I ran this marathon in July 1995. It was my sixth marathon in my third state (Utah). This race was first held in 1970 and has been run annually, except for 2020, due to the COVID pandemic.
This race was significant for me as my first paying job was delivering the Deseret News. I hiked some of the route in my youth. The course was a net downhill, and we lived a few blocks from the finish line in Liberty Park from 1958 to 1964.
My earliest memories date back to the age of 2, when I lived in the house near the park. Those memories are chiselled in my mind as they are of my brother’s broken finger in the spring of 1959.
Fireworks were launched twice a year from Liberty Park, on July 4 and July 24, and we were able to watch them from our front lawn.
I was born in Utah. Recently, while reading my grandmother’s biography, I discovered that I’m a fifth-generation descendant of one of the nine members of the Avance Party of the Brigham Young Vangurd Company, who arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on July 21, 1847.
In 1847, the land of current-day Utah was part of Mexico. Explorers John Fremont, Peter Ogden, and John Weber had spread the news of the Great Basin and the Great Salt Lake to the east. White settlers did not inhabit the area, and there were very few indigenous people.
A basin is a land structure where water does not drain to an ocean. The snowfall in the mountains drained into the Great Salt Lake and the larger Lake Bonneville. Rainwater will evaporate or seep into the ground. The salt flats and salted lake are the result of the topography.
Wanting to leave the United States to establish an isolated, self-sufficient settlement where they could practice their religion without persecution, Brigham Young decided that the Great Basin was an ideal location. It was a safe haven from the interference of the United States and other settlers.
All 149 members of the Vanguard Company survived the trip, which was abnormal. The company included three women, one of whom was the wife of Brigham Young, and two children. Of the 144 men, most were in their twenties.
Before leaving Winter Quarters in Nebraska to head west, Brigham Young sent William Phelps east to procure a printing press. The press finally arrived in Salt Lake City in 1849. By that time, the United States had won the Mexican War and the land in the Great Basin.
The first issues of the Deseret News were published in 1850. The LDS church owned the press and the newspaper.
After arriving in Salt Lake in 1847 and things settled, my ancestor returned to Winter Quarters to bring back his wife with a Company of 550 other settlers in the spring of 1848.
The race is always on July 24, a state holiday. Of course, if July 24 falls on a Sunday, the holiday is observed on July 25. It’s now called Pioneer Day. I remember it as Days of ‘47 day.
As part of the holiday, the Days of ’47 Parade takes place, beginning at 9 am. The last 2 miles of the marathon course are on the parade route. To avoid the heat of the day and parade conflicts, the marathon starts at 5:30 am. We had to reach the parade route by 9:30 am, otherwise we would be diverted to an alternate path. In my run, the parade started later. Now, the marathon and parade run side by side.
Running before a parade sounds enticing. However, after the first couple of runners, the crowds are less attentive. In the last mile of my run, a toddler ran across my path into an unavoidable collision. And, unfortunately, he took the worst of the impact.
To get to the race start, we took buses from the Delta Center in downtown, leaving around 4 am. Other races have been added to the event, so buses leave from Rice-Eccles Stadium at the same early hour.
The course has been modified over time. We started in Parley’s Canyon, ran to and up East Canyon, then back down through Emigration Canyon into the city. Now the race begins on Big Mountain in East Canyon and runs extra miles along the east bench and Foothill Drive before heading downtown,
The journey down East and Emigration Canyon followed the route the pioneers took into the valley. On July 23, 1847, overlooking the valley in East Canyon, Brigham Young, in ill health, uttered the words, “This is the Place.” This is a memory of mine from seeing a historical marker in the place in the late 60s. Current internet postings differ.
The year before, the Donner Party blazed the trail down the canyons. Their 18-day effort contributed to the delay in getting to the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
The course starting in Parley’s Canyon had a net drop of 1500 feet. The current net drop is 3,200 feet, which makes the course ineligible to qualify for the 2026 Boston Marathon.
My trip in 1995 was one of the last times my mother and brother from Colorado, my sister from Michigan, her two children, and Megan and I were together at the same time.
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Vic Culp is a co-founder of the Fredericksburg Area Running Club in 1994. He has managed a few races and run a few miles.
You can follow his blog at slowoldrunner.com and subscribe to receive notification emails from that site.
Check out his book “Go for 25” on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B094YFRJ7G.
