Salt Lake City Marathon Race Report

Up at 5:00. I got a good 4-4 ½ hours of sleep. Showered to warm up my muscles. Ate a bagel with peanut butter and honey for breakfast.

I had my gear set out the night before

Out by 5:30 and caught TRAX at the Murray station by 6:00. The University train we switched to was packed with runners.


We were all cutting it a little close. Had about 10 minutes to get ready.

Everyone hoping to be reunited with their drop bags after the race.

The Port-a-John lines were huge, so I found the corner of a building to pee against and then made my way to the starting line. The Salt Lake City Marathon started from Olympic Bridge on the U of U campus at 7:00 am. They had half and full marathoners starting together.


It was a little chaotic at the beginning trying to dodge all the slow pokes who feel they need to “race” from the front of the pack. Not surprising though, since 90% of the drivers in our state think the far left lane on the freeway is for enforcing the speed limit on everyone else. Don’t even get me started.


I did a terrible job of pacing myself the first half, as usual. I think I’m barely moving, and then I look at my watch and see I’m running a 7:30 pace. That wouldn’t last though. There were some ok downhill sections early on, but those gave way to long, gradual uphill portions towards the end—when the sun was baking us.

Mile 1 7:34
Mile 2 7:52
Mile 3 7:42
Mile 4 7:43
Mile 5 8:04
Mile 6 7:51

This elevation chart is deceiving. It makes it look like there's much more elevation drop than there really is. We're talking like 600 feet over 26 miles. That's nothing. And I could swear at least 8 of those last 10 miles were uphill.

These early miles were easy. I was pain free and feeling good. I walked through most of the aid stations which kept my pace from getting too fast. It was already warm and sunny by 8:00. Direct sunlight hurts my running more than anything else. I was drinking every chance I got.

Mile 7 8:20
Mile 8 7:59
Mile 9 8:20
Mile 10 7:46
Mile 11 8:06
Mile 12 8:33


I started feeling sore about halfway through—probably from running faster than I should. But also because I haven’t done a long run since that terrible 20 miler in the blizzard. That was 5 weeks ago.

Mile 13 8:36
Mile 14 8:14
Mile 15 8:13
Mile 16 8:28
Mile 17 8:31


The second half of the marathon was pretty boring scenery wise. One long, hot road heading north. I was spent after 17 miles, and it moved from being just sore to being painful. There were quite a few spectator aid stations, which I really appreciated. Every chance I got I would dump cold water on the back of my neck to try and cool myself down. One guy had an entire spread of snacks. That cup of Fritos I had were pure heaven. And I don’t even like Fritos.

Mile 18 8:57
Mile 19 8:42
Mile 20 9:08
Mile 21 9:56
Mile 22 9:01
Mile 23 9:41
Mile 24 9:58


I’m pretty much dying at this point. It feels like I’m not even moving forward. It’s hard to get moving again after each aid stop. The last 2 miles were really painful. All I can think about is being finished and knowing that this is my last marathon. (sadly, not Ultramarathon) This makes #8 after Deseret News, St. George, Ogden, Park City, Honolulu, Phoenix, and St. George.

Mile 25 10:50
Mile 26 9:23
.2 Miles 8:33


I could barely walk or stand when it was over. Fortune looked kindly on me when I entered the runners area and saw Blaine in line for his drop bag. He let me cut with him, saving me lots of painful standing in the sun. Headed straight to the massage line after, which wasn’t too bad. Only about a 20 minute wait. Totally worth it. She spent about 15 minutes on my legs, rubbing all the lactic acid out of my sore muscles. Felt so much better after.

I went to some herbal remedy booth next where a gal rubbed my legs down with a natural Ben-Gay type ointment. It felt great. Picked up some free food and swag before taking TRAX to my car. My official time was 3:45:05, an 8:35 pace. I came in 186th out of 1041 finishers, 148th out of 632 men, and 28th out of 91 in my 35-39 age group. Calories burned = 2909, the number of calories a 5’ 10” 174 lb man needs per day. I’m 5’ 8” 140 lbs.


The silver lining on the day was my knees. They didn’t bother me at all the entire race, or after. It was all glutes, quads, and calves. Those don’t worry me at all—they will recover fine. This means I should be able to keep training the way I need to for the Squaw Peak 50 in June. 7 weeks to go.

Asparagus Soup

I had a bunch of asparagus to use up, so I decided to make a soup. I chose this recipe from allrecipes.com because it didn't call for any heavy cream. I think it was the only one. I made several changes based on suggestions from reviewers, plus a few of my own. The pictures below don't represent all of the steps, but they cover the major ones.

The main ingredients. Yes, you are supposed to separate the asparagus into three groups: tips, middles, and ends. No, it's not required to stack them into pyramids. I'm just extremely OCD.

Each part of the asparagus is added at different times and cooked in different ways. I used celery instead of leeks. I didn't have any leeks.

The tender part of the celery simmering in butter and olive oil with diced onion.

After everything is cooked and combined, it's all liquefied in the food processor. I made enough to feed the Goslin family.

The seasonings and lemon juice are added during the final simmer. I took a few liberties to suit my own pallet. There's certainly more salt than called for.

Soup's on

Caching with Brayden

Sunny and warm out today. I took my little buddy Brayden out caching along the Jordan River. It was his first time, so I started with the basics. What is GPS? What are caches? Who hides them? How do you find them? What's inside? Etc.

I had loaded 6 caches within walking distance of his house. Despite some tough hides, we managed to find all 6 of them. He loved it.

No Stock Micro

Get Smart

This was a tough one. There were two decoy caches with clues to the real one. Brayden's holding the 2nd decoy.

Bridge on the River Jordan

Your Flies Down

True Grit

The toughest find of the day. We searched every blade of grass in the area looking for this one. Just as we were about to give up, I brushed away some grass on the ground and discovered a green lid at dirt level. The cache was hidden in a sprinkler box below the ground. In reading the cache log, it took some people returning 3 different times with hints in order to find it. We lucked out.

Something Special

An ammo box off the beaten path.

If you're ever in town and want to go caching, give me a ring.

Dragon Taming

My brother Dave and I took his two oldest to see "How To Train Your Dragon" in 3D. His family was in Utah for Easter.

We pleaded with them to look at the camera for 30 seconds. They were glued to the previews. Isaac completely ignored us. Nothing could pry that kids stare from the screen. Seth pretended to look my way, but the photographic evidence shows otherwise.

Dave and I spent a lot of time trying to make Isaac keep his glasses on during the movie. I'm not sure he fully grasped the 3D concept.