A.M. 16 mile run with Ted, Jeff, and Jeff's roommate Brad. Started at Borders at Riverwoods, and went out to the middle of nowhere in South Fork and back on. First 8 easy, chatted a lot, the horses were neighing. I said it is a bad sign for the training partners when your horses are neighing. Jeff said, what about if the training partner is feeling good. His horses were neighing as well. On the way back the plan was 6 at marathon pace, and then the last 2 at threshold to learn how to push at the end of a marathon. We got to the turnaround by Ted's GPS in 1:02:08, and then Jeff and I took off. We eventually worked our way to 5:20 pace and just held it there. The distance was approximate until we got to the Vivian Park (about 1.5 from the turnaround), after that we were on the magic triangles. Our first mile was 5:33 on the triangles, then 5:24, after that we starting gradually closing on the 5:20 guy for the last 6.5 starting at the first mark after Vivian Park. The pace felt relaxing, almost conversational. The little uphills felt like they were not even there, good sign because I remember how much they used to hurt at tempo pace, we never ran slower than 1:21 quarter even when it flattened out or on sections with uphill. Very good for only 1% grade drop. With 2 miles to go, the 5:20 guy had 12 seconds on us. I told Jeff it was time to start working, so we started trading quarters instead of just running side by side. We ran the last two miles in 5:14 each, good effort considering that it is only about 0.5% grade down with a bit of rolling, and I felt I still had some gas in the tank. I got exactly 5:20 average for the last 6.5 - 34:40 total, 42:53 on the way back, total time 1:45:01. Jeff struggled a bit on the last quarter as I tried to eat the 5:20 guy, and dropped back a second or two but he was still there, which is a good sign for him. I would not be surprised to see him qualify. His main issue would be fuel, but I think his threshold speed and mental toughness along with the downhill of St. George on the last 6 miles could save him. Jeff is very tough, he hangs in there to the last drop of blood. Speaking of blood, a popular Russian song from the 90s popped into my head while we were running and stayed for the entire last 8 miles. It has a typical Russian stark reality flavor to it, which can be good to taste for aspiring to run a good marathon. The words go like this, the translation and the lack of life experience context loses quite a bit of that flavor - Your blood type is written on your sleeve, and your ID number is written on your sleeve, wish me luck in the battle, wish me luck. Oh how I do not want to be left in this grass, oh how I do not want to be left in this grass, wish me luck in the battle, wish me luck. Our last 10 K would have been around 33:08. The elevation drop over the last 10 K is around 400 feet, less than DesNews, but I think overall better quality, so we can say I ran the equivalent of a 33:08 DesNews 10 K at the end of a 16 mile run with the first 4 miles of it fairly comfortable. This runs tells me that standard "A" would not be out the realm of possibility, although definitely not a given, marathon is a long way to go. But it is a good confidence builder. Afterwards, went to pace Benjamin in the BYU Homecoming 5 K. We debated which race to run, the kids 1/2 mile, or the 5 K, Benjamin decided that beating adults is more satisfying that beating kids. I was a bit concerned how he would run after being sick last week, but the run showed that he recovered for the most part. The course was comparable to Heart of Holladay, maybe even a bit slower. The length was correct, it has been wheeled according to the race director, and it also showed to be 3.16 on my GPS. Benjamin ran 22:14.1, PR by 12 seconds, 59th pace, and 3rd in 1-12 age division. Afterwards talked to Michelle Lowry. I knew she was running the race, but I was afraid I might not recognize her because I've seen her only once in person, and she had dropped a lot of weight. My concerns were valid, she did look different from what I remembered, but still withing my ability to recognize after the adjusting the weight expectations in my mind. She ran 19:36, very good time, a mother of three running at the level of a college walk-on, and getting there from 21:10 on a similar course in a period of two months. I think she has a shot of a sub-3:00 marathon. The warm-up with Benjamin was 0.32, also ran 0.5 with Jenny and Julia in 5:20. P.M. Ran 1 more mile with Jenny in 9:11.
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