Larry Jewell

Time once again for a marathon Preview on Good Time 89 KTXU. One of the veterans of the St. George Marathon is local runner Jay Cooper. Cooper has run in so many of the marathons he's almost lost count. In addition to St. George, he runs the Las Vegas Marathon and many others. Has there been a change in the training habits over the years? Oh, yes, a bit. I think we all do as we get older, I think we get a little bit smarter, probably run more quality miles and perhaps fewer miles. I think we have to pay special attention to staying injury free as we get older, and I think that changed the training a little bit. There's always the question of what about the danger to the body. Obviously you have to be in good shape to finish a marathon, but isn't there a danger to the body? In all honesty, I can't try to tell you that it's not harmful, or at least there's not a possibility for harm to the skeleton in that length of a distance. But when you get down to sensible type distances and sensible type activities, research is starting to indicate that as far as skeletal structure damage, really a person who is active physically and is running, jogging, participating in aerobics, what we thought would be a detrimental effect on the skeleton is actually being found to be advantageous for most people. And just in case you were going to ask, yes, Jay Cooper does consider a marathon distance a reasonable distance and a reasonable activity. Now, after having participated in so many marathons, has there been a change of perspective? Is there something missing now when you run a marathon, or is there something additional? The actual excitement, to a certain extent, the unexpected dimension, I think is pretty much taken away from it. You know, just about what you're getting yourself into. You know pretty much what it's going to feel like at what particular part in the race. And you pretty much know what type of feelings and emotions you're going to be faced with, as well as what type of physical endeavors you're going to go through. So I think maybe the element of surprise or uncertainty is taken away is all. And do you experience less physical pain in the marathons now? Oh, absolutely. Marathoning is so much more between the ears than it is from the neck down that it's unbelievable. Most people have the ability to run marathons, Larry, and they just don't recognize it. They've been told all their lives that 26 miles is so far, it's the next thing to death. You'll finish, finish line with bloody feet. And it's really not as catastrophic as people make it out to be St. George Marathon veteran Jay Cooper. Join us for coverage of the 10th annual St. George Marathon Saturday morning. Larry Jewell reporting for Good Time 89 KDXU. Time once again for a marathon preview. One of the Veterans of the St. George Marathon is Jay Cooper. Now, Cooper has run in many, many St. George Marathons, but he has an interesting perspective. He's an employee of the National Institute of Fitness. So diet has become foremost a concern for Jay Cooper. Has he changed his diet over the year or does he change his diet just prior to a race? Mine personally won't really change much. I'm thinking pretty much the fanatic most of the year living this high complex carbohydrate, high fiber diet, low fat, sugar, salt, oil type approach to life in general. But I'll participate in a little bit of this carbo loading, they call it, where you try to load the muscles up with glycogen just prior to the actual race. A lot of people say, well, carbohydrate loading, that means endless spaghetti dinners, right? Well, it's not the spaghetti per se. Spaghetti is maybe one of the more popular varieties, the spaghetti or pasta or lasagna. But actually when you look at the complex carbohydrate family, the good old all American potatoes, breads, legumes, root vegetables, there are several different food groups naturally high in the complex carbohydrates. Most of your grains, cereal type products, are good forms of complex carbohydrates. Now what do runners go through in carbohydrate loading? Actually, it begins for some a week in advance. Ideally by definition, you start out seven days away and you go through what they call a depletion phase where you deplete the muscle of its sugar store or glycogen. And then three days away you start the loading process where you bombard the muscle with as much glycogen as you possibly can. Most runners participate in a modified variation of that today, that is they don't go through the starvation phase. We've learned that the grueling effort of just going through the preparation of training for a marathon in most cases keeps a person pretty much depleted from a glycogen standpoint. And so most runners start out about three days away and load themselves up with about as much carbohydrate as they can possibly eat. Now, there are some runners who do not care about diet. There are good old all American junk food junkies in the world of runners. And I think that here again, as I've mentioned before, I think as you increase in age, I think wisdom goes along with and for a person who participates in running, it's a matter of time before you recognize you're truly a product of what you put between your lips. You, to a certain extent, are a reflection of what you're eating. Garbage in, garbage out. And most runners do change. Runners have the advantage of probably recognizing that because of their physical performance on a day in and day out basis, they can feel that that junk food and the effect that it has on