Utah Valley Marathon

Utah valley marathon

I am writing this review because there are a few things I wish I had known going into this Marathon and hopefully I can save someone the discomforts I encountered. Firstly it is a gorgeous course, with absolutely stunning views, the natural beauty and awe inspiring vistas just don’t stop.
It starts early, and that took a lot out of me, I got the bus about 3:30 am, but the busses were not school busses like in basically every other marathon I have run including Boston, they were comfortable and the ride was smooth and not overcrowded or cramped, which is a major plus at that early hour.
It was possible to find a place to stay within walking distance of the busses, so it made getting to the bus very easy, which is a first for me, with so many marathons having long uncomfortable chaotic bus rides that this was really the exception. 
Here is the one thing I wish I had been better prepared for. The temperature said it would be in the low 50s for the start, so I dressed in warm layers, but when we arrived at the start it felt freezing, you could see everyone’s breath. I have never got to a start so early and they did provide reflective blankets, but because it is dark and there are tall snow covered mountains all around a valley, the freezing air felt like it was drifting down off the icy peaks and collecting in that ice box.
I was upset to see a lot of people go into porta-potties and not come out. There were fires but the smoke was really thick and there were lots of people curled up on the ground in their reflective blankets shivering. It was way colder than any of the weather apps said it would be, and the grass of the field where we were waiting was icy wet. I was wearing some thrift store track pants, a flannel shirt, a large t-shirt over my running gear, and I wrapped myself in a Mylar blanket and I was still very cold.
I would highly recommend that anyone doing this race wear their extra warm thrift store clothes and thick gloves and bring something waterproof to sit on.
I shivered for an hour and a half, and because I had a full view of the porta-potties I was able to see that about half of them had people in them who had arrived early and did not come out until the bag drop off, shortly before the race start, even when there were lines to get into the porta-potties there were people camping out in them, which explains why there were such long slow moving lines.
I happened to bring an N95 mask which really helped because even though I did not sit close to a fire the smoke was everywhere and it was nice to have some way to protect my lungs from breathing in smoke before running a marathon.

