I ran alone again this morning. I ran the 10 mile route from home to two miles up Provo Canyon and back. There was a pretty strong headwind and it was cooler than normal. The coolness actually felt pretty good. When I got to the canyon it was pretty dark and I felt very alone most of the time. It reminded me of some of the runs Kerry has blogged, but without any animal encounters. I got spooked by some rustling leaves at one point, but I think it was just the wind.
I pushed along at about medium marathon pace effort, but I only averaged 8:15/mi., with a couple of 7:40 miles at the end. I say "only" because I averaged 7:07/mi last year at St. George, and would need to average 6:52/mi to break 3:00 hours this year. As I ran it seemed hard to believe that I'd be able to run more than a full minute per mile faster in the marathon. But I averaged 6:35/mi at the Hobble Creek half last Saturday, so with the downhills, lower altitude, taper, and race day magic there's hope I can at least break 3:10 again. I'm afraid sub-3:00 might have to wait for another year. The best thing today was that Karen got home. My original plan was to go to work as normal. She was planning to ride home from the airport with her sister and her husband who are staying with us. They are here for the open house for their daughter who just got married out in Delaware, which is where Karen has been. I decided to work from home because I wanted to be here when she got home. About an hour before her flight got in I decided that wasn't good enough and decided to go to the airport. I was just past the point of the mountain when she called and said her plane had got in 30 minutes early. I got a little nervous because I wanted to surprise her and didn't want to have to tell her to wait for me to get there, but then she told me they were waiting for a plane that was in their gate. I also knew she had checked luggage so I figured I could still make it in time. When I got to the luggage carousels there was nobody there so I feared I'd missed them. I called her and they were still on the plane. I kept up the pretense of still being at work, but I think she was beginning to think, or at least hope, otherwise. As they finally came off the escalator her backpack was falling off her shoulder. I walked up from behind and asked if I could carry it for her. Her reaction was all I hoped it would be. She hugged me and kissed me (very unusual for Karen in public) and seemed almost as glad to see me as I was to see her. Then her sister said how much Karen had been hoping that I would be there. I was very glad I decided to go to the airport. I think the kids were even happier to have Karen home than I was, if that's possible. I'm very blessed with a wonderful wife and family.
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