them physiologically, where a person who's not going through that high intensity type activity won't really acknowledge what the junk food's doing to them. Jay Cooper, Participant in the St. George Marathon join us for coverage of the St. George Marathon on Goodtime 89 KDXU. Time once again for a marathon preview on Goodtime 89 KDXU. One of the veterans of the St. George Marathon is Enterprise resident Richard Truman. Now, his running career began only a short time ago and at a rather late age in life. Richard Truman began running with the 1979 Deseret News Marathon and had not participated in a race before. No, no, I hadn't. That's when I first got started running. Well, that's the first race I ever ran, that Deseret News Marathon, and that's the wrong way to start. Did it dull his enthusiasm for racing? Well, yes and no. I felt so miserable, you know, I thought maybe I was going to die. And I thought, well, there's got to be an easier way to finish one of these than this. So I was determined to try it again. And then I just stuck with it. I enjoy it now. Who was the culprit that got him into that first race? One of my nephews. He had ran a couple. He had run the deseret news in St. George, and he come to visit me one day and said, uncle Dick, why don't you get in shape and run a marathon? I thought he was crazy. I said, I can't run a Marathon at 45. I knew nothing about it. And he said, well, there's a lot of older people than you run marathons. And it was right after the deer hunt and I'd been tromping the hills for a couple of weeks. And so I thought, well, maybe this is a good time to start. I'm already halfway there. I thought I found out later I wasn't. What about the St. George Marathon, the most memorable, the first one I ran, and the reason it was most memorable is because I was injured. I didn't know enough then to realize that how devastating it would be to run on an injury that far. But I wanted to run to Boston the next spring, and so I had to qualify. So I doped up on painkillers and went down and ran it. And then I spent the next 10 days on crutches. So it was memorable. Now, in spite of all of the negative thoughts, he does recommend running marathons. Oh, I do. It's done a lot for me. I think people my age need something like that. It's helped me keep my weight down, and it's made me feel a lot better than I would have. I'm sure I feel a lot better now than I did years ago before I started running. Now, the challenge of a marathon is always the last four or five miles. But in the St. George Marathon, it's the ups and the downs, and it isn't the ups that are the most challenging. I have people say, how do you run up that vale hill? You know, up that steep hill for near about 3/4 of a mile? And I say, well, that's really no problem, because if a person's in shape for a marathon and you're warmed up by the time you get to it, the hill doesn't really mean that much. Now, the challenge is the steep downhill, but it's the downhill that's hard on you. The uphill isn't, other than it just takes a little extra energy. But steep downhill is hard on people's legs. You know, a lot of people suffer knee problems because of the steep downhill. St. George Marathon veteran Richard Truman. Join us for coverage of the 10th annual St. George Marathon. Larry Jewell reporting for Goodtime 89 KDXU. Time once again for a marathon preview on Goodtime89KDXU. For every marathon, in addition to the runners, there are hundreds of volunteers, usually some professional staff and a director to organize the whole thing. For the St. George Marathon, it's Kent Perkins, the St. George Leisure Services director. Now, he's had some very pleasant feelings about the St. George Marathon. In fact, you can almost be downright proud. I feel really good. I feel like we've established ourselves as a solid race nationwide. We've got runners coming from 16 states, I think, and two from Great Britain. And I feel like we're accepted well, and we're going to hold our own. And with other races dropping 10, 15, 20% a year, ours is only about 6%. So I'm thrilled. Now the complexion of the race has changed. A number of years ago, running a marathon became a physical fitness fad. And for those physical fitness buffs, everyone tried a marathon. Well, the fads have changed. So the complexion of the race has changed. I think that it's more the runners who are serious, who are here for a reason, whatever that reason might be, whether it be to complete their 50th run or whether it means to break a record. There are a lot of runners here this year to try to qualify for either the Boston or for the Olympic trials. We have one lady here running her 89th marathon. So I think we have some real serious runners for the most part, although there are a few first timers now. The runners give reaction to the St. George Marathon, and many of the runners come back year after year. There are reasons the reaction is very positive. I think that the runners continue to come back because as the races come and go nationwide, the ones that continue to be strong in viable races are those that do something right, those that treat the runners right, those that make the runners feel as though they're welcome and it's a good, quality event. Most of the runners say that they not only run it because it's a good course and it's run well, but because they feel good when they're here, and it's kind of a pilgrimage almost. And so we feel really good that that's their general reaction. For the director of the St. George Marathon or for any marathon, there