Farmington Half Marathon: Spain, with a silent S.
"Let's do the Farmington Half!" I said to myself one day. "It will just be like RunDisney, but at Lagoon!"
Then I got metatarsalgia and had to temporarily switch from running to air biking. Race day arrived and I just figured I would have to see what happened.
The following things happened:
1. I ate three (3) Honey Stinger waffles at about 5:15 AM that morning, with the race starting at 7:50 AM, in addition to three (3) packets of Crystal Light Energy (180mg caffeine). 3 Honey Stinger waffles only 2.5 hours before a race, and 2 hours before warmup, is too many Honey Stinger waffles. So I spent the whole race feeling like I was going to puke, and the epic week of ab work I had done only added to this. (Hey, it's almost water park season and I am the poster child of insecure-vanity)
1a) No injury pain though! That didn't come back until Sunday.
2. A bunch of fast runners caught up to me maybe 0.3 miles into the Lagoon Trail section of the course, near the buffalo. I cranked up my uphill pace to try to keep up with them. They....were 10K runners and vanished a few miles later. Yeah. Oops.
3. Somehow the course was uphill the entire time (?) except for one mile that was extremely downhill after passing Farmington Pond and turning around. I flew down that hill with a 6:28 mile while trying not to puke. I managed to keep the next mile under 7 too, and that was it. I would not see another sub-7 minute mile the entire race.
4. I have a problem with calves cramping on races, usually in the last mile. I think it's due to insufficiently intense speedwork during the week. Well, my calves cramped at like mile 9 or 10 and if that happens, welp.
5. I got lost sometime during mile 9. The signage was confusing at a few points. There were lots of bikers, runners, and walkers not on the course. Since it was a small race and I was near the front, I followed the wrong people. Once I realized my mistake, I still didn't know where to go. I legit had to stand there and wait for other runners to show up. When they did, they helped me figure out where to go. One of them passed me (I had passed him on the steep Farmington Pond hill, which he was walking on) and I never caught back up to him.
6. They did not close the roads, so I almost got hit by a car (Utah drivers love speeding fast and cutting off pedestrians who are trying to cross) and had to run on sketchy sidewalks with lots of cracks at many points where the road would have been much nicer terrain. Thankfully, I looked both ways before crossing the street, so it wasn't THAT close of a call. I stopped just in time so I wasn't directly in front of the car. But I lost a few seconds to that.
7. We did NOT go up the wicked steep hill past Farmington Pond that heads towards the mountains and a parking lot for hiking trails. Thank goodness. That hill hurts. We just had the slightly-less-steep hill that immediately precedes the pond, which is still intense, but not AS bad.
7a) Actually, maybe we did go up that hill. I can't remember. I was trying very hard not to puke at the time.
8. I had to ask many people along the race course whether or not I was going in the right direction. Everyone was altogether pleasant and very nice, barring the driver who almost ran me over.
9. Parts of the course looped over on themselves, meaning that I passed some runners who were much earlier in the course than me. I also had to squeeze between gates that weren't fully open, and the course went past closed gates that you just had to go around.
10. I couldn't kick at the end. A dude flew past me and I just couldn't sprint. It was bizarre. My calves and feet were cramping, and I was completely, wholly, and entirely out of gas.
11. The pancake and sausage breakfast afterwards was delicious. I did NOT puke. Thanks Kodiak!
12. It's really nice to start and end at the same park. Station Park or something. It was a pleasant park with lots of restrooms. No sitting in ghetto buses. No standing freezing at the start line for 2 hours while debating if you should get in line to pee again right after finishing because the line is so long that you'll probably have to go again by the time you get to the front.
13. Coolest medal I've gotten from a race -- hand-carved, made of wood.
14. The shirts were funky-looking, but they had a squirrel on the front, which is always a plus.
15. Some of the little rural neighborhoods and meadows were absolutely beautiful.
16. This is a shade-less land. I was dying of heat. It was 71F. Weak, weak, weak, WEAK!
17. After the race I meandered over to Ezra T. Clark Park to walk to the Lagoon campground, poach their shower, and get into the amusement park to ride a few rides before heading back home.
All in all, I finished in 1:33:23, over 10 minutes slower than my PR of 1:23:02. 8th place, and 1st in my age group, so I got an extra little add-on for my medal as a prize. F you all, this course sucks, and I'll see you again next year. :D
(Seriously, this course is really good training. The hills are good for you. :') )
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