Been a long day. Woke up at 4, ran a marathon, waited until 2:15 to
get my award (Steve and Rob can vouch for this as they waited as well),
mowed my lawn then watched CAL beat BYU (HURRAY!) in the College Premier
Division Rugby Championships at Rio Tinto. Sorry Cougar fans. Most
memorable moment: Lady at mile 10 saying, "you guys are running stinkin'
fast". I also saw lots of bloggers, Steve (2nd overall), Rob (1st
masters), Chad Robinson (1st marathon and sub 3 hours), Teena Marie
(hopefully a big PR) and of course James and Allie at mile 21 although
they may not have noticed that I tried to wave. Report:
Typical race day routine. I woke up
at 4 AM, three hours before race time, drank lots of water, took a shower,
gathered up my race gear and drop bag then was dropped off at the busses at
4:45. The best part about the morning was that I was allowed to go on the
"VIP" bus because I won the race last year. The two major
benefits were that there is a bathroom on the bus (no porta potty!) AND I
didn't have to get off the bus until 20 mins before race time. That was
huge, especially for this race, because I always dread shivering sitting on the
ground and fighting for space near the fires. So basically the morning
couldn't have gone any better.
I left the bus at around 6:45 just
in time to get a quick warm up. It was probably around 55 degrees, warmer
than usual, and it looked like the weather would cooperate and not rain.
I did a quick warm up down the road and chatted with some bloggers at the start
line. My legs felt fresh so I knew a good race was possible but I really
had no idea how I would place because Seth Wold was in the mix along with a few
guys who have beat me in the past.
The gun went off and Bryant Jensen
quickly jumped out ahead as he was running the relay. Then I was next and Seth was following
closely behind. I typically refuse to
look behind me during races so I really had no idea how the close the other
runners were. Seth and I were side by side
for the first 7 miles until Seth suddenly stopped to tie his shoe lace. Keeping to my tradition I didn’t turn around
and probably built a 5 second lead. At
that point I was feeling good and thought that if I could just keep me pace I
could possibly drop him for good. That
was the first time I knew I could win if I could hold on. The next 6 miles (7 – 13) are some of the
slower miles of the race but they felt smooth and I made sure to hold back
slightly on the uphills. I ran into
Bryant, who was now pacing his teammate, at around mile 12 and from then on it
was only me and the biker guy until I started catching the half marathoners at
around mile 18. I was happy, although a
little concerned, to see my 13.1 split at 1:11:30. Both of my last two Half’s were slower than
that but I wasn’t about to slow down because I didn’t want to be caught and I was feeling good. I held back
slightly again on the big uphill at mile 15, although the quads were still
burning, and just made sure to keep it steady until the fun began down the
canyon. By the time I hit the bridge I
knew I had a good sized lead but I still had some fast miles left in me and I
wanted to see if I could beat my St. George time from 2009. The canyon miles felt quick and it was nice
be around the half runners as I descended.
I came out the canyon in decent shape although the legs were now getting
wobbly enough that I knew the impending last few miles on the path would be
struggle. Of course those miles weren’t
exactly fun but I have had worse. I clocked
myself at exactly 2:25 over 26.42 miles. Chip time came in at 2:25:04.
Ultimately the race went about as
well as I could have expected. All I wanted to do was beat my 5k time
(16:44) from last weekend and see if I could hang on. :) I think I
succeeded (first 5k was16:33) and I set a PR of about 2 minutes on a harder
course (previous best was a 2:26:48 at St. George). Going in I thought a
2:27 was possible but it would still be a stretch because the ramp up to this
race was very rushed and I really only went into this race with about 3 quality
weeks of running training; a 58 mile week, an 80 mile week that included a 23
mile run and the Provo Half, and a 70 mile that ended with a 5k. But what I
think I did do right was get in some quality and painful miles by running the
Provo City Half two weeks ago and the Law Day Run 5k last weekend and then
after the races I did a long cool down. So although my times in those
races weren't great, I think they helped me get mentality prepared and they
shocked the system with some threshold miles.
Now my focus turns to running a fast
half at Utah Valley and then building up more speed as I prepare
for Chicago.
| Time |
Distance |
Split time |
Elev. chg. |
Distance |
Time |
| 0:05:17 |
1 |
5:17 |
-90 |
|
|
| 0:10:44 |
2 |
5:25 |
-35 |
|
|
| 0:16:04 |
3 |
5:19 |
-91 |
5k |
0:16:33 |
| 0:21:24 |
4 |
5:20 |
-87 |
|
|
| 0:26:46 |
5 |
5:21 |
-40 |
|
|
| 0:32:08 |
6 |
5:21 |
-75 |
10k |
0:33:15 |
| 0:37:35 |
7 |
5:27 |
-39 |
|
|
| 0:43:00 |
8 |
5:25 |
-37 |
|
|
| 0:48:34 |
9 |
5:34 |
-39 |
|
|
| 0:54:04 |
10 |
5:29 |
-1 |
|
|
| 0:59:46 |
11 |
5:41 |
21 |
|
|
| 1:05:20 |
12 |
5:33 |
-11
|
2nd 10k |
0:34:27 |
| 1:10:59 |
13 |
5:39 |
23 |
Half |
1:11:29 |
| 1:16:28 |
14 |
5:29 |
-17 |
|
|
| 1:22:20 |
15 |
5:51 |
66 |
|
|
| 1:27:52 |
16 |
5:31 |
-24 |
|
|
| 1:33:25 |
17 |
5:32 |
-25 |
|
|
| 1:38:45 |
18 |
5:19 |
-94 |
3rd 10k |
0:34:23 |
| 1:44:04 |
19 |
5:19 |
-71 |
|
|
| 1:49:30 |
20 |
5:25 |
-46 |
|
|
| 1:54:51 |
21 |
5:21 |
-56 |
|
|
| 2:00:11 |
22 |
5:19 |
-97 |
|
|
| 2:05:28 |
23 |
5:17 |
-182 |
|
|
| 2:11:03 |
24 |
5:35 |
-55
|
4th 10k |
0:33:09 |
| 2:16:48 |
25 |
5:44 |
-40 |
|
|
| 2:22:36 |
26 |
5:48 |
30 |
|
|
| 2:25:00 |
26.45 |
2:38 |
-1 |
|
|
| 