has to be one moment, one dramatic moment that says, hey, this is all it's about. This is what the marathon is, probably the start of the race. I had the opportunity to go up in a bucket truck about 35ft in the air and stick my hand in the air with the gun and using the megaphone, call out ready, set, and fire the gun. And to see 1500 or whatever people go in motion at that one sound of that gun, to me, is just an incredible event. It's the culmination of all that we've done. St. George Marathon Director Ken Perkins. This marathon preview has been brought to you as a presentation of KDXU sports. Join us Saturday morning for coverage of the 10th annual St. George Marathon on Goodtime 89 KDXU. Time once again for a marathon preview on Goodtime89KDXU. The director of the St. George Marathon is head of the St. George Leisure Services Department, Kent Perkins. Now, Kent sometimes gets some of the glory for a successful St. George Marathon, but obviously there are more people involved than just the director. Eight to ten staff people, and maybe a few more than that, maybe 15 and we have somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 to 800. Now, a lot of people have great experiences working with the marathon. Even if they don't run, the volunteers repeat. We have some volunteers that have been at every race except perhaps one or two. And generally, we have a real good repeater kind of thing. Last year we had 12 aid stations. This year we have the exact same 12 aid stations. We've got to check with you on this one, Kent. Have you ever run a marathon? You've directed them, but have you ever run one? Never run a marathon. I have never come close to running a marathon. The longest I've ever run is eight miles. Now, the next question is, have you ever been tempted to run a marathon? I am tempted every year. You know, everybody has their New Year's resolution. And every year when that gun goes off, I say to myself, maybe I could be there next year. But they say the supreme compliment to a race director is to run in his own race. And I perhaps need that compliment. But at the same time, I don't know if I can really put the time into training. So I guess I don't know if I ever will. It sounds almost like there's a note of sadness in the voice there. Director Kent Perkins, head of the St George Leisure Services department. Now, there must be one moment, one moment that stands out in all of your marathon experience of directing or working with the marathon. The first marathon that I ever helped at, and I wasn't in charge that year, and I can remember the tears streaming down my face, the feeling that I had for the successes of the people as they crossed the finish line. Kent Perkins, the director of the St. George Marathon. Join us for coverage of the 10th annual St. George Marathon. This marathon preview is a presentation of KTXU Sports. You're with Goodtime89KGXU. Time once again for a marathon preview on Goodtime89 KTXU. In every St. George Marathon, there is the first timer. One of those first timers this year is St. George resident Galen Cull. The motivation to run a St. George Marathon began with the first ever St. George Marathon about 10 years ago. I. When they started it, I was down there watching them come in, and I thought, well, that's all right. Now. Galen has been running regularly for about the last five years, but sometimes, to quote the Beatles hit, you need a little help from a friend. I'd always think, well, I've gotta see if I can't maybe get in shape and try it always had something stop me. This year My next door neighbor and I, we started in July, first part of July had started running and we pointed towards the marathon and we just haven't quit. Now. There are other sports that are close to Galen Call's heart that running is moving up on the outside. Well, my first love is fast pitch softball still. But running has really taken a really close second. Have there been long distances that Galen calls run before? Well, a couple of years ago, Galen ran in a half marathon and then there was a particular training run this year. In our training we ran a 22 mile run about three weeks ago. And the results, well, the results built confidence. It was really neat because when we finished it, we were sore. But two days later we went out and ran six miles and ran as fast as we'd ever run it. So our recuperation is really there. And that's good news for Galen Kault. There are goals for the first timer. I really expect I'll finish. I would like to do it under four hours, but you know, that's a. I don't know for me that's a lofty goal, but I think I can do it. Are there feelings that you anticipate having during the marathon, first time that you've ever run one? Galen the work's all done and the marathons the dessert, so to speak. Because I'm sure that the marathon's gonna be tough, but getting ready for it is really all the work. Now sometimes for the person that's going to run a marathon, there are those loved ones who are detractors. My wife's not too happy about this thing and she's serious about it. She says, are you sure that your insurance is paid up? And she says, are you sure that that's not considered self inflicted? First time St. George Marathon participant Galen Call. Join us for coverage of the 10th annual St. George Marathon. Larry Jewell reporting for Goodtime 89 KDXU. Time once again for a marathon preview on Goodtime89KDXU. It's not easy to run a marathon and especially it's not easy to run a first marathon. How does someone become motivated to try that 26 