New Personal Best: St. George Marathon

4:30 a.m., Provo Canyon, early June. Limited campfires to stay warm before 6 a.m. race. But just as we started the announcer yelled, "You've Trained for This. No Go Do Your Best." Fact: I had NOT trained as well for that race as I could have. So I decided that for the Fall Marathon in St. George, I would be able to tell myself, "I trained hard for this race. I'm ready. Go do your best." 4:30 a.m., 26.2 miles north of St. George. 7,400+ runners. WINDY, COLD. Plenty of fires, yes, BUT, they didn't stay lit long, the winds exhausted the wood. Still, NO ONE does a race like St. George does: hot chocolate, disposible silver thermal blankets.... I was warm enough. What a fun race. I mean, at mile 18 I noticed my pace was slowing. "What's with people passing me all of the sudden?" Even my daughter Chelsi, back in Colorado, following my run via the internet, a new app for family of runners, called my wife and said, "I've lost Dad, and his pace has slowed down some the last I saw him." I didn't really hit the wall this time, but I did start out too fast. Still, I stuck with my goal of getting across that finish line in under 4 hours, and well.... I did it. 3:56. Yeah. Felt really great. I'm pleased with how things turned out. Recovery.... well, I've tighter calves then I've ever had after a race. I usually am back to my old run, maybe the pace is slower, but at least still able to get in 4 or 5 miles a day. This is taken me a bit longer this time. Age? More time needed to recover from a much harder ran race? Probably both. And we had snow yesterday, winter came early, so running in the cold doesn't do much for me. But run I will, I have a new race I've registered for, next May. More about it later. But here's a hint: it's far, far from here, and it involves a lot of stairs. :) We stayed in a great condo in St. George. Friends let us stay there. My running buddy Harman and his wife Diane joined me and Genia, and our daughter Brittany and their two girls Lexie and Riley came as well. It was very nice overall. I fell in love with St. George again. Usually when I go places I'm anxious and ready to come home, but this condo had me hooked: I wanted to stay. Be Well. Do Good.