Left my house at 4 and arrived in Provo at 5. On the bus by 5:15 and got to the starting area by 5:45. This left just enough time (75 minutes) to huddle on a bench in the picnic area and tie my shoes. As 7 o'clock neared I found out that the half would start 15 mins after the full which meant that my plan of waiting until the last second to ditch my drop bag failed. Fortunately I had my homemade cut off dress sock arm warmers to keep me warm. Before the race I saw Teren, Jon Kotter, Brandon H., Riley, Steve and Seth. I just assumed they would all be running the half but turned out that Jon and Brandon were running the full together and Steve was running it for......he likes running I guess. Riley has been running really well and Teren is always tough so I knew from the beginning that Seth and I would be battling for the 3rd spot. We started out down a steep hill at a blistering pace and after only a half mile I was already struggling to stick with the pack. I had to surge several times just to keep up. I knew that wasn't sustainable for 13 miles so I let the three of them go as we turned onto the parkway at about mile 1.75. They quickly put some distance on me as I slowed to a meager 5:36??? for mile 3. At that point I had basically written off 3rd place so my focus turned to running my pace and just holding a good effort until the end. With that frame of my mind and backing it off a bit my legs started feeling better (amazing, huh?) to the point that a few of the middle miles were actually enjoyable. On a few of the straight aways I could see the pack of 3 in the distance and at about mile 6 I noticed that I wasn't losing much ground and Seth had fallen a few seconds behind Teren and Riley. This renewed my motivation although I still couldn't tell if Teren or Riley were getting faster or if Seth was slowing. After a few more turns Seth started getting bigger so it was then that I knew I could possibly catch him. At mile 8 I was about 30 seconds back as we turned onto University Ave. It wasn't long until I noticed I was gaining on him faster and at around mile 9 I finally passed him. He was gracious enough to give me a backward low five. After the race I found out that he had won a 50k in California last weekend which was only a week after finishing 2nd at Salt Lake. So not only was showing up and running a 1:11 impressive, he was super gutsy to hang with Teren and Riley for 7 miles. After passing Seth I just focused on staying smooth and not letting my pace slip too much. Scott joined me at mile 10 (I apologize for my lack of chattiness...I was tired) which really helped me get over the last little hill. As I approached the finish I had no idea what pace I had been running and it looked like the clock read 1:10.... That wouldn't have surprised because of the painful start but fortunately as I got closer the 10 miraculously (attributable to Provo?) turned into an 8 and I finished in 1:08:57. This is an aided half marathon PR but still 10 seconds slower than my half split at CIM.
Despite the less than enjoyable start, I am happy with how the race turned out. I cooled down 4.5 with Riley then did another 3 on my own. After the cool down I chatted with Steve, who had just finished an "relaxed 2:40 marathon", Riley (2nd in half), Jake and Andrea (speedy winners of the 5k), Allie and James (winners of half relay), Kevin (2nd in 5k) and Emily B. (winner of the half). Except for the treasure hunt for the bags, the race was very well organized. Time to cross train and mow my lawn.
Splits:
5:02, 5:04, 5:36, 5:18, 5:16, 5:14, 5:15, 5:16, 5:15, 5:16, 5:24, 5:17, 5:14, 0:30
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