miles plus yardage? For Raeleen hall of Enterprise, who ran her first and so far only marathon last year, it was family. Four years ago I went down to St. George to watch my brother in law Richard truman run the St. George Marathon and I got so excited watching everybody run it. I just thought to myself, someday I'm going to do that. And so I really didn't think I'd do it as soon as I did. But I went ahead and my brother in law talked me into go ahead and train him for it last year and I was able to complete it. Now a brother in law not only talks you into it but sometimes helps you in the training. Over his years of experience, he's learned the right and the wrong way to train and so he was able to coach me along. Did Raeleen like running the marathon? I loved it. Well, there are aspects of the marathon she didn't like. Like the training I didn't like. Especially like the training part of it. But I loved running the marathon itself. Now, there are special parts of running a marathon. Usually each end, the excitement of everybody there at the beginning was exciting and then probably just the finish, knowing that I'd accomplished something I didn't think I had in me. Next question. Was there a point in the marathon that you thought you should give up? There was one spot, the 20 mile mark. I thought, I don't know if I'm going to make it. I guess I swear you hit the wall. I thought to myself, I'm not going to make it. But as soon as I thought that, I said I'm going to make it if I have to crawl across that line. Now, when you finish a marathon, that isn't the only surprise that comes from preparation. Sometimes the surprises come inside yourself. During the training, I was surprised that I could build my miles up like I did, that I was able to one Saturday, the first Saturday that I ran 15 miles, I did that a couple of times and I was surprised that I could run that far. Now schedule has not permitted Raeleen to train properly for this year's marathon, but she's skipping this one. She will try again next year. Does she recommend it to anyone else? I think everybody could do it if they really put forth the effort and to train for it. I mean, I'm just an ordinary, everyday housewife that just had it in her mind that she thought she could do it and decided to go for it. And there was an interesting goal that she did achieve last year surprised her. I accomplished the goal of being the first woman in the enterprise to complete a marathon. And her neighbors, how did they react? A lot of the people were excited and some thought I was crazy. Raeleen hall, who ran her first marathon last year, St. George Marathon number nine. Join us for coverage of the 10th annual St. George Marathon right here on Good Time 89 KDXU. Larry Jewell reporting for KDXU. Time once again for a marathon preview brought to you on Goodtime89KGXU. One of the participants in this year's St. George Marathon is not a stranger to the marathon. This will be St. George Marathon number five for St. George native Lindsay Merrill. Plus, Lindsay is involved in triathlons, other endurance races. As he looks back, does he recall the thoughts as he began the first marathon? You bet. I'm starting to run it the first year, but I know there's an awful long way that I better take it real easy. But I still went out a little bit too fast, I think. As you look around, were there other thoughts? Yeah, I was kind of overwhelmed at the, you know, the numbers of people that would do a crazy thing like that. And now Lindsay is no stranger to the quote, unquote wall that hits in a marathon. He's familiar with it. He just had to experience it. Now try to describe the feelings. You still are very aware of what's going on. Yeah, so it's just more. Your legs are just so fatigued, your mind wants them to go faster, but they just won't move. The only marathons that Lindsay Merrill has run have been the St. George Marathons we mentioned. This will be number five. But there are goals beyond St. George. But I did plan on running in a few years, maybe the Boston or the New York. And there are goals beyond just finishing the St. George Marathon, for example. That's one of my goals for next year, is to possibly win the St. George Marathon. Now Lindsay's using the St. George Marathon as a stepping stone towards other goals in the triathlon, for example. The triathlon includes the swim, the bicycle and the run. In triathlons, you gotta be strong in all three events to do quite well in the national rankings. And, and, you know, if I'm able to get my turn down like some of the top triathletes have, you know, some of those guys run the St. George Marathon close to the record time. Now there's a different feeling in the run in the triathlon and the run in the marathon, a significantly different feeling. First of all, with the triathlon, you go into the run portion fatigued. Well, in the past it has been kind of a drudgery, I guess you'd call it. Seems like, you know, I've already got off the bicycle from averaging, you know, about 23 miles an hour. Then you start running at about, you know, eight or nine mile an hour pace. You think you should be going faster. Now there's a different feeling with the run in the marathon. You may still be running at eight, nine, miles an hour. But it seems kind of fast because, you know, you're pacing yourself there. Now, for the person who's run both the marathon and the triathlon, the finish lines are similar. Yeah, very similar. You about spend all your energy in the run. In both cases, the fatigue is quite similar. Yeah. St. George