This was a great race for me for a number of reasons.  I am working myself back into shape after I stopped running last summer when I got sick and couldn't run for a couple of weeks.  I didn't pick it back up after I felt better to help Stacie focus on training for her first marathon.  (We have a 1-year-old daughter with HD ADD--she can rarely focus on anything, but when she does, the picture is unbelievably clear.  I was trying to train for the TOU marathon with her last year, but it became evident that we both couldn't spend that much time running with everything else we had going on.  Without a goal, I just quit running and didn't start again until January.)  I am currently training for the St George Marathon and this race seemed like a good gauge to see how that is going.

 I have only run one half marathon before, the 2009 Provo River Half.  My goal was to finish in under 2 hours and I did: 1:56:24.  I figured I was going to beat that time this year, but I got sick a couple of weeks ago and stopped running for a week and a half.  I missed two Saturday long runs, so I wasn't sure how I would do.  I was hoping to beat 2 hours, but didn't think that I would.  I certainly hadn't been running that fast at all since starting up again in January.  Mostly, I was using this to figure out an in-race nutrition strategy for the marathon.

I'm too heavy to be a distance runner.  The running is keeping me under 200 lbs., but just barely.  From what I have read, I need more calories every 20 minutes than the standard 100 in most gels to sustain me through a marathon.  I also sweat a lot, so I figure I need a lot of electrolytes.  I decided to try e-Gel because each one is 150 calories with tons of electrolytes.  I first tried e-Gel to get me through a 15 miler a few weeks ago.  Nasty stuff.  The packets are a bit smaller and slightly easier to carry that your standard salt lick with all the flavor.  (If you want to see a congregation of wildlife gather on a trail run, I believe you could rip open a packet and leave it along side the trail and then hide behind a tree and wait.)  I was able to find one flavor, the lemonish one, that I could tolerate so I brought a couple of those to see how it would go.  I choked one down 15 minutes before the race started.  I decided I'd down the other at the next aid station I got to after 40 minutes of running.  I figured I'd take a GU thirty minutes after that (mostly for the caffeine.) 

I started the race with my wife, her sister, their niece, and a couple of other women.  My plan was to stay with them for the first mile and kind of ease my way into things.  Now, I have to say that I get claustrophobic in large groups of slow-moving people.  I just have an insatiable desire to get out of the crowd.  I once almost punched a lady while trying to exit a crowded chapel after Sacrament Meeting, so I tend to go a bit bananas at the beginning of races when I am too far back in the crowd.  I think it was about 20 seconds after crossing the starting line when I said, "This is too slow," to my wife and I took off outside the orange barrels because that was the only place I had room to move.  I didn't see her again until she crossed the finish line.

 I caught up to the 2-hour pacer and decided to see how long I could stay with him.  I stayed just behind him for the first couple of miles.  I looked at my GPS watch and saw that we were running under 9-minute miles, which seemed a bit fast for a two hour half.  It also surprised me because it was faster than I thought I was going and I felt pretty good at that pace.  After the first uphill section, I let loose on the downhill and passed the pacer and started making my way up the crowd.  I got just behind the 1:55 pacer and stayed there until after the second uphill section.  This was the steepest downhill section and I took full advantage of it. 

My high school cross country coach taught me to relax when running downhill and let gravity do the hard work.  I always do that because it just seems the most efficient way to go.  I overtook the 1:55 pacer and a number of runners during the steepest section.  That was my fastest mile (8:10).  It was at about 50 minutes that I saw and aid station and decided to try my second e-Gel.  Now, I had taken power-aid at the first aid station and I think this was a mistake.  After I took the gel and a cup of water at the aid station, I slowed down a bit.  It felt like a lot.  I think power aid + e-Gel = running funk.  A number of the people I had overtaken on the downhill started to pass me.  One was a tall woman with curly blonde hair and compression socks.  Another was the 7:55 pacer.

 I managed to stay within sight of them for the rest of the race, but I was bummed that I lost my momentum.  I got to 6.75 miles at just under an hour, so, with the race course leveling out a bit, for the second half, I thought I might not make two hours.  I just plugged along down University Avenue trying to look at intermediate goals and not the large building where I knew the finish line was.  With about 5 miles left, I realized I would finish under 2 hours if I kept my pace around 9 minutes--which felt comfortable. 

I took the GU a little more than 20 minutes after the e-Gel.  It felt too soon--especially after the lag I experienced from the e-Gel, but I was running out of time for it to be useful.  I held on at around 9 minutes most of the way down University.  With two miles left, I knew I was going to make it and I started picking up the pace.  I had been steadily overtaking people who had passed me during my e-Gel funk and was catching up to the tall blonde in the compression socks.

 While running Ragnar Relays, I always enjoy seeing the "1 Mile Left" sign.  I have a tradition of kissing my fingers and hitting the sign as I pass.  When I got to the "Mile 12" sign, I did the same thing.  I knew I had a little over a mile left and I was feeling good.  Something about that energized me and I just started going for it.  I passed the blonde and was well on my way to the finish line.  Then my body rebelled a bit and I knew I was pushing too soon so I backed off a bit, but still faster than I had been going.  Getting to 200N, there was a large gap between me and the next group of runners so I started picking it up to close the gap so I could pass someone in the chute.  I caught the group at the chute and went into a full sprint--passing several people and almost catching the 1:55 pacer at the finish line.

