Ogden Half 2011

Ogden Half Marathon--- May 2011
2:04:28

Every runner in the area told me I had to run this one.  This baby opens early—like October early.  And it sells out fast.  Very fast.  Luckily I work for one of the sponsors so I was able to register early.  One downside with the registration process was that their webpage wasn’t working properly.  The source code was all messed up.  But, other than that it was fairly easy to find the registration and easy to navigate.   It is fairly pricey---about $80.  I wouldn’t mind the price to come down a bit, but I felt like the race was very well organized.  I could’ve done away with some of the frills at the Expo and on the course.  The Expo was ridiculous.   There were so many vendors there, and the place they had the Expo was at an old Union Station.  There wasn’t room for everyone, and all the vendor booths were crammed together.  While I was slithering through the people at the Expo, all I could think of was “please let the roads on the course be wider than this hallway…please please please”.  Picking up my Bib was fairly easy once I finally figured out where to go.  The whole place was chaotic.  Maybe I’m just used to being at tiny races, but to get your tech tee- you had to go to the opposite side of the building.  It was awful.  But, the tech tees were long sleeved and I loved the argyle print on the front.  We got up at the butt crack of dawn…4am.  The buses left at 5am sharp the next morning, and we arrived super early to get good parking.  Parking could be an issue if you didn’t plan it out, or know where you’re going.  Not a lot of places in downtown Ogden for 6000+ people to park.  The buses were on time and got us up to the starting line in a flash.  Since there were so many people they had plenty of porta-potties.  And I mean plenty…..there were over 100 of them.  In. a. row.  They also had fire pits to keep us warm.  I wasn’t sure if I liked it or not because I smelled really badly of campfire.  But, it kept me warm, so I’m not going to complain.  The starting line also had some live music and they signs for the designated “paces”.  I went and stood near the 9min/mile pace and hoped for the best.  My training was cut super short, due to some IT issues, but I felt ready.  I saw some familiar faces and met some new friends as we spent the next hour or more waiting for the start.  The “throw-a-way” bags were thrown into a truck to be organized at the finish.  The course was beautiful.  The first mile was flat, followed by a slight uphill for about ¼ of a mile.  It was easy peeezy.   I passed a LOT of people who thought this race was going to be all downhill. Then, it began….the endless and glorious….downhill trot.  I was booking it (definition of “booking it” for me is different than most).  I was doing about a 9 min/mile pace, which I thought was amazing, despite not running much in the months prior due to an injury.  The scenery was absolutely breathtaking.  We ran right through the canyon, past a beautiful dam, some snow packed mountains, a river, resorts, beautiful bridges, and cabins.  I was in heaven.  There was so much to look at, and the race flew by.  The last 2 miles were the hardest for me.  They weren’t as much downhill, but mostly flat as we started our way into downtown Ogden to the finish line.  We ran through a beautiful park with baby hills, and right along the river.  The supporters along the road were loud and so fun.  The last mile to the finish line was insane.  I was tired (as I should be, since I hadn’t trained well at all)….but the enthusiasm of the crowd kept me going.  I looked down at my Garmin and noticed that maybe I could get close to 2 hours.  I made it to the finish at 2:04.  Not bad!  It was a fun race.  My husband & sister were spectators and loved the race as well.  There was live music at the finish.  Unfortunately since the race goes through the canyon there isn’t a lot of places for spectators to watch, but I enjoyed the downhill race.    Finding my throw-a-way bag was a breeze and getting food was pretty simple.  They had this feature where your family could get text message updates when you hit certain points on the race (the 10K start, the relay start & 5K start) and those weren’t working.  IT would’ve been a nice feature, had it been working.  Especially since my family had no clue when to expect me since they couldn’t go to any other points on the course.