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Utah Valley Marathon

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Location:

SLC,UT,

Member Since:

Apr 28, 2011

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Other

Running Accomplishments:

PR Table and Notable Races

Marathon:
2:21:12 (Chicago); 2:20:41 (CIM)

Half Marathon: 1:05:45 (Long Beach)
10K: 30:03 (Portland)

All race results:
2011 - 2012 - 2013 - 2014 - 2015 - 2016

Personal:

   

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Race: Utah Valley Marathon (26.2 Miles) 02:21:47, Place overall: 4
Running MilesSwimming YardsBike Miles
26.200.000.00

The short story: Marathon debut, 2:21:46, negative split (71:10 / 70:36), and actually ran a half-marathon PR for the second half of the race.

The long version: Today was a most excellent day. It was fun and rewarding and just felt damn good to run fast. I've put in a lot of miles this winter in an effort to get myself back to a competitive level of running. Four to five months ago my goal for this race was to get to the starting line healthy and run under 2:37 (~6 min pace). As the spring (or endless winter) progressed, consistency was the name of the game, and my fitness steadily improved. A week after running a half-marathon PR at the Provo City Half, I did a 13 mile tempo that told me I had jumped to a new level. For the last 3 weeks leading up to UVM, my workouts were fantastic, and I felt great pretty much every single day as I tapered down the mileage. I knew I was ready for a special run today. My goal was to run ~1:13 for the first half and then negative split... but even with that objective in mind and realizing that the marathon is a long race that deserves a lot of respect, my real "plan" was to run without any external or internal limits... to just go out there, lay my cards down, and let it happen... I woke up almost every hour last night hoping it was finally 3:30am and time to get going.

Now to the race... perfect temps at the start, cool and dry. Bryant Jensen and the 2 Kenyans separated right from the gun, I hung back in the second pack w/ Paul, Dave, Clyde, and Sasha. The first mile felt super easy (5:47). We picked it up a bit on the second mile (5:29) but it was still conversational. The gap to the lead pack was getting big, so Paul and I took off a bit after 2 miles. Mile 3-5 were 4:59, 5:17, 5:23. Paul kept increasing the pace so I let him go, realizing I was going at a nice tempo at that point. Mile 6 was 5:15, then we hit the rolling hills for miles 7-9 (5:32, 5:31, 5:44). The next mile was back to 5:15 for a ten mile split of 54:16. A little faster than planned, but I was feeling great, despite running alone since the ~5.5 miles.

Miles 11-13 were 5:25, 5:36, 5:23. I passed one of the Kenyans at the 12 mile marker and moved into 4th place. Came through the half-marathon in 1:11:10. Faster than I thought I would, but I was feeling great, and the plan was to run with no limits, right? I knew that unless one of the guys ahead of me really blew up, they weren't coming back, and nobody from behind was going to catch me, so I focused on running my own race.

Miles 14-20 were 5:28, 5:23, 5:37 (uphill the whole way, I was actually really happy about this split), 5:22, 5:16, 5:24, 5:15. Twenty miles in 1:48:31, and that means my ten mile splits were 54:16 / 54:15. Very consistent. Miles 21-22 were 5:22, 5:17. Now I'm starting to feel it a bit. Not really in my legs, but in my TOES! I could feel a couple blisters coming at about 16 miles. Now they were hurting pretty bad, but nothing I couldn't fight through. Miles 23-24 were 5:26, 5:37 (hill). Hurting a bit but keeping it together... For the last few miles I started thinking "keep every mile under 5:30, and break 2:23"... Mile 25 was 5:21. Back on track. Andrea was at this point and cheered me on. Put the pedal down a bit and ran 5:13 for the 26th mile. I'm trying to do the math in my head... can I possibly get under 2:22?... when I hit the final chute I saw 2:21-something on the clock, then put my head down, and just absolutely went for it. The crowd was great, and anyone that saw the finish can attest that I was probably the most excited 4th place finisher of all-time! Ran 57 seconds for the final 0.2, almost tripping over my own feet as I was pumping my fists, and came in at 2:21:46. The second half of the race was 1:10:36, which is the fastest half-marathon I've ever run.

I had to take my shoes off as soon as I finished, so I just sat down on the ground and waited for Andrea to come find me. Needless to say, my excitement doubled when she told me that she won the half-marathon! As happy as I've been about my improvement curve over the past 6 months, I'm even more stoked for her... and I honestly mean it when I say that there's no way that I would been able to run so well today without her day-to-day support. 

This race feels good in a lot of ways. I'm sure I'll have a better perspective on it in the next few days. For now I'm just going to enjoy it and not try to over-analyze it. I put in the miles, did smart workouts, had fun doing it, and executed a great race today.

It was great to finally meet a bunch of you guys today. Hopefully Andrea and I will see you at a lot more races in the future. I also want to thank Hyrum and the UVM staff for putting on an excellent event... every detail was covered and very professionally done.

Now we're going to take a few easy weeks, ski, bike, hike, and let the bodies re-charge.

The next marathon is going to be Philadelphia in November. Goal time... TBD :-)  ...but if I've learned anything about myself in the last few months as I've built up towards this race, its that I'm not putting any limits on what I'm capable of.

 

 

Comments
From Rob on Sat, Jun 11, 2011 at 17:48:07 from 204.15.86.95

Umm, Holy crap. And that's all I have to say about that.

Good job is an understatement.

