Provo River Trail Half Marathon Results

My gym regiment has been less than stellar this past week. I've been busy getting things ready for a new job, and we're currently in the middle of a remodel (more on both of these later). Instead of my usual daily gym sessions, I've only managed to squeeze in about three workouts this past week. Once Saturday rolled around, I could tell my slacking had caught up with me!

Provo River Trail Elevation Profile

The Provo River Trail Half is a pretty easy course. It contains just over 1,100 feet ascent, and more than 2,200 feet descent. It is beautiful run from South Fork in Provo Canyon to the Shops @ Riverwoods on University Parkway.

Beautiful scenery aside, this race has a few logistical issues. First there was the lack of transportation. The website and emails received prior to the event state the last bus will leave at 5:30. So I arrived in Provo around 5:10 only to have to wait in line until 6:30 for a bus to arrive. Now I've experienced this same issue twice before with inaugural races, but this shouldn't be an issue with a race that has run as long as Provo River (15+ years).

Secondly, there should ample port-a-potties provided at the start line. Thank goodness I did not have to use the restroom because those poor saps were stuck in insanely long lines. There were six port-a-potties provided, and moments before the gun fired, there were still 37 people standing in line. If any of you were curious, yes I was nerdy enough to count. :)

The last thing I'll touch on is aid station placement. All half marathon will have water/Gatorade provided every two miles usually after the three mile mark, the exception to this being if it's not physically possible to provide an aid station, e.g. trail races. During the Provo River Trail, we hit a water station at about mile 2.5. When the runner next to me asked about Gatorade, which I too was interested in, we were told "just ahead". Little did I know "just ahead" means mile 4.7. Once we exited the canyon after mile 7, the aid stations did begin to offer both drinks together, but the spacing was still off.

And to wrap it all up, I didn't even receive an official time! I won't dock the race organizers for this as timing companies are a separate entity, but still, not cool. I'm relying on my Garmin to tell me how I did, and it read 2:06 (9:37 min/mile).

**Next half in 7 days**
**Next paced half in 14 days**