Pre-race
Welcome to the Beehive State 🐝 I had no idea Utah was known for bees. My friend, Stephanie, picked me and my other friend, Katie, up from the airport, and pointed out the beehives on the highway signs. Initial thoughts… igloo or poop emoji.
We had an uneventful, short ride to our hotel. It was a nice rest after the trek through the airport. I think it was about a ¾ mile walk from our gate to passenger pick-up. We checked-in and were able to get adjoining rooms. We walked around downtown after briefly settling in. Downtown Salt Lake City reminded me a lot of downtown Denver. The buildings were nondescript, and there was little to no landscape. It was very quiet for a Friday afternoon. The majority of the people milling around were either homeless or waiting for the metro in the center of Main Street. We walked to the Mormon temple, which was unfortunately closed for construction 🚧 That was the only attraction I wanted to see there. There was a small area with higher end shopping, which was cute. Otherwise, not impressed.
We returned to our hotel, and decided it would be fitting to watch The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. We definitely got sucked into the drama. We made it through half the series before I had to turn in for an early 3 AM wake-up 🥱
Post-race
I slept wonderfully!! I usually wake up quite often the night before a race. Perhaps knowing my friends were going to drop me off in the morning put my mind at ease. I’m usually worried about getting to the start on time. We got to the bus pick-up in good time. I was surprised by how many buses and people were there. This was definitely better attended than the one in Denver. They were loading 2 buses for the marathon, and several people shoved and pushed to get onto the 1st bus 🙄 I took the path of least resistance and got on the 2nd bus. Good choice! The 1st bus got stuck trying to go up the mountain 😂
I made a friend, Eliza, on the bus ride up. Both her and her husband are runners with 5 children. I was impressed how they managed to both train while taking care of so many kids. He’s an ultramarathoner, and she told me about poop bags. Apparently, you’re supposed to save your poop during the run… 🤮 that alone has deterred me from ever running an ultramarathon. We had a nice conversation, and kept each other company before the race. She reminded me that running should be fun.
I was much better prepared for the cold temperature at the start of the race at the top of the mountain. It was probably 30-40°F at start with a forecasted 60-70°F degrees at base. I had my normal running gear, throwaway long sleeve shirt, Parka, gloves and disposable thermal blanket. I was not shivering like I was last time.
The sun was only starting to rise at the start. It looked like it was going to be a good run, and a good day. Even though I wasn’t shivering like I did in Denver, my legs still felt numb and heavy. Running by the cliff’s edge was a little nerve wrecking 😥 since I was not confident of my footing. That would be one fast, long and painful tumble… None of that happened, and my legs warmed up after a couple miles.
At mile 3, there was about a ½ to ¾ mile uphill. What?!?! This was supposed to be all downhill… My lungs and body screamed in protest. I had not descended far from the initial start of about 9,600 feet above sea level, and I was not prepared for this expenditure. Was I really going to quit 3 miles in? Maybe… NO!!! Besides… it was too cold to quit here. I thought of how miserably cold 🥶 it would be to start walking at this point. The uphill was over by the time I finished arguing with myself 😅
Eliza had told me that it would be downhill until mile 20 when it flattened out. Her strategy was to think of the first 20 as a warm up, and the race would really start at the last 6 miles. I liked, and adopted that idea. I, for the most part, ran leisurely and took in my surroundings. One of the runners juggled 🤹🏼 as he ran… I was very impressed. One of the speedometers was on, and a few purposefully sprinted past it. The ones I saw clocked 8-11 mph 👏🏼 I got caught running behind a group of guys a couples times… I forget how short my legs are. I had to keep my distance to keep from getting kicked by their long strides. I saw a black moose 🫎 At one point in the heart of the canyon, I realized how small we all are, and how majestic nature is. In the grand scheme of existence, we are merely a speck. It was a humbling moment. I also had less profound thoughts… Eliza had told me SLC was known for frosted sugar cookies. It nagged me why that sounded so familiar, and then I had an a-ha moment 💡 Crumbl cookies originated from Utah, and I am very well versed in Crumbl 😋
I was mentally in a good place, and the miles just passed by. People were flying down the mountain, and I resisted the urge to follow suit. I had learned my lesson in Denver… it may feel like an easy 7’ pace, but it is still a 7’ pace at high altitude. Each step takes energy to stop yourself from tumbling, and that all adds up to serious muscle cramps if you don’t control it. I kept an eye on my heart rate, and saw that I was in control 🤗 The Gu packets were soothing against my dry throat. I shuffled my running playlist for music, and it felt like it was AI curated for my race. Could Apple know?!
My stomach unfortunately felt queasy at about mile 7 and 9. I was not going to take a chance, and be that girl. Not too long before that feeling, I had watched a girl just drop her shorts and go 💩 No thanks. I had no time goal so I stopped at the Honey Bucket Port-a-Potty… they are serious about this beehive state thing. The stops wiped out any remaining notion of BQ-ing this race.
The course flattened out sooner than I expected. Eliza had told me it would be flat once I passed the gas station, which I thought was at mile 20. It popped up at mile 18. The mental battle really started around this point. I tried to trick myself to thinking the straights and small uphills were reprieves from all the downhill work… but deep down, I was looking forward to going downhill again. A lot of people who had flown past me down the mountain resorted to walking. They looked like they were badly cramping.
I was badly cramping the last few miles. I tried to think about anything else. My mind drifted to thinking about my surprise that plastic surgery was common among Mormons, the cheese I had saved at the hotel since I couldn’t have it last night, and how odd it was that I smelled White Flower Oil (白花油) everywhere. I have been religiously rubbing my ankle with it since I sprained it, but didn’t think I used that much… Or maybe everyone around me was using Bengay. The oil certainly worked… I had no ankle pain at all… or my searing quads🦵🏼masked any other pain I had. With 20 minutes to go, I committed to not walking… it’s only a 20 minute run…
I crossed the finish line at 3.40.42. On my watch, without the bathroom breaks, I finished it in 3.36.50. Not bad. I missed the BQ time by 42 seconds, but it was just as well. I didn’t feel like I deserved to qualify with this race. I am proud of this race though, because I feel like I ran my race. I felt like it was controlled and methodical. I have to give credit to my coach for preparing me. I was a little skeptical before the race because the longest I had run was 14 miles. I felt just as prepared as I had when I ran two 20-milers before a race.
I met up with my friends. After a nice shower, we went to Park City for the afternoon. It’s a cute little town. It reminded me of downtown Los Gatos. After playing with some puppies 🐶 we headed back to our hotel to relax and finish our reality show. I had a great weekend, and enjoyed this race. It’s going to be at least a week before my legs recover though.