I've never finished a race that strong and I have to say that it felt pretty good.  My last mile was my second fastest at 8:14--only four seconds slower than the big downhill section.  I came in at 1:53:37, a PR, and about 50 seconds a mile faster than I thought I was going to do.  I'm not sure if it was the GU or the e-Gel that helped me stay strong while everyone around me was slowing down--probably a little of both.  I'm going to have to play around with this on my long runs this summer and figure out the best way to go during the marathon.

Easy four mile recovery run with Stacie. 9:40 pace.   I'm still a little sore from the half, but not nearly as much as I was after my first half.  A few months ago, I couldn't classify a four mile run at any speed as a recovery run.  I also wouldn't have been calling it easy.

 Finished with 3 10-second uphill sprints for strength training.

Last run before Ragnar.  Easy four-miler.  Then three hill sprints on Sterling. 

I'm not sure what is going on with Ragnar.  From what I can tell, Guardsman Pass won't be open.  If I don't get to run down from there to the base of Deer Valley, I'm not going to be very happy--especially after having to run up to Snow Basin on Trapper's Loop.  This crazy Pacific Northwest weather is taking all my downhill segments away--which I think is a good trade for not having to run my sprinklers.

This was so long ago that I don't really remember.  I needed to run more this week, but I was recovering from Ragnar and working long hours to finish a project before going on the cruise.  It was the only run I did this week--and that was bad.

Running on a cruise ship was interesting.  Especially when the cruise ship is out in the Pacific Ocean somewhere west of Graham Island in British Columbia. While the ship was quite large, we were still at sea and there was some significant ocean motion--which could especially be felt on a treadmill.

We went to the gym about an hour after it opened.  Since it was the first full day of the cruise, the place was packed.  I was able to get on a treadmill, but they had a 30 minute time limit. Now, having mostly rested the prior week and being at sea level, I found myself running a bit faster than I had anticipated.  With the ship rocking around, it was kind of like a trail run without any rocks.  I set the treadmill to 7.0 and ran the last five minutes at 7.5.  I then did a 5 minute "cool-down" where the treadmill went to 6.2.  Now I was out of treadmill time, but still wanted to run some more.  So I went to the Promenade Deck (level 3) where there was an outdoor deck that encircled most of the ship.

One lap around the deck was 1/3 of a mile, if the sign posted was correct.  It was sort of like running on a stretched out track.  After leaving the hot, stuffy gym, it was very refreshing to be on the cool deck running into a nice headwind on the starboard side with a good tailwind when running on the port side.  I did 7 laps which brought my total to around 6 miles.

It was nice to run because I tend to get motion sickness. While I could feel the ship moving around while lying in my bed, it didn't really bother me until I stood up and started walking around.  I was feeling a bit queasy until I started running.  Of course, after I was done running, I started feeling queasy again.

Second day of running on a cruise ship.  I was more used to being at sea--which we still were--but I was feeling all six of the miles I had run the previous day.  We were now off the coast of Alaska heading towards Glacier Bay.  We decided to skip the gym altogether and run around the Promenade Deck.

I decided I was going to do 6 miles and that meant 18 laps.  I didn't wear my satellite watch because I was on a moving ship and I don't think it would have been very accurate--though my pace might have been very impressive when running from the back to the front of the ship.  I knew I needed 18 laps so I decided just to count them.  I'm pretty sure I ran all 18, but I am giving myself a margin of error of +/- 1 lap.

My legs were very heavy from the previous run and I took it slow since I had run hard the day before.  I had to stop and stretch my calves after the first mile.  After a couple of miles, everything loosened up and I started to feel good.  Most of the challenge was in dodging the numerous wide-bodied walkers on the turns and some of the more narrow parts of the deck.

It was another great day to run outside.  It was overcast and about 52 degrees with a bit of wind from the ship moving at full speed.  Again, there was motion of the ocean which meant it was also a balance exercise as you were never quite sure where or when your foot needed to land to keep upright.  Of course, all this running only enabled me to do more damage at the lunch buffet.

Wasn't able to run today.  I woke up to find us docked in Juneau and we only had time to eat breakfast before heading ashore to do a whale watch and to tour the Mendenhall Glacier.  I did do a lot of walking, though.

The whale watch was pretty cool.  We found a large pod of humpback whales doing what is called bubble net feeding.  12-15 whales huddle together and dive down into the water where they make a lot of bubbles.  This confuses the small fish, who feel trapped by the bubbles and head for the surface.  The whales come up underneath them with their mouths open and eat it all on their way up.  What we see is a bunch of open whale mouths suddenly appearing in one big clump.  What made it more interesting was the calf who was still trying to figure it all out and would just come flying up completely out of the water on his own somewhere nearby the rest of the group.  It was a spectacular sight to see.

Then we took a bus to Mendenhall Glacier.  We went on a small 1 km hike to a large waterfall near the glacier.  We didn't have much time to spend there because our bus had to come back to get us and take us back to Juneau.  We ate lunch on the ship and then I walked around town for a while.  Juneau has to be the smallest capital city in America, but it is also probably the prettiest.

Wasn't able to run again.  This time we spent the day in Sitka.  I walked a lot today as well.  The day started out fairly rainy, but it didn't end up raining all that much.  Had I known that, I would have rented a bike and rode around.  We went to a state park with a nice trail through the rain forest with totem poles scattered along the way.   We saw some bald eagles in the trees.  We then went to a raptor rehabilitation center.  I saw a young hair-lipped bald eagle there.  Poor guy.