St. George Painters Half Marathon
January 15th 2005 Race Report
By: Daniel Olsen
On Friday morning, my mom woke me up at 7:00. I was a little
annoyed at not being able to sleep in on the vacation, but happy just the
same that I had the awesome opportunity to go to St. George, and spend two
fun days with my brother Russell, dad, and Grandma.
By 8:00 we were on the road, driving for about 6 long hours from
Logan Utah, down to St. George.
I listened to my walkman most of the time, to survive my 12 year
old brothers constant talking that never stops. After about 6 hours, we
arrived in Kanosh to pick up my Grandma. We also saw Uncle Bill, and Ruben.
Ruben had made a habit of giving all of the kids in my family nicknames.
While he was in the living room, he yelled "Is that Danny meadow mouse, and
four eyes." According to Ruben, I was as small as a mouse when I was a
toddler even though I was a pretty large baby, being about 21 inches. He
calls Russell four eyes because he wears glasses.
When we got to St. George, my dad took pictures of the
devastating flood that happened there. After that we went to Outback
Steakhouse. I wish I could have bought steak, but that wouldn't have been
good for my race the next day.
There were a lot of cool stores there. We went to a chocolate
store, a toy store, and a Ralph Lauren store. After that we chilled at our
hotel for a while. I schooled my brother Russell in a Uno tournament and
then we went to bed
The next morning we ran over to the race. I jogged a lot and
then ran around with my brother Russell.
The race was a really strange race. My dad told me to start off
at a 7:00 mile and my brother Russell at a 7:30, or else he wouldn't let us
run the Moab Half Marathon. Well about a minute before the race, Russell
decided he wasn't going to listen to dad at all. At the one mile mark, my
watch said 6:40. Then I hear Russell breathing two feet behind me. I think
to myself, if that kid doesn't pace right, he's going to drop dead after the
9 mile mark. Little did I know how wrong I was.
After about 7 miles of hard rolling hills, Russell was still
about three strides behind me. All of a sudden, a kid that looks like he's
my age blows past me. I immediately stopped thinking about my crazy brother
and tried to get back my spot.
Well, getting back my spot was definitely not easy. This kid
reminded me of a fast kid in third grade my dad nicknamed Surger Boy.
Whenever I ran up to try and take him, he would do a short burst of speed.
I was feeling pretty good. As I ran up to the kid he just
sprints off. I do this about 7 times for about a half mile, and then I just
said to myself "I'm going to try this one more time, and then I'll lay back
a while. And the kid had so much sprint speed, I just gave up. I think that
next race, I'm going to do that until the end.
At the 11 mile mark, I have a lot of energy, but my legs feel
like they have lead in them. My pacing was very uneven so far in the race.
I'm pretty sure I lost Russell.
As I get to the last stretch, I see Grandma and Dad yelling
"Come on Daniel!" and then they yell "Come on Russell, beat your brother!"
Well then I'm thinking "Wow dad, way to cheer for everybody!" I
looked back, which was a stupid thing to do, and saw Russell sprinting
towards me. Well, even though my race hasn't gone so well, I'm not letting
my twelve year old brother beat me. I beat him by four seconds. The race
was about 12.7 miles, and I got a 1:28:24.
It was weird because I didn't have a bad race at all. I was
about as fast as I was last year. It's just that Russell has been maturing
physically and has improved by about thirteen minutes, and I've hit a big
wall where I haven't improved that much. My last PR was about a year ago.
So I'm feeling pretty miserable, when something really good
happens to cheer me up. This really hot looking girl comes up to talk to
me. She's got blonde hair and a good tan.
"Wow, nice job on your race, how old are you?"
"Fifteen." I said.
"Really, that's how old I am. We were both cheering for you at
your sprint at the end. Well, good bye, and good job!"
"You too." I said walking away feeling slightly happier. I wish
I was a bit more talkative, and that I would have looked a lot better, but
you don't look that well after you've ran thirteen miles.
It turns out that the kid that beat me had an eighteen-year-old
brother that won the race. He was 14, a year younger than me. His name was
Daniel. If I ever race him again, I'm going to race a lot smarter.
The trophy's were awesome crystal statues of an eagle on top of
a world. My dad said "Thanks, any time you want to look at them, you can
see them in my room. I get them because I paid for this trip, lol.
I loved this race, and I can't wait until I run the Moab Half
Marathon. Hopefully I'll remember to pace better, and if I meet a good
looking girl, I'll be a bit smoother next time, lol.