the best buffet
ever.
After some time in Las
Vegas, we headed up to St. George. I still love driving through the Virgin
River Gorge. You know what? St. George is a very pretty place. I have always
just driven through it. We loved this trip. The town square where the expo and
T2 were located was small town picturesque. Access was easy and Vayden loved
playing in the water features they had. The kids loved climbing around in
Pioneer Park up on the bluff where the run would take place. Everyone liked the
trip and my brother Erik drove down with his family and stayed in the same
hotel so that was nice too. It was a great trip. I think the calm of the place
and being surrounded by family helped me.
As in Oceanside we
spent some time enjoying parts of the course prior to the race. We went to
Pioneer Park and hiked around. We also went and had smoothies at a local shop
along the course. Later during the race I would find peace and calm when I
encountered these portions of the race. I can’t explain it, but it really
works.
The swim course is the
only swim course where you get to swim by beautiful rock formations jutting out
of the water. It is actually a scenic swim.
There was one
interesting aspect of the bike course that has never happened to me before. At
one point, the bike course and the run course share the same road up on the
bluff on Red hills Parkway. At same time I was hitting that portion of the bike
course the pros were running it. As I struggled to pedal up this hill, to my
right the pros had hit the run turn around and were running up the hill. Let me
tell you something . . . it does not
make you feel particularly good about yourself to have runners passing you
while you are on your bike, pros or not. On a more positive note, it did feel
good to catch and leave the pros in the dust once I hit the downhill. It was a
clever bike course. Snow Canyon was very difficult. It is a long, Long, Long
climb, but I made it. I did have a few moments of doubt, but I did it.
The run was tough. I
knew going in that I was going to have to protect my calf. I knew that I would
have to walk any sharp or lengthy inclines. I just decided to take them one at
a time and run strong in between. I was running through Pioneer Park when I was
surprised to hear my name being called. It was Erik! That really picked me up.
I have now heard his voice cheering me on in two of the most difficult races
this year. I am really starting to love having Erik at my races. I thought heat
would be an issue, but I was able to keep my temperature under control with ice
and I felt like the heat was not a limiting factor for me. It would have been
another story without the ice, but I have learned to use ice well, and the aid
stations were well run.
Towards the end of the
run it starts about two miles of slight downhill which is very welcome given
the day of elevation gains we have suffered. The down-hill and wanting to
finish increased my pace and I was actually running down my average pace. I
looked at my watch and decided I could run it under an 11 minute mile. Normally
an 11 minute mile would be a complete embarrassment, but not for this course,
especially with my calf issue. But I did want my average to say 10 – something
to save face a bit. I started running down my average and figured I could get
it under 11 minutes by the end. Then, I must not have looked at the course very
well because suddenly the course took a left down this roadway and I
immediately saw a nasty little hill. Everyone who turned with me let out groans
and a few cursed. I was deciding in my mind whether or not I should push this
last hill when a guy 20 yards ahead of me suddenly screamed out in pain and
went down with a horrible cramp or something in his calf as he has had begun
the assent of the hill. He was screaming bloody murder as I ran by and people
were already helping him. I took it as a sign and said screw the 11 minute mile
average . . . let’s finish this thing in one piece!
I ran down the shoot
high fiving lots of kids and managed to finish a lot faster than I had thought
possible. My time was 6:38, which was not as bad as I had feared. I was pretty
tired though. I was glad to have Christian and his cousins to help me with my
gear. Lori, Erik and Alicia were all at the finish line. That was nice too.
After resting up a bit
Erik, Alicia, Lori and I went to the Tuacahn amphitheater to listen to a really
good comedian by the name of Brian Regan. It was a lot of fun and we laughed
and laughed.
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