Marathon participant Lindsay Merrill and also triathlete join us for coverage of the 10th annual St. George Marathon. Larry Jewell reporting for Goodtime 89 KDXU. Time once again for a marathon preview on Goodtime89KDXU. Some people will run a marathon once just to prove that they can do it. And then there are some who have so much fun the first time they want to try it again. One of those is wayne Everett of St. George. His reaction last year after finishing his first marathon ever. Well, it was exciting. The feeling, particularly at the finish line when you had accomplished something was really exciting for me. And it was just even though I heard all over, there was really kind of a feeling of ecstasy as you realized that you had accomplished something like that. It isn't always just a runner who finishes. Sometimes there is a whole wealth of family support that goes with that runner. And that was the case with Wayne Everett. They got involved in it and they really enjoyed it and they came out and met me at a certain point and then hurried to the park to be there when I finished. And it was a lot of fun. That experience with his family may have triggered some of his children to run a marathon later. Well, will they, Wayne? They might. We ran in the Turkey Trot last year. My oldest boy is just 7, so he's not quite old enough yet, but I think they will. Usually the goal in the first marathon is to finish to go the full 26 miles plus. What about a goal for a second marathon? I'd like to finish in about 3:15, but I'll have to wait and see if that works out. In all honesty, Wayne Everett, were you surprised that you finished a marathon? Not really. I think with the training that I put in that I knew that I was prepared and that I could do it well. How far do you run during a week to train for a marathon? I usually average between 40 to 50 miles a week. Wayne Everett, a second time runner in this the St. George Marathon. Join us for coverage of the 10th annual St. George. Welcome to George Marathon. I'm Larry Jewell reporting for Goodtime89KDXU. Time once again for a marathon preview on Goodtime89KDXU. One of the more interesting entries in this year's St. George Marathon is a dad and a daughter each running the marathon for the first time. We're talking about Gary Simonson and his daughter April. Well, the desire to run a marathon began in the family, but not with his daughter. Began with the founder of the St. George Marathon. Let's see, I've got a brother in law, Sherm Miller. You probably remember Sherm, he's the one that started the marathon. We've watched him for a number of years with him. Now. How did daughter April get involved? She just kind of got going when I started jogging just to stay in shape. She wanted to run along and she just kind of stuck with it from that point. Jogging to stay in shape is different than preparing for a marathon. How many miles do the two of you run each week? It's varied, you know, as we got ready for the marathon, it's gone up every so many weeks. We've increased it. Getting ready just prior to it has been like 40 to 50 miles now. Gary, your feelings going into the marathon? Yeah, I'm really excited. I'm kind of like a cat kind of prancing back and forth. I've backed off from jogging much this week and I'm real anxious to get out there and do it again. And it has been a good experience training with his daughter. Oh, definitely. It's been real good that way. And the benefit to Gary's life? I think just a desire to achieve the goal. Getting out, working so hard. It's not an easy goal to achieve. You have to. We've been working at it for like three months. And three months is a long time to be getting up at 5 o' clock and go running every morning. And to see it actually, you know, after three months worth of doing that, actually have it right on the doorsteps, you know, so you can achieve it and do it in what your goal is set for. Will the Simonsons run side by side? That's the next question. No, we're gonna, we're gonna go at our own pace. She's just gonna jog it out easy and I'm gonna go at my pace and I'll be a little bit quicker than what she will. But it was the family that got Gary involved in running a marathon this year. Well, I've actually got two daughters that wanted to run. And in the first part of July, they came up and says, hey, dad, we'd like to run the marathon. And I said, well, if you guys are really serious, and I guess right now is the time we've gotta sit down and set our goals to do it. So it was really my daughter's. It could have been a three way entry except one daughter ended up with a slight back injury so was withdrawn from the race. Now to April. The reaction to training with Dad. I like it. It's fun. We get to know each other better. And what about you? When did you get the idea of running a marathon? I just thought it would be fun. My uncles ran it for a couple years and I just thought it might be fun. I wanted to last year, but I didn't get to. Now April honestly feels that there are some benefits from running. Oh, it just kind of gives you a good feeling thinking that you can do it. And the goal for the marathon? It's modest. I just want to finish it. Dad and daughter Gary and April Simonson running for the first time at this year's St. George Marathon. Join us for coverage of the 10th annual St. George Marathon. Larry Jewell reporting for Goodtime. 89 KDXU. Four score and Seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little no longer remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.