I initially wanted to run the 10K, but when I talked to the eilete althete coordinator, he told me that the 10K field was already stacked and I should try my luck in the half. The 10K was stacked - with Jared Ward in the field. However, the half wasn't much better :-). There ended up being 5 guys who went under 1:05 - including Connor Mantz who decided last minute to run.
The first 6 miles of the half are down Emigration Canyon, and are pretty steep downhill. The first mile was 4:38 - then three miles was something like 14:08 and 6 was in the ballpark of 29:30. To put that into persepctive, the first 5K and 10K were faster than my respective flat PR's. I stayed with the leaders until about 6.5, at which point my legs suffered a meltdown. This issue has popped up before in workouts - after a certain point I have a hard time controlling my left leg - some stabilizer muscles tire out. I think this is caused by an imbalance I havc where I'm unable to bring my right leg as far forward as the left one. Physical therapy has helped keep the problem under control, but it's still there.
After losing contact with the leaders, I limped for probably half a mile at around 5:30 or 5:45 pace. I was then able to speed up to around 5:10-5:15 pace and held that to the finish. I got passed a little before mile 8, but latched on. Then we both got passed by the guy who ended up in second place. I went after him for about a 100 meters, then dropped back, but was still able to pull away from the frist person who had passed me.
I ended up with 1:05:19 - 6th (!) place. This is roughly equivalent to my Utah Valley performance. It was cool to run 4:40 pace with the big boys for the first 6 miles, and to pretend I was faster than I am :-). I'm happy that my crash pace was 5:10 and not 5:20, (or worse). I think that if I can get this issue with muscular instability/imbalance resolved, then I'll see a breakthrough in performance. It was a good race - and a good way to fnish out my time in Utah. I'll be moving to Texas for grad school in a week - so stay tuned!
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