Blue Planet Journey

I've been running for the past decade, and one location for a number of my races is Antelope Island State Park, in the Great Salt Lake, Utah. The Park hosts the spring Buffalo Run (25K, 50K, 50 mile, 100 mile races), the fall Antelope Island Fall Classic 50K, and the fall Mountain View Trail Half Marathon (13.1 miles). Although an ultra is anything over marathon in length, Ultrasignup.org registers shorter distances. For the most part, they tend to be trail runs. That means you dodge around rocks and roots, and the trails are not straight. For a road marathon, there is probably an aid table every 2 miles, with a porta-potty as well. For the 50K, I think there were 4 aid stations in total, and no porta-potties.  In fact, on Antelope Island, trees are rare. A private potty break means finding a boulder, or a gully, or a small sagebrush. My ultra ranking, from Ultrasignup.org, currently is 73.61%, and my age rank is 94.35%. My fastest times were 1:44:03 (half marathon), 2:38;26 (25K)...

I finished my ninth full marathon!  My friends Launi and Jim have each completed over 100.  Neighbor Chuck has run more than 50.  So, in some circles, I am just a novice. I've run the Honolulu Marathon twice, the Salt Lake City Marathon twice, and the Top of Utah (TOU) Marathon five times now.  This year was the 20th anniversary of the TOU Marathon, and its last running.  The TOU Marathon has been sold to another company, so it will be rebranded and probably rerouted. I can't capture the whole marathon experience in a blog, but I do want to give the reader a taste of the last TOU Marathon. Three weeks prior to the marathon, Caroline and I ran the TOU half marathon. Here we are, with friend Daren at the finish.  Daren lives 3 blocks from the finish line, so we walked over to his house, and Sree made us a fresh cup of coffee while we waited for other runners to complete the race! Training:   Well, I'm not one for giving advice on...