I have had my mind set on the Provo
City Half Marathon since the beginning of this year. I really liked the
looks of the course because it was a fair course at altitude. So many
races here in Utah have large elevation drops to account for the
altitude, but I was just looking for a relatively flat unaided course.
My training has focused on the half marathon distance for this race (and
the Utah Valley Half coming up in another month).
That
said, I am very excited about my performance. I won the race!! But more
important than that, I have improved significantly in the last few
months and I exceeded my goal race time by over two minutes. It is a
great feeling to know how hard I have trained this winter/spring and how
much it has helped. Honestly, I owe about half of the credit to Jake
because he has run about 70% of my mileage with me and been a great
resource (I'm starting to call him Coach).
About
the race: My plan was to run 6:20 miles for the first few miles, then
try to negative split from there on out based on how I was feeling. As
soon as the race began, I settled into a pace that felt relatively easy -
6:00 for the first mile. Another girl (Kassi Harmon) was right there
with me, and I made the decision to just go for it. Try to maintain her
pace . About 5 of us ran in a pack for about 4 miles. 6:16, 6:06, 6:13.
People started dropping off one by one, until I was running alone. I was
determined not to drop off the pace at this point because I couldn't
handle the idea of going out too fast. I was feeling pretty good. Miles
5-11 were pretty uneventful (6:12, 6:08, 24:33 (4 miles around 6:08),
6:09)...I was disappointed that there were no mile markers throughout
the entire bike path. There were definitely times when I was unsure if I
was even going in the right direction. But I made it through. Back on
the road, I almost got run over by a truck because he refused to stop
despite the 5 volunteers with stop signs and me running in front of him.
That adrenaline rush helped me through to mile 12 (6:19). I was really
feeling the fatigue here, and it was hard to push through with no other
runners in sight. The bridge at about 12.5 miles didn't help - it was
much harder on the way back! I pushed through to the end (with Jake
right there cheering me on) and was so happy to see my time and be done!
The last 1.1 miles was around 7:00 pace, so WAY off my other splits [EDIT: Turns out the course was about 0.05 mi long, so that last stretch was actually ~6:40 pace].
But I am still proud of the way I raced. I went for it, and although I
blew up a little at the end I still ran much faster than I thought. After the race, I got to talk to a lot of other runners in the area. It seems that everyone knows everyone else around here...they were all so friendly. The race scene is such a fun and motivating environment - I love it! Afternoon - 90 minute bike ride on Bonneville Shoreline trail.
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