Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

Week 3 of the Twilight Concert Series featured Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. I had to go up by myself because friends couldn't go.

Concert goers & tattoos: Daddy daughter night out

These people seemed so bored. I'm not sure why they were there. Also, what's the deal with that guy holding his hand over the red head's mouth in the background?

Our neckerchief wearing friend with the molestache was back this week

The Entrance Band opened

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

Decemberists

I had a fantastic time with friends at last week's Decemberists show. Really good performance. Typhoon opened. They were good too. (Week 2 in the Twilight Concert Series.)

Dinner at Ekamai (Thai) and Bruges (Belgian) before the show. (Cali and Joey)

Concertgoers

Pioneer Park was PACKED!

Tattoos

Angie, Cali, and Joe

Explosions in the Sky

Explosions in the Sky and No Age opened the Twilight Concert Series last night at Pioneer Park in downtown Salt Lake City. I'm not a fan of either band, but the people watching was fantastic. Below are a sampling of the sites.

 Baby ear protection

Holly

Morose

No Age

Back

Front

Colorful

Explosions in the Sky

Friday the 13th

There's no going back

Mounted

Wahsatch Steeplechase: Dude Peak

Race report for the Wahsatch Steeplechase on June 11th

Up at 4:30 after going to bed at 1:00 am. It took 20 minutes for my head to stop reeling. I don’t use Caffeine as a wake-me-up in the morning. Once you start, you are committed for life. Bagel with peanut butter and honey for breakfast. Out by 5:00 am. The start was inside Memory Grove Park in SLC, next to the capital building. I’ve never been before. There are trails that lead up into the mountains above the city.

The Wahsatch Steeplechase is normally a 17 mile race that makes runners climb over “The Crags” at the top of Black Mountain. This year, due to the heavy snow, we had to run an alternate course, said to be 13 miles. Perhaps I’ll run it again to see these infamous Crags. The race is limited to 300 runners. Everyone looked pretty hearty to me.

I didn’t have any race goals other than to finish without breaking anything. Easier said than done. There’s been 2 rescues in the last 3 years, and a life flight helicopter was standing by. Group start at 6:00 am. Some fantastic views as we climbed out of the valley. I carried my hydration pack today with 2 bottles of Gatorade.  I figured I was somewhere in the middle of the pack, but getting passed constantly.

Mile 1 9:04
Mile 2 11:13

The trails up 3 successive hills with radio towers were really steep. The first aid station was after the third hill. I crammed a handful of shot blocs into my mouth and washed them down with water and some electrolyte drink. From there we continued to the top of Dude Peak (7200’) The top runners were already heading back at this point, and I started counting to see where I was at, as well as to keep my mind occupied. My Garmin read 7 ½ miles at the turnaround point. By my count, I was sitting in 132nd place. New goal—to try and get into the top 100.

Mile 3 14:31
Mile 4 18:54
Mile 5 12:06
Mile 6 13:53
Mile 7 21:14

We ran back to the aid station and then broke off onto the pipeline trail to get back to City Creek. Almost non-stop downhill, something I normally love. But the trail was so incredibly steep that it was nearly impossible to pick up any speed. To do so would be suicide. Instead it was quad and knee destroying grades that were covered in loose rocks. You have to continually put on the brakes to keep from tumbling downhill. My quads were screaming from all the jarring foot falls.

Mile 8 12:28
Mile 9 10:05
Mile 10 9:55
Mile 11 10:21
Mile 12 9:18
Mile 13 7:51
.92 Miles 7:43

Once we got into the City Creek trail it leveled out some and I was able to get some full strides in as I made my way to the finish. I came in 103rd overall, 90th out of the men. And it was just shy of 14 miles, not 13. My time was 2:48:01. 249 runners. 247 finishers. My average pace was 12:04. Calories burned: 1425.

I hung around for the awards ceremony even though I was way out of the running. I soaked my legs in city creek for as long as I could stand it—less than a minute. The snow runoff is FREEZING cold. The river is running insanely fast and high. I was nervous about getting sucked in.

Thanks to Butch and all the volunteers for putting on a fun race!

The New Pornographers

The band who's name freaks out the musically challenged when announced as the evening's destination on FaceBook. They are actually a fairly timid indie band, and part of Salt Lake's Twilight series of free concerts. They are being held at Pioneer Park this year. Sadly, I'll be missing some great shows while I'm away on business.

Speaking of missing, this European looking gentleman missed the memo about jorts going out of style in the mid 90's... if they ever were in style.

Rilo Kiley singing center stage with the band.

See, it was a kid friendly show.

A poorly-timed lighted-letter grouping.

Chris shaking his groove thing.

Brandon doing the same.

Into the night.

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.