Artichoke's Running Blog (Ken Spence)

7 mile run including standard 6 mile Droubay and Smelter Loop, plus a bit more on Skyline Drive along the cemetery.  Fairly easy.  60:48 or 8:31 overall pace.  Splits:  8:36, 9:02, 7:49, 8:16, 8:30, 8:59, 8:27.  9:00 a.m. run.  Day off from work.  Felt decent except right heel a bit sore last mile or so, near the achilles.  I'll ice it up tonight.  Easy 5 milers Tuesay thru Thursday this week prior to the St. George 1/2 marathon (Painter's) on Saturday.  I hope the weather turns out to be okay.

4 mile run at 5:10 a.m. in a snow storm after the 2 mile turn around.  Icy horizontal snow in my face, I could barely see on the return trip.  Slow and slippery.

4 miles on the TM at 5:00 a.m.  Snowing again.  Another 3 miles on the stationary bike afterwards.  Tapering for Painter's on Saturday, if I get there.

Very easy 4.6 mile run to Grimm's Gate and back direct at 5:10 a.m.  Ran into Liz for a couple of miles of the run.  Starting to snow again and picked up throughout and then began to stick to the roads.  Traction was decent.  Last run prior to Painter's.  Looks like they're talking a chance of rain during the race.  The extended day a couple of days previous it was looking pretty good, but now not so great.

No running today.  Leaving for St. George.  Painter's Half Marathon tomorrow.  Looks like the weather will be cold with a chance of rain.  They appeared to have backed it off somewhat for St. George tomorrow.  They should have stayed with their original extended day forecast.  It was to be cloudy, then by Wednesday or Thursday they started saying rain and now this morning two forecasters show cloudy again.  I guess they've got themselves covered for anything.  Weather through Cedar City may be bad today before dropping down to St. George.  We'll see.  Good luck to all runners tomorrow.

Painter's St. George 1/2 Marathon.  Cold day but rain held off during the race.  Even the sun came out a bit after the race.  Ran conservatively for first couple of miles at 16:00 minutes.  Ran about 7:45 overall pace.  Felt strong at the finish.  1:41:27 was about 36 seconds slower than Snow Canyon 1/2  in November.  166 overall finish, 129 Gender, 12 in M50-54.  A tougher race today with the hills, so a better effort.  Garmin showed it at about 13.16.  Improved the finish area over last year.  The race has apparently been short for a few years until that crazy finish they modified for last year.