Moab Half Marathon Tips from Nicole and Stacy

We’re Real Runners, or so we thought. Our expectations and results of the Moab Half Marathon last year weren’t exactly what we had imagined. After having finished the race suffering through the stomach flu, we swore we would never go back to Moab not even to see the Arch. Bibs for Moab 2009 would teach us that some things take more than one try to conquer and achieve. If we had another opportunity to run the half marathon in Moab, we’d take note of the 13.1 lessons learned.

.1 – Salt Lake Running Company is our favorite place to accessorize
13 – Training in SLC blizzard temperatures takes dedication
12 – Pack some toilet paper for the pre-race
11 – Adding five minutes to your PR is okay if you have the flu
10 – Don’t run 13.1 miles on a stress fracture
9 – Gu is good but only when taken as directed and not with Gatorade
8 – All you can eat pizza and pasta buffets are overrated
7 – Tube socks from the local True Value make the best legwarmers (SEE PIC BELOW)
6 – Don’t believe anyone who says the course is all down hill
5 – Pack your own oatmeal – the hotel’s complimentary breakfast won’t cut it
4 – Make sure you receive the bib for the half and not for the 5K before the bus
3 – Wearing matching shirts doesn’t mean you’re going to have the best run
2 – Will power can get you to the finish line, even when you’re in pain
1 – Believe you can achieve and you will

Nicole Santiago - There's nothing like feeling the sense of accomplishing a distance with only your legs and willpower to take you there. I've learned to love something I never liked before. Starting a race is exhilarating when I look around thinking how admirable it is to know the other runners trained just as hard both physically and emotionally to reach their goals and dreams. My shoes, aka my runners, travel with me around the world and encourage me to explore different routes. Hitting the pavement helps me run off my frustrations and find solutions. And last but not least, I run so I can enjoy my guilty pleasures: Cafe Rio salads and desserts.


Staci Basilius - I run because I love the way I feel after I've finished a long run, there's nothing that compares with that high...it's addicting. Running makes me appreciate my body, I'm always amazed by how I can push it and I know it will respond. And I especially love those weekday mornings when I've woken up at 5am to run 10 miles I stroll into work feeling invigorated and my co-workers have barely rolled out of bed. I'm lucky enough to have a great running partner, who pushes me when my mind isn't in it and who helps the time fly by with great conversation (except when we're running up hill, then the conversation has to wait).

Your Story--Bill and Traci Clark

Traci and Bill, you guys are fabulous! The most amazing thing is not just that you gave a bad habit, but replaced it with something that was hard! Running is fun, but still challenging and sometimes downright painful nonetheless. So, great job on your change of lifestyle! And, we will all cross our fingers for you Traci.

This is my (our) story. My name is Traci Clark my husband is Bill Clark we took up running 3 years ago after I gained a few (20) pounds. We were both smokers for about 20 years, and decided one day we had spent enough money killing ourselves. I quit around my 40th Birthday and Bill was 42. We both ran a local 5K and thought we were pretty cool, Yeah we just finished a 5K! Then, Bill ran Salt Lake City Marathon 2007 and qualified for Boston. He ran SL Marathon 2008 and qualified again. He really inspires me! I ran the Salt Lake half for 2 years and finished around 2 ½ hours in 2007 and 2:02 in 2008.

I will be running the SL Marathon this year and my goal is to qualify. We are both are signed up for the Grand Slam this year. Whew! I’m a little scared but this will give me 5 chances to try and qualify for Boston so we can both go.

Bill is so sweet and says he will wait for me. He is truly the love of my life always pushing me when we run together, which is not very often. He’s too fast. That’s why I married him on Valentines Day. The last couple of years running have truly been the happiest years of my marriage. WE ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT! And are very addicted.

How fast can you run your marathon?

Have you ever wondered how fast you can run a marathon? A marathon is long enough that it can be hard to figure out what kind of goal time to shoot for. There is a cool little workout called Yasso 800’s that can give you a pretty good idea of what kind of time to aim for as your marathon finish time. The Yasso 800’s are named after Bart Yasso, the race services manager for Runner’s World for over 30 years. Here is what Bart had to say about using them in training,

"I've been doing this particular workout for about 15 years," he continued, "and it always seems to work for me. If I can get my 800s down to 2 minutes 50 seconds, I'm in 2:50 marathon shape. If I can get down to 2:40 (minuses), I can run a 2:40 marathon. I'm shooting for a 2:37 marathon right now, so I'm running my 800s in 2:37."

Before discussing the pro’s and con’s of this workout, here is how to actually do the Yasso 800’s. The full workout is 10X800 at goal marathon pace with EQUAL amount of walk/jog rest in between. So if you want to run a 3:30 marathon then you should be able to do 10 X800 in 3:30 with that much walk/jog rest in between. But do you do all 10 every time? No! If you want to know approximately where you are at to begin with then do the whole workout. Other than that, you would work up to doing 10 of those 800’s.

Here is an example. Hopefully the marathon you are getting ready for is about 10 weeks away to progress through this workout. Let’s say, that you want to know ABOUT where to begin and you have no real idea as to how fast you can run a marathon. In that case, your first time doing them should be all 10. Pace yourself so you can finish all 10 at pretty close to the same pace. At the end, if you run all 10 within about 5-10 seconds of 4:00 min per 800, then you can probably figure that you are ready to run within about 5-10 minutes of 4 hours.

Now, that you know an 800 time, you can progress through the workout by doing them once a week. You can choose to stay with the same time you got on the test workout and just try to get in shape to make that pace easier or you can pick it up 10 seconds per 800 and try 3:50. Either way, do this workout only once a week in the middle of the week and start with ONLY 4 of them at goal marathon pace. Add one more repeat each week until you reach 10 of them. The final 10 X 800 workout should land about 2 weeks out from the race.

Some people criticize the above workout by saying that it is off by 15-20 minutes and that a marathoner doesn’t need to do that kind of workout. I disagree. Any marathoner would benefit from speed work. Now there are other kinds of speed training that are indeed more fitting for marathons than this workout, but if you don’t ever do anything fast then you can give this a go because it will most certainly help you. If you are already doing tempo or lactate threshold runs, then do Yasso 800’s every other week and add 2 800’s instead of just one each time.

The other caveat to this workout actually predicting your marathon time is that you do have to get in your long runs. Doing a long run every other week may or may not be quite enough to have the aerobic base you need to apply this speed. But don’t get too excited and do too many long runs because you are overexcited to run your 800 time in a marathon race. Weekly long runs should only be done by a runner who has been running long runs 12-18 months already. Then, all that is left is that you are rested and well fueled during the marathon. If anyone out there tries it, then let us know how it goes. Did you really run your marathon in the same time as the Yasso 800’s?