Marathon #40: Ogden Utah, May 2015

"...The race would end. I would finish. I knew all that. But what should have been self-evident truths felt like prayers..." Scott Jurek, "Eat & Run".

My co-worker, a retired ultramarathoner and vegetarian, let me borrow this book awhile back, primarily because of the vegan recipes in it. He knows of my struggles with trying to go vegetarian and thought I'd find it useful. Well I did, but not in the way he imagined. It's a strange book. Scott Jurek goes into brutal detail of crashing and burning in the Badwater ultra, then finishes off the chapter with a miso rice ball recipe. Is it a cook-book or an auto-biography? Well, a little of both. At any rate, the irony is that some of the passages of the book got me through this marathon, as it turned out to be one of my hardest yet.

The terrain of the Ogden marathon isn't overly challenging, in fact it's a net downhill course, with a big portion of downhill late in the race, where it's needed the most. I wasn't afraid of the terrain. I was afraid of the altitude, starting at 5400 feet, dropping to 4300 feet, not horrendous, but I've had issues running at altitude in the past, so I tried to mentally prepare for that scenario. I'd have to walk some, especially on portions that turned uphill, like I did in the Colorado marathon, ok. My goals these days are to enjoy the experience and not care so much about how long it takes me, so I was good. We'd start out in the first canyon for about 5 miles, all downhill, then hit a valley and run flat to rolling, and encounter 2 large uphills around miles 14-15. I knew I'd have some walking to do there. From there we would enter THE canyon, the most beautiful stretch of the course, and all downhill to mile 23 ish, and then it would be a rolling to flat finish into downtown Ogden.

We flew into Salt Lake City the morning before the race and drove straight to the race expo in Ogden. They had a really nice expo and some good marathon apparel too. We didn't do a whole lot that day. Our hotel was a block away from the finish, so we went over there and checked it out, then drove over to where the course started making its way into downtown along the Ogden pathway.

From whence we would come--that road went on FOREVER...

We only saw this once. The next day it had blown into the river.

Race day morning came early. No need for an alarm, as the buses were lining up in front of the hotel by 4:15, along with loud race music and announcements blaring. We felt a lot of pain for those staying in the hotel that weren't there for the race! Toby had to take another bus for the half, so we said good-bye to him and made our way to our bus.

Jamie and I had a pleasant morning at the start. Even though it was a little cold, and it even snowed a bit on us, the sun popped out, which lead us to (mistakenly) believe we weren't going to encounter much, if any, of the predicted rain. If only I had texted Toby at his start, where the weather looked a bit more ominous...We decided to take our sunglasses, and I ditched my hat. Here are some pics from the full start and you can see why we were stupid about the weather. We were TRICKED!

Jamie and her precious gloves that she lost along the way

Hatless idiot

You got that right

Proof of snow

Contrast this view with Toby's start, 13 miles down the road from us:

At any rate, off we went into the canyon. Jamie went ahead right away, and I quickly fell into a good rhythm with the downhill, and started enjoying the views. But after only a couple of miles into it the rain began. And it was cold cold cold in that canyon! After cursing at myself for being an idiot I again fell into the rhythm and went with it. As we entered the valley the wind picked up, making it even colder. Shortly after my first gel I suddenly found myself feeling very nauseous and dizzy. I stopped to walk and burp it out, not good. I was somewhere around mile 9. Apparently I was fighting with the altitude at this point, and not in a happy place AT ALL. In fact, I was downright miserable, soaking wet, cold, and sick. I found myself pulling over to walk several times, but couldn't walk for long because I was too cold! I wanted nothing more than to drop out! I started thinking about how far I had left to go and was really doubting everything when I thought about Scott Jurek's book. During a rough patch, and mind you his rough patches are a hundred times worse than mine, he had to tell himself DO NOT THINK. Just do. I wasn't going to drop out, so my only option was to keep moving forward. So I did. And not think. Do. Those were some mindless miles! 

Once we entered the second canyon I came back to life. My nausea was gone and again I fell back into a rhythm, but still had to stop to dig out  and open gels because my hands were numb. My legs were numb. My feet were numb. We were long past trying to skirt the water puddles at this point. Still, it was hard not to look around and marvel at the scenery in this canyon, especially this water fall, around mile 22 or so:

As we left the canyon and got onto the Ogden pathway I saw Toby briefly and told him I was ok, just coming in a bit later than normal. The last few miles were what I would call "normal" late marathon miles, where you make friends by taking turns passing each other over and over in silence. The turn to the finish line was a never-ending road, although flanked with spectators, finally, cheers were a welcome thing at this point. I crossed the line with a chip time of 4:15, which, looking back surprises me, because I had stopped doing the math and assumed it was going to take me much longer. Toby was there to quickly guide me back to the room, as there didn't appear to be any mylar sheets. I promptly changed into dry clothes and jumped into bed, but didn't stop shivering until an hour or so later. Jamie joined me and we shared our war stories. Toby had a great race, placing first in his age group with a 1:29 half!

Jamie in that heavy cotton T

sheer bliss...

Finishing marathon #40!

Official Finish line Photo

In summary, although difficult, this marathon was truly beautiful and I highly recommend it. Someone from the area said the rain wasn't typical for this time of year, but they had rain 2 years ago, so I'd say be prepared. And by prepared I mean wear a lot more clothes than we did!

This will go down as one of my favorite road trips with Toby and the sister wife Jamie. We had a blast hiking the waterfall the next day, and driving up to see the snow in Big Cottonwood Canyon. Love you guys!