Marathon Bike Tour

I did the Salt Lake City Marathon Bike Tour last year and had a lot of fun. It was really my first introduction to “racing.” I decided a while ago to do it again this year. But, I'm not in nearly the shape I was last year at this time. And, I may be 15 pounds heavier than I was last year same time. So, as the day approached I wasn't too thrilled and didn't expect to do very well.

Like last year I was going to wake up early and just ride down to the U, because it seems to help if I get some 45-50 minutes warm up. But, Jeff Barton called and offered a ride and I took them up on it. We went a little early because we didn't want to get stuck way back in the pack at the start and we wanted to try to ride around a little and warm up first. As it was, it was so cold there that we just stayed in the car. We were able to get pretty close to the front for the start. Probably within the first 150-200 people out of about 1600.

I didn't have nearly the trouble with slow pokes in front of me this year as I did last year. I started even with Jeff Barton and his son in law Brandon. Teal and Craig were ahead of us and stayed there the whole ride. They changed the route this year and had us go through sugar House park. It may have actually been the real marathon route for us this year. I did more passing than being passed. I was staying behind a husband and wife team on a tandem again. This seems to be a pattern for me. I did this in the Century ride last year.

A group passed me on lower Holladay Boulevard. Brandon was in the group. So, I latched onto the tail. I stayed pretty much with this group for the rest of the ride. For the first little while on Van Winkle there were some wild ones in the group and it was a little dicey. After a while it seemed to settle down some. Except we would get fast and string out and then slow down and bunch up a little. I think the leaders wanted someone else to take the lead and no one wanted to.

The route going into Salt lake was a little different this year also. We went up a slight grade up State street and that strung out my group for good. I wasn't going very fast at this point. Then we went down South Temple and wrapped around Gateway. Brandon was about 100 feet ahead of me going down the stretch. He didn't know I was gunning for him. So, I was able to catch him at the tape. Teal and Craig had come in a couple of minutes ahead of us. Jeff came in a couple after.

I turned in a decent time. I was within 1 mph of last year's speed. So, I was pretty pleased with it, considering my shape.