The next thing to be aware of is that although the elevation plot makes this look like an all downhill course, IT IS NOT. I had driven the course the day before and I already knew they there were some hills. The first six miles rolls down through farmlands with stunning views and some turns, I find that sharp turns throw me off so it was nice to know that the few turns in the early miles are the only ones on this course.
After mile seven there are about three hills, and I am telling you that you better be ready for those hills because you are running at elevation and I saw a lot of people who were not ready for them.
I was expecting those hills to be hard, and I backed off on my pace and conserved energy, I let the pace group I was running with go off ahead and I ran based on feel and heart rate, the hills lasted for about a mile and half to two miles after which there is some of the most magnificent downhill running I have ever experienced, where I caught up with my pace group and except for the pacer they did not look like they were in good shape.
Because it is a canyon it was cool and shady which really helps, and the vistas are spectacular, words can’t do it justice.
There are a few more uphills between miles ten and twelve which is where I left the 3 hour pace group behind and ran my own race from then on.
I had heard a lot of talk that the last six miles is tough so I really focused on maintaining an even effort. I had a strict nutrition plan which helped me time exactly when to take my gels and I think that really helped. 
After mile fourteen the course veered off the main road, down a wide bike path, don’t forget to look up to your left at the waterfall, OMG it is some of the most breathtaking scenery I have ever run through. At that point a few of the people I ran with were expressing that their quads were shot from the preceding downhill extravaganza, thankfully I had included some long fast downhills in my training so my main challenge was just feeling fatigued from the lack of sleep during my travel to the Utah and from not having slept much the night before. I had trained to run on tired legs so I was ready for how that felt, and as the bike path narrowed and flatted out I maintained my pace. There were cyclists on that path who did not know that there was a marathon and several seemed annoyed that the runners were not expecting to have to share the narrowing bike path with bikes. 
I have not mentioned the hydration stations. I have a pet peeve when water stations at races use children to hand out the water, and I would say that about half of the folks handing out fluids on this course were children, thankfully they had been well supervised, they were well spaced apart, and some knew how to hold cups and some were even wearing gloves.
The only stomach issues I had were right after I had some of the blue Powerade, I usually have no problem with the sports drink, but I had not trained with Powerade, and I was carrying all the race nutrition I needed, so after that I just went for the water, and I was fine. The water stations announced what drink they were handing out and so it was easy to avoid the Powerade after that.
Aside from the folks that the drink stations there was no one cheering on the course until the last five or so miles when I got into the town of Provo. 
I am glad I had anticipated the last six miles being tough, because they are a test of even the best training. At that point I was out of the canyon and although the bike path is shady, and cool as it runs along a very scenic river with lots of greenery, the course then merges back onto the road around mile twenty and then I was in full sun, so get ready for that shift, it really feels harder running in the direct sun versus the shade of the mountain valley.
My partner was there for me cheering enthusiastically at around mile 22 and I noticed that I was grimacing and it really helped to have that blast of love and encouragement, I owe my strong finish to that wave of positivity and support my partner gave me. 
There is a gradual uphill around mile 24 which tough because I was trying to pick up the pace, and finish fast, but once that hill flattened off, I regained my faster pace, the course was flat and it was great to have increasing numbers of cheers from along the road. 
Beware, this part of the race really took some folks out, I saw fast runners who were walking and bathed in sweat. It also makes it harder that I had caught up with the half marathoners many of whom were oblivious that there was a marathon behind them and they were walking shoulder to shoulder blocking the way. 
I wish the organizers of the half had told folks to stay left, I brushed shoulders with a half marathoner who was part of a group as I passed them and they apologized for not leaving enough space for me to pass. 
I find it gutting to encounter people walking in front of me and having to put mental and physical energy into weaving around them during the toughest miles when I really need to focus, it is a massive stress and if I had not trained to finish fast on all my long runs I might have stopped and walked, because it just felt like there was no awareness of the mental toll it takes on marathoners to see so many half marathoners and 10k people who are socializing in groups, while I was sucking up the pain, pushing harder and transcend all the messages from my body that were telling me that I had nothing left.
I really liked that the finish was visible from quite far away and, unlike in some other marathons it is not around a corner or hidden behind a bend. In the last half mile there was some positive energy from spectators and I was able to finish strong and negative split with a time of 2:55. 
They had given us zip ties to close our drop-bags and when I picked up my bag in the finish area, I was unable to remove the zip tie, so I asked if anyone at the bag drop could cut the zip tie so I could get into my drop bag, but none of the folks at the bag pickup had any scissors or any way to cut the zip tie. They sent me to the information booth, but they also did not have any scissors. I waited for a while and limped around asking different vendors if they could help me get into my drop bag. In the end it took 20 minutes of asking around and I went back into the finish shoot and found someone at the medical tent with scissors to cut the zip tie so I could get into my bag which had the comfortable sandals that my feet were crying out for.
I came first in my division so I went to the awards ceremony. I was disappointed that that awards were just these generic metal medals with arbitrary different colors and larger sizes depending on what place you got but they did not identify what place you got on them or even what race you ran, other than “UTAH VALLEY marathon – half – 5k” they had different color and size medals for first, second, third place etc. but none of the medals had meaningful information on them. I really liked the look of the finisher medals that all finishers get, at least they are race specific, my first place medal is huge but it is so generic that it is worthless, I would much rather have had a print out that at least showed what I had accomplished. It was a hard race, I ran it feeling tired and fatigued, but I was lucky to have trained well and have an amazing coach. The natural beauty really was outstanding and for that alone I would recommend this marathon. I think you miss out on a lot of it when you run the half, but for the first four or five miles of the half the scenery is amazing. 
The two main things I would be prepared for are: even if the weather at the start area says it will be warm, those mountains are like a fridge, so dress extra warm and bring something waterproof to sit on or your clothes will be soaked through by the damp grass, and bring a mask to protect your lungs from the smokey fires. Prepare for the hills, and conserve energy, especially the hills that start around mile 7, do not underestimate them. Don’t camp out in a porta-potty, dress warm and respect that the porta-potties are for everyone, don’t be selfish! Don’t use the zip ties to close your drop bag, bring a strong rubber band or a pice of string that you can untie. Enjoy the views!