I traveled to St George last night with 7 friends and fellow freaks :), Matt, Scott, Zak, Fritz, Reed, Toni, and Dan. Matt wad kind enough to let us utilize his family's condo, awesome thanks Matt! I know it sounds cheese but there was some magic in the air this morning when we left to run part of the course. We all had slept well and I had a feeling it was going to be a good morning. The plan was a 5 mile warm up, 15 mile tempo at MP, 2 mile cool down. We started at mile 2 of the course, the condo is right off mile 24 so it worked out great. The warm up was a little fast (6:45 avg), and then we stopped just before Veyo hill and the climbs for a quick stretch and last minute hydration. We left bottles at miles 5, 11, & 17. When it was time to start the tempo I laughed as Matt, Fritz, Scott, and Zak dropped us hard and I focused on running my own workout. So awesome though to see those guys fly :). I started a little conservative on the hills and just eased into it. By the 5 mile mark into the tempo I had dialed it in and just went off effort, only checking the watch as it beeped the miles off. The bottles worked great and I took a gu with each one. It went fantastic. When the sun came up we still had cloud cover so it was nice, although muggy and still 75 degrees. 15 mile tempo in 1:26:33 (5:46 avg) :)! I felt in control and within myself the whole time which is a good sign at the end of a 90+ mile week. Confidence is high with 4 weeks to go. It's all about being smart and respecting the process for 2 more weeks and then throwing in a proper taper. The whole gang ran excellent today, fun to see. Thanks very much Matt and Scott for driving! Knocking on the door of a big pr :) | 