Quick trip to Bryce Canyon to pace the 1:40 group at the half marathon. We stayed at Ruby's Inn which is just up the street from the starting line. The thought was that staying by the start line in a hotel would give us a better night's sleep then staying at the campgrounds in Tropic. Didn't quite turn out that way because of a sick child in the room. After a mostly sleepless night, we made our way down to the starting line 30 minutes prior to the start of the race. I slept incredibly well the night before so was not concerned about the lack of sleep.
Had a pacing partner today (Ben Ford) which makes things a little easier. Seems to take some of the pressure off. We worked well together in that he was very talkative and knew a lot of the people that were running with us and I was able to keep our pace honest. We settled into a comfortable effort and just plugged away until the end. I'm too tired to dig out my Garmin but we hit every mile within a couple of seconds of the target time. The pace felt very natural and I never felt overly fatigued the entire race. Made the last turn about 15 seconds too early so slowed up and crossed the finish line at 1:39:55.
After the race, Becky and Shantell thought it would be fun to add 6 more miles. I tagged along as the third wheel as we worked our way backwards on the course for 3 miles then returned to the finish line. The first 3 were uphill and were a little slower and more difficult than I would have liked. I was starving so choked down a GU hoping it would satisfy my hunger (it didn't). The last 3 felt great. Never got the glycogen depletion feeling which was a nice surprise. | 