I ran totally by feel. I didn’t even look at my watch. I just ran at what felt like a good effort for me. – Natalie Como
SALT LAKE CITY — For the last two years, Natalie Como has been focused on running a marathon in two hours and forty-five minutes.
That’s the qualifying time to be able to participate in the Olympic marathon trials, and that’s been the only goal for the 26-year-old Kansas native who won the women’s division of the Salt Lake Marathon Saturday morning.
“So for the last couple of years I’ve only been entering races with a lot of fast people trying to go for that qualifier time,” said Como, a pediatrics resident who moved to Utah last year. “I ran a marathon in December and missed it by two minutes, and then another one in January and missed it by a few minutes again.”
That race was her last opportunity for a couple of years as the 2016 Olympic marathon trials were in February. Despite a demanding schedule at the University of Utah Medical Center, she has continued training and decided she wanted to run 26.2 miles with a different purpose.
“I wanted to try and run a marathon and try to win it,” said Como, who won the race with a time of 3:00:20. “Because I’ve never really had that as a goal.”
Como, who trained with the Sonoran Distance Project in Arizona, said running without a time goal was a completely different experience. “I ran totally by feel,” she said. “I didn’t even look at my watch. I just ran at what felt like a good effort for me.”
She wasn’t even sure she was in the lead until a volunteer cyclist told her she was the fastest woman and that she’d stay with her as long as she was at the front of the pack.
That was at mile three.
“When you get to mile 20 of a marathon, no matter how fast or how slow, you have to have that motivation,” she said. “You have to have something that makes you really want to run and push it at the end.” For her it was the opportunity to break the tape.
“I took it easy and cruised to the end,” she said. “I felt great. The weather was great. This week I just tried to focus on sleep. I’m a resident at the U., and I’m on a hard rotation right now, so I wanted to get enough sleep so I felt fresh.”
Salt Lake City’s Lara Rheinemann earned second place with a time of 3:00:55, while Angela Ellsworth, Provo, was third with a time of 3:08:52.
The men’s winner also spent much of the race out front on his own.
Bryant Jensen, Fruit Heights, has only run the Salt Lake Marathon twice, and he’s now 2-for-2 in the event. “I won it in 2013, and that was the first time I’d run it,” he said, after winning with a time of 2:32:40. “I’m running a few other marathons, and this was a good marathon to see where I’m at. … I wanted to see what kind of shape I was in.”
The former Weber State and Fremont High runner said he ran with a small group until Sugarhouse Park, and when he broke away, no one stayed with him.
“It was 16 miles by myself,” he said. “I enjoy running with a group of people more so, but in races, sometimes to be alone in the front, I thrive off of that.”
Daniel Bishop, Salt Lake City, crossed second in 2:37:29, while Jason Howe, Salt Lake City, earned third with a time of 2:42:12.
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