Great race for me this morning. I have been running in the pool for two weeks now, with one trail run, after that hip problem in the UVM marathon. I have felt like recovery was going well enough to get some speed in and squeaked into this half marathon. My strategy was to run 5:20s the first six miles and call it a day if it hurt too much. The first mile was about 5 on the dot. Walter was running with me and we probably were going a bit too fast but it was fun..We dropped off the last group of runners I think about two miles in and then I finally found a good rythm. My Garmin was reading some distances wrong and was beeping lost reception a few times so I didn't trust the info on splits that I was getting, but I did check times at the mile markers. 5k was 15:26, 10k was 31:37. Coming out of the canyon the course did an immediate 90 which I missed onto a bike path but the officer yelled at me and I ran back to it. Leveling out felt like I was walking but the next two miles were 5:38 on the GPS which was what I wanted. I was shooting for just under 1:10. About mile 10 we were on the main road heading through American Fork and a van pulled up along side me and a lady was yelling at me. I ignored her but she became more persistent so I ran along side and she yelled that I had missed the turn. Crap. I turned around and headed back up the road. I saw a guy in a lawn chair reading a book which I assumed was the turn and starting to try and catch back up. I passed the third place guy in a few minutes and then could see Walter up ahead about two blocks. Just could'nt catch him, not enough gas in the tank. I did begin narrowing the gap, but just could'nt close. As strong as he ran today i think he would have caught me either way, stupid wrong turn or not. Next time he gets to lead.
Absolutely happy with this race. No hip issues at all until hitting the level ground. Maybe six vitamine Is helped with that...I headed over to Liberty Park and ran with Rob M for an hour enjoying the heat. So awesome to be out of the woods with that injury! | 