Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Run, Run, Run, Run, and Run Some More!

On Saturday I ran my first marathon. It was the Mid Mountain Marathon in Park City. It starts at Deer Valley Ski Resort and traverses at 8000 feet to Park City Mountain Resort and then on to the Canyons where you finish at the base of the resort. It was a relatively grueling run. I had run the length of the course over a couple of training runs in the weeks prior to the race, so I knew what to expect. I finished with a time of 5:07. My time goal was 4:30, but that was a fairly lofty goal for a first marathon that happened to be a trail marathon that isn't on a fast course. There were some interesting challenges to overcome during the race. I started off at a relatively good pace, but after five miles I decided to pick up the pace a little (rookie mistake). That decision did lead to some extreme tiredness later in the race, but the biggest challenge was knee problems that began at mile 10. For the most part it didn't hurt too bad, except on the downhills. This proved to be especially challenging at the end of race where the last six miles are downhill! The last six miles were extremely slow. Overall, I feel really good about the race and am very pleased with my performance and my time. It was certainly a good learning experience and I will hopefully not make the same mistakes in future races. Below is a picture near the start.

2 comments:

Mrs. Olsen said...

I saw the rest of your pictures on the your photos webpage. They made me want to run a trail marathon! Awesome!

Eric Miller said...

Thanks! Trail marathons are far superior to road marathons. Please keep in mind that I haven't run a road marathon so I really have no frame of reference, but I am still right.