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The best way to look at this, my second marathon is I finished and over 1600 people finished after me and I kept my time under five hours and the sickness didn't get me down.

It is a great course, other than the heat.  I hit the wall early.  At the mile 17 aid station, I walked through for three cups of water and then it was all I could do to start running again.  It was a slow jog most of the way in, but I did pass up someone in the finish line chute.  That was an exception.  For the most part, people were passing me from start to finish.  They passed me at the beginning because I was trying to conserve energy.  Miles 8 through 17 were some of my fastest miles and then it was the death crawl for nine miles.  Lots of mortuary signs along the way kept me going.

I appreciated the bands along the route.  They were great!

 I could tell when I looked bad because people started saying "Looking good, Stephen!"

1.61 miles, unknown time and heart rate, but it was an easy run.  It was 38 degrees and raining.  As the first run following a marathon, I'd say I'm being plenty careful to let my body recover.

Next marathon will probably be the June 9 Utah Valley Marathon.  It is ideal in that I can train on the course, but not such ideal timing.  The height of my training will be in the dead of winter.

7.31 miles in 1:11:02 for an average pace of 9:43 in the rain with long sleeves and gloves and a hat.  41 degrees outside says winter is here and it will probably stay around for a while.  I ran far enough today to bring back the blisters and I wore myself out pretty good.  Maybe it was a little more than I was ready for.

4.65 miles in 43:23 for an average pace of 9:20/mi and average heart rate of 155bpm, max 155.

Splits were 10:20 (max 7:46), 9:04 (max 7:35), 9:02 (max 8:09), 9:14 (max 7:29), and 8:50 (max 6:40).  Couldn't have asked for better running conditions:  51 degrees and no rain.  I wore my St. George marathon shirt for the first time and I didn't want anyone to think that marathon runners were slow.

Lower body feels great.  Still lots of aches and pains in the chest area, but that doesn't affect my running much.

5.54 miles in 50:15, 9:05/mi with these splits 9:49, 9:08, 8:54, 8:57, 8:50, 8:38.  It was 45 degrees outside and that was cool enough for the deer to come down.  I saw three of them at the same spot I used to see them last year.

10.07 miles in 2:20:01.  The time would have been great for a marathon, but the distance was a little short.  At 50 degrees, the weather was great, and I sighted 3 more deer.

This was my first low heart rate run in a long time and I found it very difficult to keep my heart rate down.  Overall average rate was 129bpm with an average speed of 13:54/mile.

It should get better from here.

4.64 miles in 40:52 for an average pace of 8:49/mi and average heart rate of 154bpm. Max was 6:50/mi and 168bpm. This is significantly faster than my run just a week ago and these were my splits: 9:14, 8:53, 8:41, 8:35, and 8:35. At 41 degrees, I chose long sleeves and gloves, but I have more options for when it gets below freezing.

I went to the doctor again yesterday. Most of my sick symptoms are gone, but I remain with an aching back that I haven't figured out yet. The good news is that my oxygen intake is back up from 91 and 92 to 98, which is where it should be.

The best thing right now is that my daughter in law is in labor with her second child and my 5th grandchild! My wife is in Florida to help and I'm anxiously awaiting more news.

My new granddaughter came yesterday morning at 10:06 EST. She weighed 7lbs 13oz and she is healthy. My wife is in Florida to help. That means I took over the kitchen yesterday and made a huge batch of spaghetti sauce with nothing in it but garden produce, not even water or salt. I used tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, basil and oregano.

Oh yeah, this is a running blog. I ran 4.6 miles in 58:32 for an average pace of 12:44/mi and an average heart rate of 126bpm, max 133bpm. Compared to Saturday's low heart rate run, this one was much better. I am just feeling better this week.

7.31 miles in 1:04:44 for an average pace of 8:52/mi and an average heart rate of 155bpm. Max heart rate was 172bpm, which I think is the highest I have ever measured. It was there when I pushed the stop button for my sprint at the end. Splits were 9:45, 9:10, 8:58, 8:33, 8:48, 8:39, 8:23, and 8:00 for the last fraction. I'm wondering how close I could get to an 8:00 minute pace for a 10K.

It helps to have such good running conditions. (44 degrees this morning, with no precipitation)

Ten miles in 2:10:39.  Average pace 13:04/mile, avg heart rate 128bpm.   I was a little surprised that the average heart rate wasn't higher because the readings were way high on the first mile, going all the way up to 166bpm.  I guess I kept my heart rate low enough the rest of the time to bring down my average.  Compared to my speed last week on the same run, this was much better.  I think the sickness is finally behind me and just the back pains remain.

Other than my parents, my whole family is gone this morning.  Ben is at a Deacons meeting.  Alma is rock climbing.  Elisa and Kevin are at BYU, Charles is on a mission in Washington, Brian is attending medical school in Chicago, Cindy lives with her family in Pima Arizona, and Jeremy is with his family in Florida.  My wife will also be there until Tuesday to help out with their new baby.

Ran about 5.5 miles at about an 8:30 pace, but that is only a guess.  Operator error with the GPS caused me to have no data at the end.  I felt good and strong today.  It was a nice 46 degrees outside and warm enough for short sleeves, but I did wear gloves.  I never regret it when I wear gloves.

4.63 miles in 39:56 for an average pace of 8:38/mile.  This run was a little tougher than yesterday and my splits show it because they didn't constantly improve:  9:18, 8:48, 8:17, 8:21, and 8:24.

My wife is coming home today, even as my new granddaughter has decided that she has had enough of Fort Lauderdale and is packing up to move to Boston.  (She's taking her brother and parents along with her.)

4.64 miles in 39:11 for an average pace of 8:26/mi and an average heart rate of 155bpm.  This run was about 45 seconds faster than Tuesday's run and it felt good.  At 32 degrees, I decided to bundle up in long sleeves, gloves, and a ski mask.  That was more than adequate to keep me comfortable.

4.62 miles in 59:26 for an average pace of 12:58/mi and an average heart rate of 125bpm.  The heart rate monitor didn't work too well today.  It spiked up about 3 times during the run.  At other times, it read in the low 120's or even below when it felt like I was exerting more effort.  Maybe the cold 32 degrees weather was the problem.

We picked up Charles from the airport yesterday and he was release from his mission.  He is in good spirits and he now wants to go back and finish his associates degree at Snow college.  We tried to anticipate how it would be, but we didn't anticipate his positive attitude and especially we didn't anticipate his desire to return to Snow College.

10.14 miles in 2:03:24 with an average heart rate of 127bpm and an average pace of 12:10/milie.

What a difference a week makes.   I feel good and my pace was almost a minute per mile faster than last week.  It was a very tolerable 32 degrees outside.

5.5 miles in 46:13 for an average pace of 8:24/mile in a cool 38 degrees and lots of stars.  Splits were 9:13, 8:25, 8:12, 8:10, 8:08, and 8:17.  Still seeking my first sub-8 minute mile.  My fastest pace was 6:25 in mile 5, so I'm getting closer.