Old Man Still running

Utah Valley Half Marathon

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Location:

Saratoga Springs,UT,

Member Since:

Jan 31, 2008

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Local Elite

Running Accomplishments:

2016 Finished 12 100-milers during the year.  86 career 100-mile finishes, 9th in the world.   First person to do 6 consecutive summits of Mount Timpanogos.  Won Crooked Road 24-hour race. Achieved the 5th, 6th, and 8th fastest 100-mile times in the world for runners age 57+ for the year.

2013  First person to bag the six highest Wasatch peaks in one day. First and only person to do a Kings Peak double (highest peak in Utah).  I've now accomplished it four times. 

2010 - Overall first place Across the Years 48-hour run (187 miles), Overall first place Pony Express Traill 100.

2009 - Utah State Grand Masters 5K champion (Road Runners Club of America).  National 100-mile Grand Masters Champion (Road Runners Club of America). USATF 100-mile National Champion for age 50-54.

2006 - Set record of five consecutive Timpanogos Summits ("A record for the criminally insane")  See: http://www.crockettclan.org/blog/?p=42

2007 - Summited 7 Utah 13-ers in one day.  See: http://www.crockettclan.org/blog/?p=14 

Only person to have finished nine different 100-mile races in Utah: Wasatch, Bear, Moab, Pony Express Trail, Buffalo Run, Salt Flats, Bryce, Monument Valley, Capitol Reef.

PRs - all accomplished when over 50 years old

5K - 19:51 - 2010 Run to Walk 5K

10K - 42:04 - 2010 Smile Center

1/2 Marathon: 1:29:13 - 2011 Utah Valley

Marathon - 3:23:43 - 2010 Ogden Marathon

50K - 4:38 - 2010 Across the Years split

50-mile - 8:07 - 2010 Across the Years split

100K - 10:49 - 2010 Across The Years split

12-hours 67.1 miles - 2010 Across The Years split

100-mile 19:40 - 2011 Across the Years split

24-hours 117.8 miles - 2011 Across the Years split

48-hours 187.033 miles - 2010 Across the Years

Long-Term Running Goals:

I would like to keep running ultras into my 60s. 

Personal:

Details at: http://www.crockettclan.org/ultras/ultracrockett.pdf Married with six kids and six grandchildren.  Started running at the age of 46 in 2004.  My first race since Junior High days was a 50K. I skipped the shorter road stuff and went straight to ultramarathons.  I started as a back-of-the packer, but have progressed to a top-10-percent ultra finisher.  Wish I would have started running at a much earlier age.  Have had several articles published in national running magazines.  Check out my running adventure blog at www.crockettclan.org/blog

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Total Distance
52.00
La Sportiva Wildcat - Green Miles: 22.00Hoka - Bondi B Miles: 24.00
Total Distance
0.00

It doesn't even feel like I ran 50 miles yesterday, hardly any soreness, just need sleep.  I was such a lazy bum.  Somehow I need to push myself harder in these races to get everything out of the effort.

Comments(2)
Total Distance
4.00

Easy pace to test out legs.  Ready to continue training.  Nice to see snow starting to come off of the mountains.  Dreaming about the Uintas.

Next up is Utah Valley Half Marathon on Saturday.  This will probably be my last quest for a sub-1:30.  I came within 15 seconds last year.  This year's course is pushed up the canyon further, so it may be a little faster.

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Total Distance
22.00

Went up Lake Mountain from the South.  I tried this earlier in the year but was turned back earlier because of snow.  No snow now.  This time I went further up there to 6,700 feet.  The rough road goes the length of the top of the mountain clear to the towers.  I went about half way, still a couple miles from up above Enoch Pass.  Views are amazing up there.  In places the top is flat plains.  You go through burned out locations from the fires a few years ago.  The road is rough, with imbedded rocks, so tough to go fast.  I had one face plant coming down.   It was great to watch the sunrise up there.  When I have a couple hours more, I'll do the entire length and then come down the main road to the south through the valley.  I worked the kinks out of me legs from SP50 and they feel fine

After work went back up, same run but this time completed an entire loop, reaching 7,600 feet to the first set of towers.  I cut the loop a couple miles by doing a short bushwhack down to the canyon road.  Nearing the end, I found a wonderful single-track motorcycle trail in the foothills that I didn't know was there.  It was great fun.  I'll have to explore that some more another day.

La Sportiva Wildcat - Green Miles: 22.00
Comments(14)
Total Distance
2.00

Just taking it easy. Picked up my packet for the Utah Valley Half.  Pretty funny, on page 30 of their marathon magazine they listed the course records and your's truly is listed as the course record holder for the 50-54 age group for the half.  Gee, if I would have run a few seconds faster, I would be the masters record holder.   That record should be busted big-time tomorrow by Daniel Kerns.

Tomorrow I'll run the half and probably run backwards 6 miles or so and run in easy with the marathoners to at least get in 26.  I guess if I end up with an age group award, I'll have to be at the awards at 9:30.

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Race: Utah Valley Half Marathon (13.1 Miles) 01:29:13, Place overall: 39, Place in age division: 2
Total Distance
24.00

This week I had a “Kelli age moment” at work.  (See Kelli’s blog last Saturday). A friend asked me how old I was.  I asked “why?”  He said that a neighbor of mine who he knows insisted that I was 60 years old!  My friend thought I was in my 40s. (I’m almost 53). Later some BYU-Idaho students came into the room and my friend still joking with me asked them how old they thought I was.  The first guess was 55.  I groaned.  I thought I looked young.  I guess not.

