First off, hats off to Bryant for taking it out early, never looking back, and for crushing the course PR that was set back in 2007. It was his race today which became very clear in the first two miles when he pushed the pedal without any hesitation. A big congrats also goes out to many friends who set big PRs or who had solid races including Zak (2:21 debut), Brandon (2:32), Mike (2:25), Josh (2:36, 14 min PR!), Reed (2:38), Hille (2:54, 7 min PR), Jon (2:20), Iain (PR and Master's CR), Ben (2:26), Holt (2:26) and Scott (2:23). I know Riley and Matt felt like they could have run better but they still improved their previous bests by several minutes. Both of them will hit it out of the park soon, no doubt. Also I have to thanks Amiee and my mom for heading the cheer squad, the Utah County Crew and Joe H. (bootcamp sargent) for getting my butt in shape and Nate, Kevin and Adam for getting me on the track for once in my life. As for my race, I am very happy with my 2nd place finish considering the depth of the field and a slight PR. My pacing and execution, however, still leaves lots of room for improvement, especially those last 3 miles, so I am already looking forward to improve at CIM. On the bright side, I think I did manage a very small negative split (1:10:45, 1:09:40) which at least saved me from losing a bet and having to drive to Vegas for the night. But as we all know, the best times on that course are run with a 3 to 5 minute negative split. Next year it will be done! To my surprise, at least from my perspective, the race was rather uneventful. Bryant separated from me and Riley at about mile 3, I inched away from Riley and around mile 4 or 5, and then I ran solo to the end. I felt solid through 20 and was still able to hit some fast times from there to 24 (miles 21 was 5:01) but I really tanked once it flattened out at around mile 24.5 and finished with a couple of 5:30+ wobbly miles, which cost me a sub 2:20. Little did I know that those splits and hanging on for dear life were fortunately just enough to hold off the rest of the field, i.e. Jon, Iain, Zak, Aaron and Scott who finished right on my heels. I can only imagine there was some drama down the stretch amongst that group. So another marathon down (I think this was 43), a new PR, slightly wiser than the last, and now itching to get it done again, only faster.
Splits: 5:29,5:34,5:06,5:05,5:07,4:57,5:04,5:41,5:38,5:25,5:45,5:43,5:28 (HM 1:10:45),5:22,5:01,4:59,5:10,5:13,5:37,5:22,5:01,5:20,5:14,5:18,5:30,5:35
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