This past Saturday, I ran the 
Thanksgiving Point Half Marathon. Not the first race I have run and certainly not the last. Not the best time I finished, but I did have a somewhat valid excuse. At any rate, it was a great experience. One of the best parts was running with a lot of my family. My awesome wife ran the 5K (she is new to running and slowly working her way up to a half) and got a PR with her time, plus it was great to have her at the finish line. Also, my son, daughter, brothers-in-law, sister-in-law, and several friends all ran the half marathon, which made it much more enjoyable. Misery truly does love company.
The victors posing at the Finish Line with their medals in hand.
As for the race course itself, it was beautiful, but quite challenging. The race was held on the last day of the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point. For a good part of the first 6 miles, we were running through the amazing flowerbeds, gardens, streams, and the big waterfall. The sun was shining brightly and the dew on the grass sparkled like diamonds. There were lots and lots of tulips and assorted flowering bulbs in a rainbow of vivid colors. That was my favorite part of the course. The colors, fragrances (lots of lilacs), and weather were all amazing.
The Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point Gardens
The last half of the race wound around the golf course. Granted, the Thanksgiving Point Golf Course is immaculate, stunning, and consistently rated as one of the top 5 golf courses in the state of Utah. A round of golf costs $55 or more, so running a race around the edges is as close as I have ever come to playing golf there. The problem with the golf course was definitely not the scenery. The problem was running up and down all the hills along the sides of the fairway, and hairpin turns around bunkers and greens. There was a lot of up and down and up and down. If we run it next year, I will better know how to prepare. A lot of local half marathons start up the canyon or on the benches (like the Salt Lake City Half Marathon starts up on the University of Utah campus) and then wind downhill most of the race until you end up at a much lower elevation than you started.
One of the large waterfalls at Thanksgiving Point Gardens
The Thanksgiving Point Half Marathon is definitely not one of those gentle, downhill races, and not one where you will likely set a personal record, but it was a good race overall. Being able to run the first half of the race through the beautiful gardens made this one of my favorite races that I have run so far.
As for my excuse – well, I was running with an injury. Going into the race, my goal was to finish under 2 hours and I just missed with a time of 2:03. I actually hit the 7-mile mark at 61 minutes, which is close to my typical pace of 8.5-minute miles, but then I slowed down and finished the last 6.1 miles in 62 minutes. My injury occurred just one week before the race. I went on a training run at dusk with my daughter. About a half mile into our run, we were chatting as we ran, the sun was going down, and I wasn’t paying close enough attention and I stepped on a rock. My whole foot turned under and I fell to the ground with a resounding thud. I had road rash on my knee, shin, elbow, and hand, with blood running down my leg, but my sprained ankle was throbbing. After about 100 yards, I was able to walk off the pain and resume running for the rest of the training run, although at a much slower pace. When I got home, my ankle was swollen as big as a grapefruit and already starting to turn red and purple. At that time, I could barely walk. I tenderly limped around in an ankle splint and ACE bandage for three days, and then I tried running mid-week to see how it would go. Luckily, there was minimal pain, but it kept swelling back up. I ended up wearing a lace-up ankle brace for the race and it gave me the support I needed without much swelling. The problem was that the foot got tired and I couldn’t ever really push off much with it. So that was my excuse and I’ll take it. I guess the real test will come when I run my next half marathon, which is yet to be determined.
© Copyright 2012 Jeff, All rights Reserved. Written For: Jeffrey Olsen