September 18th was Top of Utah marathon. I elected to save some driving and register at 4:30 am on the morning of the race at Olsen park in Logan, which also was the finish. I got up at 3:00 am, driving myself to Logan, after a 4 hour nap Friday night. It is really hard for me to fall asleep before a marathon. Race registration was quick and easy. I caught one of the first school buses to transport the runners to the starting line at hardware ranch. Those schools buses don't have much leg room for adults, so my knees were likely in the back of the runner in front of me. The organizers had a couple of nice touches at the start. There was the normal row of porta potties. But there was a glow stick light in the one I visited. Think about it, have you ever gone to the bathroom in pitch dark? Also it was about a quarter of mile walk from the bus drop off point to the starting area. There were glow sticks lining the pathway to the start. The temperature was cool (maybe 40-50), so they had a huge tent with several heaters going, making it quite toasty inside. It was so warm inside I had to take off my sweatshirt. I found my two friends Mark and Wade from work in the tent by the glow of displays of various electronic equipment that some runner feel are necessary. As it started to get light outside, runners piled out the tent and threw their clothes bag in a school bus to transport them the finish line.

A group dressed up as mountain men with black powder rifles signals the 7:00 start by discharging them. The course is beautiful and fast. The fall colors were in full splendor in the canyon. The first 15 miles is almost all down hill, about 2000 feet drop. I was happy to have a 2:10 half marathon split time, considering I did Farmington half marathon earlier this year at 2:06 and didn't then I didn't have another 13 miles ahead of me on that run. But a knew the second 13 miles of TOU would be a lot harder then the first. I finished TOU at 5:05. I was happy with that time, considering that I have had a very spotty training schedule and the finish time was 30 minutes faster than Park City marathon. So the last marathon of the Utah Grand Slam is in two weeks at St George.