Salt Lake City Half Marathon 2011

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Today was a perfect day to run with overcast skies, 50 degrees and only a slight chance of rain, which it didn't until I crossed the finish line and then only a sprinkle or two before the weather changed its mind.

The race started at 7:00 a.m. at the Olympic Legacy Bridge at the University of Utah and meandered through the valley to finish at The Gateway, which is only a half mile from my house. Some of my races have taken me clear across the country with rental cars and hotels involved so it almost felt like I was goofing off when I didn't even leave my house until 6:00 a.m. this morning.

Most of this route is along roads that I often run on when home so it just felt like a training run, which I guess it really was since I don't give these races much effort. Today's effort netted me a 2:27:06. Not my best, but not my worst either. My daughter, MaryAnne got me a Garmin last year so I'm able to track my splits, which is interesting. Here they are: 9:57.51, 10:02.26, 9:47.54, 9:37.84, 10:44.80, 17:30.94, 10:05.03, 11:19.75, 10:46.21, 11:40.03, 11:54.41, 13:32.49, 9:23.45, 00:48.28.

One of my favorite things recently has been sprinting the last quarter mile of a race. I've only just started doing this since the beginning of 2010. It's kind of silly, really, but I find it great fun to pretend I'm Kara Goucher and that the cheering crowd is there just for me.

Today two things happened during my last half mile that were an absolute blast. The first was around the half-mile-to-finish mark when motorcycle police and a pace car came past us immediately followed by runner Jonathan Ndambuki, the marathon leader. (Because of the way the course was configured the marathoners and half-marathoners started and finished in the same place so it made sense the fastest marathoners would catch up to those half-marathoners running my pace close to the finish.) The crowd started cheering and because he ran right past me I was next to him for the briefest of moments. I began running at an all-out sprint to see if I could hold his pace and was able to keep him from pulling away too quickly for maybe 6-8 seconds...which is laughable, but made me smile to think I got to run with him even if it was only for a few seconds. The Kenyan won in 2:25.56.

The second thing that happened was during the last tenth of a mile with the finish line in sight I began sprinting again and there was another runner next to me who was also sprinting. I started racing him and the two of us ran side by side as fast as we could down the home stretch toward the finish line...I might have beat him had I not spent some of the last energy I had keeping up with the Kenyan, but at the last second home-stretch guy won. Still, the effort was totally worth it and so much fun and for a few seconds I was Kara again.

A few of the photos I'm posting in here were taken during previous training runs when the weather was a little better. It will give you an idea of how beautiful Salt Lake City is and also will show you my regular route, which winds around Bonneville Blvd. in between Memory Grove and City Creek Canyon. I'm really lucky to have such a beautiful place to run. Nothing really beats running in the mountains...except maybe the ocean.

See you guys at the Utah Valley Marathon in June...unless of course I find another race between now and then.

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Photos

Mormon Battalion Monument
This monument commemorates the sacrifices made by 500 Mormon pioneer volunteers who joined the U.S. Army during the Mexican War.

Mormon Battalion Monument
An up close look at the bronze statue.

The Triad Center
Downtown Salt Lake has a lot of fountains.

Downtown Trax at the Rio Grande
Trax is one of the easiest ways to get around Salt Lake City. It runs from downtown to the south end of the valley and also up to the University of Utah. Service is to be extended to the airport soon.

It's an uphill climb
Just one of the ungodly hills I have to run up if I want to get to Bonneville Blvd.

And there are stairs, too.
I don't mind these stairs. They are a lot easier than the 3 steep hills I have to climb to get to this spot. At the top of these stairs there is one more small uphill section and then most of the rest of this route is downhill, except for a one mile slight uphill section right before the Salt Lake cemetery. This is part of my 7.5 mile run.

Bonneville Blvd.
This road is one-way for motorized vehicles. Half of the road is reserved year-round for bikes, walkers and runners.

Road to City Creek Canyon
This road is paved for about 5.75 miles. It's a beautiful run with City Creek running along side it. In the summer cyclists and cars alternate days in which they are allowed to use the canyon. Runners and walkers have no restrictions.

Bonneville Blvd.
There is not much traffic on this road, which makes it ideal for runners. The views are incredible, too.

Salt Lake City
This is the view of the city from Bonneville Blvd. looking west. The western mountains are called the Oquirrh's.

The Wasatch Mountains
View from the Salt Lake Cemetery.

One of the neighborhoods I run through.
This is an east-side neighborhood looking west out over the valley. When the weather is nice, the sunsets are really pretty from this side of the valley.

The Mormon Temple
I almost always run past the downtown temple when I run in Salt Lake.

Comments

[Lee]

Congrats
Congrats! I enjoyed reading your blog of the Salt Lake City Half. Thanks for the pictures. I was curious about the half as I only did the 5k today. That's a neat device that tracks the time of each mile. How much was your tracker? Don't you love passing guys during the race!! haha And what an awesome experience to run with Jonathan Ndambuki! Once again congrats on your accomplishment. I'll start training late summer for the Puerto Rico Diva Half (hopefully)after dealing with runner's knee from Disney in January. Thanks for sharing. :)

[Barbara Christensen]

Where?
Where are these stairs? I've never seen them before and they look like an awesome little workout.

[One Girl One World]

Stairs
Barbara - The stairs in the photo are between Center Street and Main Street on 4th North in the Marmalade District. A couple of other places you might want to check out are the stairs at Memory Grove, just a few blocks east and the stairs connecting 4th Avenue to East Capital Street just south of Memory Grove.

[One Girl One World]

SLC Half
Hi Lee! Thanks for the note. I was out at Disney watching my daughter run. I was really disappointed I hadn't registered for it - I hadn't expected to be in Orlando otherwise, I would have run that race, too. Sorry to hear about your runner's knee. Lots of RICE and you'll be back to running in no time. Once your knee improves, I'd recommend getting trained up for that half you want to do in Puerto Rico. I think it's better to get trained up and then just stay trained up...it gives you more flexibility in case you decide you want to run another race before then. :) Good luck with your training!