The sun is up, the air is fresh, the stone is old

Alta Peruvian 8K

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Location:

Logan,UT,USA

Member Since:

Dec 15, 2009

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Other

Running Accomplishments:

PRs after age 40:

 

5k     15:15  Running of the Leopards.

8k      22:21  Alta Death Dash

10k   33:02    Des News

Half Marathon      1:10  Timp Half

Marathon        2:32    Ogden

First solo R2R2R Bass Trails Grand Canyon 

First R2R2R Grand Canyon Toroweap Overlook

 

Short-Term Running Goals:

Not be fat all year

Long-Term Running Goals:

Smell the dirt, feel the mountain, taste the wind.

Personal:

 

"Our legs are tight, our feet are flying, and we are gliding over the roll of the land. The sun is up, the air is fresh, the stone is old, and we are free and at peace. The clock has stopped because another time has taken over." C. Bowden

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Race: Alta Peruvian 8K (5 Miles) 00:22:23, Place overall: 3, Place in age division: 1
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
2.005.000.000.007.00

My kids look forward to this race every year since it is up at the Alta Lodge and there is a barbeque afterwards.  For at least a month ahead each fall they ask me how much longer until we go up for it.  As for me, I have doubts every year about running it since it's borderline suicidal.  It really is a race that can mean the end of your season running if you are not careful with it.  This year although I have been burntout pretty good with running in general and have been slowing down in the last few races, I have had some good downhill training with two runs at the Malan's Peak Challenge and some hard trail running, so I probably felt a little stronger with the downhill parts.  I checked out the last two years of times I had run on this course and my average was a 4:42 mile so if I felt good at mile one I was going to aim at a 4:30 pace.

We met at Rob's house and drove up together to the Lodge.  It started to rain a bit and I ran two miles for a warmup with a hoodie in drizzle.  I was kind of curious to see if the course was getting wet which would make things a bit more fun.  My kids had by now dissappeared with the Murphy's exploring the hills around the lodge.  It always make things more relaxed if I know they are having a good time.  Thanks to Rob's mom for watching them!  At the start I could see that some of the fast guys were missing, which was dissappointing because this is a fun race to try and keep up with them.  I generally run a fast downhill race comparitively for some reason.  (fat)  At the start the pace felt a bit slow so I passed Ken R and Riley C at about 1/4 mile and tucked in behind Teren since the wind was coming up the canyon.  The first mile came by pretty quick and the time person yelled to us that it was 4:15.  In another few minutes Ken passed me again just hauling and I didn't even make a twitch since he was going so fast.  I was trying to focus on relaxing and getting some kind of rythm in.  The rest of the splits were 4:24, 4:30, 4:39 and 4:28.  The 5k was 13:46, definetely the fastest I've gone through 3.1.  I passed Ken again and coming through the fourth mile it really hit me.  My legs were just jello and my heels were just burning.  Man did I ever want to stop.  Now Ken blew by me again and I was just holding on begging for the finish line to appear.  I backed off a lot and was surprised to see my Garmin showed a 4:28 for mile 5.

Great band and a fun post race evening.  We stayed the night at the lodge and got little sleep..

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00Calories: 0.00
Comments
From Rob on Sun, Sep 11, 2011 at 11:18:16 from 72.254.58.165

That's just insane, sounds fun but I know I'd hurt myself.

From allie on Sun, Sep 11, 2011 at 11:21:40 from 24.10.191.18

nice job, steve. that is such a crazy race. fritz once referred to it as the "stress fracture express" and it scared me away from ever trying it. i hope your legs aren't too beat up today. enjoy your weekend at the lodge!

From Scott Ensign on Sun, Sep 11, 2011 at 11:39:55 from 63.228.217.82

nice race Steve, that is some fast running. and glad to see you only had some minor flesh wounds! I think your definition of "burntout" must be different than mine based on your incredible mileage and performance this year.

From Jake K on Sun, Sep 11, 2011 at 12:51:48 from 67.177.21.60

Good race Steve. Sounds like you had a battle against Ken. That had to feel pretty cool to split 5K under 13 minutes, regardless of how downhill it is! :-) Every report I've read about this race makes it seem like that last mile is pure torture.

From Steve on Sun, Sep 11, 2011 at 15:34:04 from 173.126.118.185

Stress fracture express, I like that! It sure is a fun weekend though. Ken is running really good this year, he has passed me three times now in the last 1/4 mile of races. He just doesn't fade in a race.

From steve ash on Sun, Sep 11, 2011 at 16:08:16 from 24.10.169.210

Wow! You sure have some kind of speed. Good luck at TOU:)

From jtshad on Sun, Sep 11, 2011 at 17:16:49 from 69.20.183.178

Umm...dang that is fast! Could you just curl up in a ball and go any slower down this hill?

From Rob Murphy on Sun, Sep 11, 2011 at 17:33:07 from 98.202.141.17

Good point Jeff. See, the thing with this course is that by mile 3 it really, really hurts. But in a totally different way than most racing. And no matter how much it hurts you literally can not slow down.

From fiddy on Sun, Sep 11, 2011 at 20:08:43 from 174.23.131.108

Ah, Ken beat me pretty good a couple weeks ago.

That's actually a very good time on that course. I don't think I ever want to try it though.

From fiddy on Sun, Sep 11, 2011 at 20:10:16 from 174.23.131.108

Oh and I'm pretty sure that 5k split was supposed to read 13:58 right? 12:58 is about 4:08 pace.

From Steve on Mon, Sep 12, 2011 at 00:36:13 from 76.27.108.183

James, thanks, I just downloaded my Garmin at home and put my splits on the post. If I could figure out how to download the elevation chart from Garmin Training Center, I'd throw that up since it's so funny. My 5k split was 13:47, about a 4:27 pace which makes sense since I was in a world of pain the next two miles. Like Rob says, you hurt like nuts, but it's hard to slow down. Made me kind of wonder how it would be to run a half marathon like that Mt. Nebo that was this weekend.

From MarkP on Mon, Sep 12, 2011 at 20:31:54 from 97.117.127.158

Great race. I posted the elevation drop from my Garmin (over 1800 ft). See you in Logan next week.

From Dave S on Mon, Sep 12, 2011 at 20:41:17 from 4.253.100.74

Crazy fast! Great job!

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