~Solid race considering my workouts this week. Was aiming for sub 1:07 but just barely missed it. Will write a full race report tonight. Congrats to Bret and Riley for awesome times!
Okay so its been a couple days and I finally have some time to get a solid write up in for Bryce Canyon. What a fun race it was! Pretty much decided Thursday night that I would head down with Riley to run this race, even still I didnt know how I was going to do with my Wednesday workout of 30X400m with floating 400s at 620. Legs were pretty tired but I thought I might as well give it a go, plus there was good money on the line and it is always fun to compete and try to take some home.
Morning of the race was sort've of fiasco with bussing. We didnt get to the start until 545, race started at 6. Only gave us enough time for a quick bathroom break and about a 1 mile warm which wasnt enough. Next year I think I will just drive to the start so I dont have to worry about it again.
Show to the start line and man it was a loaded field. Brett Hales, Riley, myself, Kyle Perry, Jason Holt, Tyler Jermann(Pro Runner), a couple other pro's from flagstaff. Jermann and the other guys I didnt know them until after so knowing at the begining of the race I thought well I'm competed for 4th and 5th.
Gun goes off and my plan was to hit around 5:25-5:30 for the first 2 miles and then work into the race. But as the gun went off I stayed back and even ran with Riley for a bit. He and I were in 10-11 place, and I was like what the heck is going on u there. It was like 9 guys ahead of us were out for blood and were sprinting towards there last meal! Haha.
I roll through mile 1 and 2 at 5:29 and 5:25. Perfect couldnt have gotten any better. I roll into mile 3 where is some major downhill and I am getting gapped like crazy! I even had a flagstaff guy blow by me like I wasnt even moving and I hit a 4:54 split! Now I'm thinking how I am going to explain to my wife that I spent money this weekend and I am coming home with ZERO. Best thing I did here was to stay calm and hope for the best. Miles 4-6 were 4:56; 5:01, 4:55. Finally at about 10K mark I caught Arizona dude who blew my shorts off at mile 3, and also picked off Jermann too. Both tried to attach with me so I kept the pace honest and at mile 7 I hit 4:57 and dropped them out the back door. I looked ahead and saw Jason Holt, kept my eyes on him and finally caught him around 8.5 miles(splits for 8 and 9 were 5:07; 5:17). I thought okay I caught Holt, now I think I am in 5th so thats $100 right there, into some money. Looked ahead and saw another guy up so I set my pace on him and hit mile 10 at 5:14, and 11 at 5:06. I paced this guy around 10.5 and was well thats another $100 so I am positive on my trip now. Well now around 11.5 there is about a 40 foot climb and I could see Kyle ahead and I thought no way am I catching this guy, to big of a gap. But as soon as I got to the top and rolled the down he was coming back fast! I hit mile 12 at 5:16 and still not quite on him yet. But around 12.30 miles I made the move to go for it, came up on him around 12.50 and pushed to the finish with a 5:07 split, and last .10 pace was 4:59 average.
Plan worked out perfectly. Goal was to hit sub 1:07, but came up a little short of it, so next time I will give it a go. But rolling in for a 3rd place finish against some tough, tough dudes was a great feeling. Wouldnt have ran the race any differently.
Congrats to Bret and Riley for some fantastic, fast times!
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