A Balance, Redefined

Nothing too special this morning. Had initially planned on getting up early and running JRP. However, when my alarm went off I blinked my eyes and it was an hour and a half later. So instead I dashed out the door and ran the Des 10K-SugarHouse loop before church. Avg. 7:57

Still struggling to get up early but feeling ok otherwise. Not too much noteworthy just a commute run in via Memory Grove. Avg. 9:25

Quick look! I'm top of the mileage board for the next few minutes... (8:40am Mountain)

AM: After two days of sleeping through my alarm I woke up before it today. Tried to go back to sleep and couldn't so just got up. I was already down the block by the time I would have just been rolling out of bed. Good start to the day. Commute run in via SugarHouse. 6-Avg. 9:39

PM: Very long day at work. Then after dinner had parent back to school night. So I didn't get out for my run until almost 9pm. Was feeling sluggish and ran considerably slower on the home loop than I had planned on but got it done. 6-Avg. 6:37

Single: Today was the run that I had wanted yesterday. I was so sluggish then but tonight was just fun. Sleeping the night before was rough. I was so restless. I don't know what my problem was. I had a productive day thought and finally got the revisions back to my boss. I'm down to only owing him one thing completed (in addition to the 9 other ongoing projects that is...). In any case after family time headed back to lab to set-up for tomorrow and then over to City Creek. Parked at the gate and headed up. The first mile I saw a good number of people and then no one. Mostly because it was just after 8pm and getting dark. I continued up. The road is wide enough and there was some good moonlight. I enjoy running at dusk and listening to the wildlife. I went up four turned around and then began to pick it up down the canyon. 5:46, 6:11, 5:38 and 5:07. I really needed that last one after how I'd been feeling physically this week. Now just rest until Saturday. Avg. 6:59 HR 154

Single: One of the best solid nights of sleep I've had in awhile. Sound asleep from pillow to alarm. The run in was sluggish but no surprise after last night's hard run. I just did the SH-commute run in. Today must have been National Get Out and Run Day! Typically on my commute run I see 1 maybe 2 at best other runners. Today I saw 26! Granted 12 of those were the Westminster CC team. The interesting part is of the other 14 only 2 were guys. Also of the other 14 most were solo runners so it wasn't like it was just a club run. The only thing I can think is that with school starting again this week all the students are back in the area. Have a great day. Avg. 9:53

Single: Not a good night's rest but ok. I just was silly... Then woke up before my alarm (again!). The run in was the FH-commute run. Just excited to see what tomorrow brings. Avg. 9:35

I was pretty nervous about this race. It was Aug 20^th, 2008 when I was going to break in my flats for St. George and just broke myself. Since then I’ve obviously been hesitant in my training. The slower mileage build and much easier pace has been good for me. Des 10K was a huge surprise for me but I came into this race very unsure of myself and my ability. The few longer hard runs I’ve done were pretty tough. I figured I could surprise myself like at Des 10K and run a 1:12 or run a 1:18. I however wanted anything under 1:15…

I drove up to Logan after helping put the girls down for the night. Jon was nice enough to pick up my race packet and Cody let me stay at his place. Thanks to both of them. Friday night Cody showed me his race report from the previous year and we went over Paul’s map, both came in very helpful. I ended up reading Born to Run for about an hour and then got to sleep. I woke up a couple times, probably nervous about the race. Cody drove to the start after picking up Paul. At the start we saw a number of people I hadn’t seen in a while or ever met before. This race was going to be very stacked and I would just have to wait to see how it played out.

After a little extra wait due to the huge increase in participation we were headed down the canyon. I stayed back a little the first few miles to get a good feel for things. I watched Cody, Jon, Albert and a number of other people slowly gain on me. In addition to the Terran, Alex, Paul, and Seth who were screaming up ahead.

The first mile was 5:27.55 (183). The pace was good and I wasn’t feeling too bad so I decided I would stick with it.

The second mile was 5:28.94 (176). Still feeling good and starting to gain a little on Cody. Also, three guys pulled up alongside me and started discussing pace. The mentioned they were a 5:45 group obviously going too fast.

The third mile was 5:30.10 (184). Very happy with how the effort felt. I think I caught Cody this mile. Now on to “yellow shirt”.

The fourth mile was 5:32.07 (184). The “5:45 group” was still with me and one guy was following TOO close and clipped me a few times. I decided to very gradually pick it up and see what happened. Fortunately, he(they) opted to go with me.

The fifth mile was 5:24.68 (183). Not too fast but it did the trick they backed off. I did take a Gu during this mile as well.

The sixth mile was nearing the end of the canyon 5:21.31 (184). I was starting to gain on Walter and “yellow shirt”.

The seventh mile was 5:24.42 (184). It was nice to get in to the pretty decent group of fans as we exited the canyon. I passed Walter and was almost immediately passed by Justin (guy from Sandy). However, yellow shirt was pretty close in reach. I was hovering in 10^th place and really wanted to make top ten.

The eighth mile was 5:34.73 (185). I was in 9^th place and feeling pretty good. I really wanted to get a 55 min 10 mile split at this time.

Mile nine was 5:40.90 (183). Oops… I took a second Gu during this mile. I guess the lack of canyon descent and tailwind was playing its toll. Also at this point I heard two guys coming on fast. Turns out it was Joe Wilson and a training buddy. They passed me like I was standing still and continued on to Justin. Justin fended them off for awhile. So much for 10^th place…

Mile ten was 5:50.25 (182). Still falling off pace a little more than I would have liked and missed my 55. I think I saw 55:30 (I could add up the splits I guess)…

I knew the second half of mile 11 and all of mile 12 were going to be painful thanks to the conversation with Cody the night before so I just clamped down into survival mode. From the cheers of the crowd I knew someone was not too far behind and I did not want to get passed by anyone else.

Mile eleven was 5:54.12 (182). At least I was still under 6 but I knew the hardest mile was yet to come. The only thing that kept me moving was the fear of the cheers for the person behind me. I never looked back.

Mile twelve was 6:09.98 (183). So much for staying under 6 but not as bad as it could have been. Now to use the downhill.

Mile thirteen is all down to the finish. That you can see clearly the whole way. I could still see Justin, Joe and friend. Well beyond my reach but that helped pull me along. Time 5:39.11 (185). Not too shabby and a 0:50.65 (187) for the finish. Garmin had 0.16 (That’s what we get for not being allowed to run tangents.).

Final Garmin time 1:13:48.81 (Avg. 5:36-HR 183) final chip time 1:13:47.9. Second fastest half of all time so overall very happy with it. Since I didn’t know what to expect I had to be happy with whatever I got and I was. I did end up 11^th overall. Surprisingly, 6 of the 10 in front of me were in my age group. Including 1 (Tarren), 2 (Alex), and 3 (Paul). So 11^th overall those three get removed and still fourth in age group so out of the medals L… But happy with the day, being able to run  my second fastest time, chat with a number of bloggers and local running studs, congratulations to Carol on her marriage, visits to Narnia (see Paul’s or Cody’s reports), etc. etc.

Minor warm-up and a double cool-down (about 7 total).