Today was the eighth time I have run this race (only missed 2005,
2006 and 2008) and every year I do it I like it more. The weather was perfect
once again and the organization was flawless as usual. I got off the bus at about 6:30 and then
spent a much reduced time of 5 minutes tying my new blue shoes. I jogged about a quarter mile past the start and
then lined up. Ben, Seth, Steve, and
Paul were all there as well ready to go.
The gun went off and I soon found myself all alone. I didn’t really think I was going to fast so
I just didn’t look back and kept going.
I went through the first 5k as planned (slower than the Fritz 5k time of
16:19 from last Saturday) but 4 seconds faster than my 5k split from last year.
I was feeling just ok at this point but once I hit the flats I my stride
started to smooth out. The rollers at
mile 9 and 11 through 13 slowed me down but I didn’t want to push it too much
and I knew that I had banked some good splits in the early miles. I went
through the half in just under 1:11 which was about 20 seconds faster than last
year; fortunately I don’t think I had to work as hard to hit that time. This is where my buddy bike pacer Corbin from
last year picked me up and I told me that it was his job to make my second
split faster than last year. It felt
doable at that point but how much better was TBD. The 14 mile split up the hill was 9 seconds
faster than last year which was a good sign until I hit the peak. My quads felt
trashed. It took about .5 miles to get the lactate acid out of the quads but I
guess that could have been worse. At
this point I kept hearing cheers behind so I thought someone was gaining on me.
I didn’t dare to look back nor did I ask Corbin so I guess I will never know if
someone was there. I just kept motoring on
around the damn and then tried to push the down hills as much as possible. Maybe I got a little carried away because
mile18 was a 5:09 compared to a 5:19 last year.
At this point I hadn’t had a gel in about 5 miles so that became the
most pressing concern. Fortunately the
aid station had mile 20 had one but I executed the grab terribly and had to
stop to turn around to get it. Then once
I grabbed it my new blue shoe traction failed me and I slipped to my
hands. No real damage done, except for
losing exactly 9 seconds J (stay tuned for why that matters). The
next miles felt good and I was doing my best to hold back something for the
last few miles. Unfortunately I hit mile
23 and suddenly my right hamstring got really tight. A strained or torn hamstring was the last
thing I needed at this point but there was really nothing I could do but keep
going. I slowed quite a bit as my splits
would show, mostly as result of the flattened terrain, fatigue and to a lesser
extent the hamstring. My biggest mistake
at this point was not looking at my watch because I really had no idea at that
point how close I was to coming in under 2:23 and rivaling Seth’s course record
of 2:22:51. I pushed the last mile as
much as could and then as I approached the finish saw the big clocking ticking
2:22:55,56, 57….Bummer! I pushed through
the line and saw 2:22:58 on the clock and later the announcer said my official
time was 2:22:59 (exactly 8 seconds off the CR). RunRaceResults shows 2:23:00….which is el
wrongo :) Although it wasn’t flawless I am still very happy with the 2
minute improvement over last years’ time and the 30 second PR. Of course it would have been cool to also get
the CR but I guess that will just have to be a goal for next year. After the race I ran into Scott, who put up a big PR in half, Seth
(2nd in marathon), Bryant (1st in half), Riley (2nd in half), Chad (big PR in marathon), RAD (huge
PR in marathon despite the bum knee), Rossy (close to PR I think) and marathon
man Steve (4th overall and master’s #1). Once again Ogden put on a great event and I
can’t wait to do it all over again next year.
| Time |
Distance |
Split time |
Elev. chg. |
Distance |
Time |
| 0:05:11 |
1 |
5:11 |
-98 |
|
|
| 0:10:39 |
2 |
5:28 |
-7 |
|
|
| 0:15:55 |
3 |
5:16 |
-94 |
5k |
0:16:27 |
| 0:21:11 |
4 |
5:15 |
-79 |
|
|
| 0:26:27 |
5 |
5:16 |
-57 |
|
|
| 0:31:44 |
6 |
5:16 |
-44 |
10k |
0:32:46 |
| 0:37:02 |
7 |
5:18 |
-84 |
|
|
| 0:42:22 |
8 |
5:19 |
-35 |
|
|
| 0:47:54 |
9 |
5:32 |
8 |
|
|
| 0:53:22 |
10 |
5:27 |
20 |
|
|
| 0:59:01 |
11 |
5:39 |
-2 |
|
|
| 1:04:38 |
12 |
5:37 |
-11 |
|
|
| 1:10:18 |
13 |
5:40 |
22 |
Half |
1:10:51 |
| 1:15:46 |
14 |
5:27 |
-19 |
|
|
| 1:21:29 |
15 |
5:42 |
59 |
|
|
| 1:26:53 |
16 |
5:24 |
-33 |
5k |
0:17:08 |
| 1:32:18 |
17 |
5:24 |
-22 |
|
|
| 1:37:28 |
18 |
5:09 |
-135 |
|
|
| 1:42:50 |
19 |
5:21 |
-44 |
10k |
0:33:34 |
| 1:48:13 |
20 |
5:23 |
-69 |
|
|
| 1:53:35 |
21 |
5:21 |
-94 |
|
|
| 1:58:50 |
22 |
5:14 |
-80 |
|
|
| 2:04:03 |
23 |
5:13 |
-108 |
|
|
| 2:09:41 |
24 |
5:37 |
-84 |
|
|
| 2:15:20 |
25 |
5:39 |
-10 |
|
|
| 2:21:04 |
26 |
5:43 |
6 |
|
|
| 2:22:59 |
26.35 |
2:08 |
-16 |
Last 10k |
0:34:46 |
|
|
|
|
| 2nd Half |
1:12:08 |
| 