From Paul on Sat, Jun 11, 2011 at 18:00:41 from 24.10.141.104

Nice meeting you, and nice job! I knew after I saw your 2x5-mile workout the other week that you're the real deal. (you can't fake workouts like that). Keep up the training and think big!

From Burt on Sat, Jun 11, 2011 at 18:07:37 from 72.223.90.79

Ditto Rob! But I will add my initial thought - who runs a 2:21 and comes in 4th place? Oh yeah, someone who's running against Kenyans and Paul Petersen. Awesome debut!

From emruns on Sat, Jun 11, 2011 at 18:07:57 from 76.27.114.171

Awesome job. I feel very inspired reading your race report. It gives me so much hope that with consistent, healthy training I can get back to the level of fitness that I would like to be at.

From fiddy on Sat, Jun 11, 2011 at 18:31:50 from 97.117.80.47

I loved your finish. You had good reason to be excited. Consistency pays off.

From Holt on Sat, Jun 11, 2011 at 19:20:18 from 50.8.79.137

So impressive (and to do it mostly by yourself)! You have got some great things aheas of you.

And great to meet you and Andrea.

From Seth on Sat, Jun 11, 2011 at 20:21:40 from 75.169.118.22

Nice work! Glad to see your miles paid off. I think you've got a knack for this distance!

From crockett on Sat, Jun 11, 2011 at 21:03:30 from 71.32.232.58

Way to go, you have real talent. I saw you go by and cheered you around mile 24.

From jtshad on Sat, Jun 11, 2011 at 21:08:34 from 24.10.248.6

A stellar debut! What a great race, you have a lot of marathon's ahead of you and I am sure this is the start of good things to come. Nice meeting you and Andrea, keep up the great training.

From Scott Ensign on Sat, Jun 11, 2011 at 21:21:04 from 71.166.250.138

big congrats on an incredible debut, awesome!!

From allie on Sat, Jun 11, 2011 at 21:35:42 from 24.10.191.18

it was fun seeing you charge through the finish so enthusiastically. there's lots for you to be happy about with this one. congrats on an extremely impressive debut.

From Andrea on Sat, Jun 11, 2011 at 21:41:07 from 67.177.21.60

Who would've thought 2:25 was conservative?!

From Jake K on Sat, Jun 11, 2011 at 21:53:56 from 67.177.21.60

Thanks everyone for the kind words! Today was a lot of fun! Great meeting so many of you before and after the race. I'm so happy that I joined the blog and this great running community! You guys are awesome and so supportive!

So... James, Allie - I didn't look TOO ridiculous at the finish? :-) I was pretty stoked to see I was going to get under 2:22, so I just let it all out! I hope somebody got that on video so Andrea can see it and make fun of me for it!

From allie on Sat, Jun 11, 2011 at 22:35:35 from 24.10.191.18

jake - yes, i got it on video. :) it really is awesome. it's currently being uploaded. stay tuned...

From Jake K on Sat, Jun 11, 2011 at 23:16:57 from 67.177.21.60

Oh yesss! Thank you allie! Send me the link once you have it up. Can't wait to see it.

From Fritz on Sat, Jun 11, 2011 at 23:40:42 from 67.182.226.25

The link is up on Allie's blog! Thanks Allie.

Great job Jake. You ran a very smart race and looked incredible at the end. Huge things to come I am sure.

From Superfly on Sun, Jun 12, 2011 at 01:21:04 from 74.211.21.81

I knew coming into this race you were gonna rock it. Way to eat your first marathon like it was nothing. Good things a head for you man.

From Little Bad Legs on Sun, Jun 12, 2011 at 01:45:36 from 68.186.75.3

Wow. Wow! WOW!!! Great time and great example of putting in the work beforehand and then being rewarded on raceday. Awesome job.

From Jon on Sun, Jun 12, 2011 at 14:09:43 from 74.177.77.120

Jake- the mileage really paid off. Congrats and go get all your goals.

From Rob Murphy on Sun, Jun 12, 2011 at 14:27:56 from 24.10.248.6

I absolutely agree with what you said in the last paragraph. It's going to be fun seeing what you can do in the next couple years. That's how it is with a big breakthrough right? It allows you to envision the next big breakthrough.

Congratulations on hanging in there with some really tough, experienced marathoners.

From Scott Wesemann on Sun, Jun 12, 2011 at 22:40:32 from 205.158.160.209

Wow! Congrats on your race. Unreal. That is seriously impressive.

From Chad Robinson on Mon, Jun 13, 2011 at 01:39:42 from 208.110.158.185

Jake - Amazing race! It has got to be exhilarating that all your insanely long training mileage is finally paying off. I don't really think there is much running wise that beats finishing your first marathon well (extremely well in your case). Good luck this summer and fall and please don't get injured.

From Nate on Mon, Jun 13, 2011 at 10:35:17 from 67.20.210.229

Super crazy great job! Wonderful the milage and work paid off!

I laughed at this quote "We picked it up a bit on the second mile (5:29) but it was still conversational."

From Adam RW on Wed, Jun 15, 2011 at 00:38:36 from 24.10.132.131

Jake, What a truly amazing debut. Congrats to seeing all your efforts pay off.

From jhaddock on Tue, Jun 21, 2011 at 14:51:25 from 67.166.127.0

I'm in your photo there at the finish line. I'm the dork behind you in the compression sleeves. I was throwing something away and saw you getting your picture taken and was trying to get out of the shot. Great job on the race.

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