Bob Mann: 2025 Sand Hollow Marathon

Sat Mar 8, 2025

On Sat Mar 8 2025, I ran the Sand Hollow Marathon in Hurricane, Utah. This race wasn't at as high an altitude as my previous one in Colorado Springs, but at 3000 feet, it was still much higher than I'm used to. And the town called Hurricane did not disappoint with the winds. It was another tough race.

The nearest major city was Las Vegas, so I flew to Vegas on Friday and made the drive to Utah. I stayed in the city of St George, which was the largest town in the area. The race began and ended in Hurricane, which was about 10 miles away. I picked up my race packet Friday evening, did a short shakeout run in St George, and called it an early night, as always.

This was a very small race. There were only 82 finishers in the Full Marathon. There were another 163 that ran the Half Marathon, which started at 7:30am, half an hour later. As with most small races like this, the logistics at the start area were easy. I drove in from St George and found parking very close by. It was chilly at the start, with temps in the mid 30s. But the most challenging aspect of the weather was the wind. The town got its name from a bout of wind that befell some early settlers, so apparently wind is not uncommon in those parts. And it was certainly windy on this particular day.

The course was an out-and-back. We started out in town, then ran south until we got beyond the outskirts of town. The course approached Sand Hollow State Park and wound partly around Sand Hollow Reservoir before turning around and retracing its steps back. The race is named after the state park, of course.

As we started south out of town, the gusty wind was at our backs. That was nice, and it helped me clock a 9:02 mile right out of the gate. I maintained a few other quick mile early on, thanks to the wind. But since this was an out-and-back, I knew that this meant that the second half of the race would be run smack into the wind.

There was one fairly large hill between Mile 7 and 8. We went up and then back down, with the wind at our backs. I was definitely not looking forward to the return trip. I reached the halfway point in about 2:08, which is fairly standard for me. But this was a wind-aided 2:08. My second halves are always slower, and this one would be a slog. However, strangely enough, I was feeling quite good. Whereas I was laboring in that last race in Colorado from very early on, this time I still felt fine. Yes, I was moving slow. But that didn't affect how I felt. It was almost strange to feel fine while seemingly laboring as much as I was. Nonetheless, I will gladly take the good feelings along with slow progress. As I have stated numerous times, I am beyond caring about my pace, and I just want to enjoy myself. I didn't really enjoy that run in Colorado, but I was enjoying myself here, despite the wild conditions.

The worst of the wind seemed to happen right as I started the climb up the big hill at Mile 18. Uphill and into a very strong wind that late in a race, it took me 15:15 to complete that mile, which is one of the slowest I have ever recorded. But that's okay, I still felt fine.

These miles at this point were basically out in the desert. The wind was whipping the sand across the road. Running in shorts, I felt like my legs were being sandblasted. It wasn't the nicest feeling in the world. But yet I was still happy and enjoying myself. A strange feeling indeed.

Around Mile 21, I did something I had never done in a marathon before. I had seen a few runners have their hats blown off their heads by the wind. So I was running with my head down, trying to keep that from happening to me. And of course after 21 miles, I was getting rather tired and probably out of focus. So I wasn't paying proper attention and I completely missed a turn. I went straight when I should have gone left. This was a remote enough location that there was a possibility that it could have been quite a while before I noticed it - or anyone noticed me. But thankfully there was a spectator that yelled out to me, and thankfully I just barely heard him over the roar of the wind. I ran maybe 100 yards in the wrong direction before realizing my mistake. Had I continued on, I would have been forced to turn left eventually, so I do think I would have made it back to the finish without having to add too much distance to the run. But I'm glad I didn't have to find that out.

The last few miles were slow, of course. I ran back into town, into the teeth of the wind. And I eventually crossed the finish line in 4:53. So this was one of my slowest marathons, but it was quite a bit faster than that disaster in Colorado. So I'll take it. I'll be happy with any slow time if I can finish while still feeling as good as this. This was definitely the strongest wind I've ever faced in a marathon, and quite possibly the strongest wind I've ever run in, period. So I will consider it Mission Accomplished.

After the race, I went back to my hotel in St George for a nap. I had some food and beers around town that night. I checked out of my hotel on Sunday and took a drive to nearby Zion National Park. I only had a few hours to spend there, but I managed to see a bunch of the sights and hike a few of the trails. After that, I drove back to Las Vegas and checked into a hotel there for one more night before flying home the next morning.

When I had first landed in Vegas on Friday, I noticed an advertisement for a concert. Bryan Adams was performing for 7 nights at the Wynn. The first concert I attended was Bryan Adams, in June 1985, the very week that his song "Heaven" hit #1 on the Billboard charts. Tickets were fairly inexpensive, so I decided to buy a ticket and see the show. It was fun to see the same singer again, nearly 40 years later. He put on a great show, and I enjoyed the extra day that I had added to my trip.

So that's a total of 64 marathons complete, and 12 states done a second time. Sooner or later I'll pick another race to do. But as of this writing, I have no idea what that might be.

And now the photos. Click any image to enlarge.