OK, So I’m feeling old.  My results so far this year at the short distances (marathon and under) have been disappointing, no PRs. I was starting to believe that age is finally catching up with me and after six years of running that I was finally plateauing and getting slower.

A couple weeks ago, I decided to give the half marathon distance one last try to break 1:30 for the first time on a fair course.  I contacted the race director and he let me in the full race because I had won my age group last year.  It was cool to see my name listed in their marathon magazine as an age group course record holder.  I had no expectations of winning this year because Daniel Kerns, the fastest runner in the state over 50 was entered.  So, I would just concentrated on breaking 1:30 and not worry about placement.

After being bused up to the start in Provo Canyon, I saw a huge cloud of smoke around the crowd from the fire barrels.  I had no desire to get anywhere near that smoke so I took a run up the canyon.  I left the road and ran up a faint overgrown dirt road that took me to the top of a ridge with a nice view of Deer Creek Reservoir down to the east shining in the dawn light.  It was nice and peaceful away from the crowds allowing me to focus.  It was a nice three-mile warmup climb.

The race was away at 6 a.m.  We would run the highway down Provo Canyon and then run on University to downtown Provo, a nice fast course without sharp turns.  Right away I noticed Daniel Kerns in front of me.  He sprinted away doing a 5:45 pace.  I knew that it would be impossible for me to keep up, so I didn’t try and just concentrated on my own pace, realizing that he would probably be a half minute faster than me on every mile.

I struggled the first four miles as I tried to not to red-line my heart rate and respiration. I think the elevation up there was getting to me. My goal was to keep every mile in the canyon under 6:40 pace and then keep every mile out of the canyon under 7:00 pace.  If I could do that, a sub-1:30 would finally be mine.

Miles 1-4 were 6:17, 6:12, 6:56 (hill), and 6:46.  This was encouraging.   After that my heart rate seemed to settle down as I warmed up.  The temperature was a little on the warm side as I started to sweat.  I didn’t stop at any aid station, just drank from my handheld water bottle.

I kept it going for the rest of the canyon with splits of 6:30, 6:37, 6:47, and 6:52. I became concerned as those splits started to get closer to 7.  Could I hang on for the last five miles?  I started to feel even better.  A runner passed me going fast and I concentrated hanging with him for awhile. 

I knew that a 1:30 would be close to a 6:52 pace average.  I really worked hard to stay close to that.  I was pleased that we were still running in the shade as the mountains blocked the rising sun.  We were now running on a very gentle downhill or uphill to the finish.  Miles 9-12 were 6:53, 6:57, 7:03, and 6:57. 

With a mile to go, my worry was distance error. It looked like my Garmin had the course 0.2 long, within an acceptable margin of error.  But would I have enough time cushion to make it in time?   The finishing area came into view.  I could tell that sub-7-minute pace was nearly gone from my legs.  Just one more, please!

Mile 13 was 7:01.  I reached 13.1 on my Garmin at about 1:28:14.  Now could I reach the official finish in time during the overtime period?   Yes I did.  I crossed in 1:29:13!   I was very pleased to finally reach this goal and for some reason I didn’t feel old at all as I looked at all the young finishers around me. I finished in 39th out of 1,949 runners. I sure like this distance better than the marathon distance.  I can keep my speed for the entire race.

Keith Barton, who should have beat me but didn’t run today because of a sore foot greeted me at the finish and we had a great talk about last week’s Squaw Peak 50.  He also told me that Daniel Kerns finished in 1:22.  Wow!  That is one fast old guy.

For the next hour and a half, I ran the course backwards to watch the race.  It was great fun to watch the marathon leaders come to me at mile 24.  Paul was only about 50 yards behind the leader. (He would finish right behind him in 2nd.)  I was impressed that he recognized me when I called out his name and cheered him on.  There was a huge gap between the first four runners and the next one.  Sasha was running in 6th.  

I continued running backwards and decided to try to help the marathoners by asking the half walkers to make room for them by moving over to their right.  Most of them did as I asked, but a few ignored me.  I tried to help the marathon runners know if they were in the top 10, top 20, top 30, etc. as I counted them.  I was very surprised to see several runners on a sub-3-hour pace start to walk or run slower than 11-minute pace with three miles to go.  Wow, they had such a good race going and they were letting is slip away!  I tried to encourage them to keep it going and it seemed to help a couple.  Further back, it seemed like the runners had a more manageable steady pace and at least were keeping a 9-minute pace going.  I had turned around and started to run with them in order to get back to the finish in time for the Half Marathon awards.

Finally I ran into Dan Varga from Lehi who was carrying the 3:20 pace sign.  I joined in with him and ran the last couple miles with him.  It was great to finally get to run with him.  He is a very fast and talented runner.  We had great conversation.  As we neared the finish I peeled off the course and bid goodbye.

At the awards, I was surprised that I finished in second for my age group. I was also third overall for masters (age 40+). I received a very nice plaque again this year.  It was a deep honor to stand next to Daniel Kerns.  I was a gushing fan and told him he was one of my heros.  It was fun to finally meet him.

It had been a fun morning.  It was a great tempo run.  I came away without any cramping and felt great.  I should be ready to go for Bighorn 100 on Friday.

Hoka - Bondi B Miles: 24.00
Comments(12)
Total Distance
52.00
La Sportiva Wildcat - Green Miles: 22.00Hoka - Bondi B Miles: 24.00
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