Number 44 was the Mesa Falls Marathon in Ashton, Idaho on August 28, 2021. I finished in 4:43.05, second in my age group. Rachael ran the half, finishing in 2:46:40. This was my slowest regular marathon and Rachael's slowest half, but that's ok, we live to fight another day. I actually ran a half marathon in 1:45.19 last month, so I am not all that much slower than I used to be. But it takes me forever to recover from wounds these days, so I am not very agressive about going for the pain. This race I started slow, stopped for a drink at the abundant water stations and eased back. And it worked, because I could walk and go down stairs with much less pain than usual after the run.

Here's a picture of me cruising with 8 minute miles over 13.1 July 2021 in the Canal run half marathon, which I ran pretty hard to fourth out of 13 in my age group.

Here, by contrast is a picture of me running 10:49 splits! over 26.2 in the Mesa Falls race, which yielded second out of nine in my new age group.

This was, of course, my first post covid marathon. I had hoped to wrap the project up with this one, but events got in the way. At the time of the last race I was still spending half time China. I moved out of my apartment in Kunshan on January 6, 2020, at which time there were rumors of something weird happening in Wuhan. I was scheduled to run in Kansas in March, but ended up spending most of the year in Bath, North Carolina. In July Rachael and I decided to move to Arizona, which we did in January 2021. I ran throughout the pandemic, but didn't really train for marathon running.

It's been a crazy year. Obviously. For everyone. I got the Pizer shot early, now anxiously hoping for the booster shot. My heart goes out to all those deeply affected by the pandemic. Wow.

I flew to Salt Lake on August 26, meeting Rachael there, she had been in Colorado for a couple of weeks. We drove to Ashton on the 26th and went to see the eponymous falls. Here we are looking at them

The falls are on the Mesa Falls Scenic Byway, which loops off of US 20 on the way to West Yellowstone. The race begins on the plateau up the byway and follows it into town.

We stayed in Rexburg, got up very early to come up to Ashon Elemetary school for breakfast and a bus ride up to the start. On the ride up I sat next to the race director, Dave Jacobsen. This was the 25th running of the race, Mr. Jacobsen founded it shortly after he moved to Ashton to run the local grocery store. Now he is set to retire, in the process of selling the grocery and finding a new director for the race. The race consistently ranked among the most scenic in the world, wonderful to imagine how much this one man has done to liven up Ashton.

The start is on a dirt forest road, getting the buses up to it took some fancy driving around potholes and narrow roads. It was 35 degrees, but all the trouble with the buses meant that we were dropped off just 10 minutes before the 6:30 gun. But this meant of course that the start ( simple "ok go" rather than a gun) came off 10 minutes late. Here is what the start looked like:

And that's it. The potties were jammed at the start, so I took it easy and went to one at the first water stop. Water stops were every two miles, with lots of fruit and gels available. The race is mostly on dirt roads to the half starting line, with a loop out to look at the lower falls. The half started 110 minutes after the full, I passed the half starting line at 8:50, 20 minutes after it began. From the half to mile 16 the course follows a dirt path along the warm river, very very beautiful. Then it is on the Mesa Falls Byway for a few miles, before following side roads on the plain into Aston. I caught up to Rachael at mile 24 and we limped into the finish together.

After the run we washed up and got to Salt Lake in time for a family party. Althogether a fanstastic weekend.

Here is what the second place award looked like