 
Well what a great day at the Ogden Half Marathon. Leading up to this Half in the last couple of weeks I have started to feel really good and felt like I was on a major upswing in my fitness level. So going into this race I had alot of confidence based off of workouts and times that were being hit.Before I get started I want to wish Scott Keate and Riley Cook the best of recovery while they are on the road to recovery and getting their health back to normal, just wasnt the same without ya there today Scottie and Riley Freaking Cook! With that said.....
I ended up riding driving up with my family and Spencer and Bret to the start of the half. Spencer, Bret and I did a 2 mile warm to the secret bathrooms and back I dropped my bag off and did some strides and just felt great and ready to run.
As the gun went off the Matt, Brett, and I went immediately to the front. I took the lead for the first 2 miles, Matt tucked behind and then around mile 3 he offered to take the lead so I tucked behind him for the next mile. Mile 4 came up and we now were running side by side and by now I started to get my legs underneath me and I knew that for me to win the race I needed to hit some hard miles in the canyon. I told my wife the night before that I didnt know if I could win if Matt Poulsen was with me in the canyon because he is such a strong downhill runner and I had flash backs of him slowly pulling away from me in the Snow Canyon Half. Well now reading Matts blog I know he wasnt feeling 100%, and he hit a solid 20 miler last weekend which he was still recovering from. So I know that he will be back stronger then ever. Great guy! Look up to the Utah County Crew, great classy guys and just glad to be running with them and keeping up in races.
Around mile 4 I started pushing the pace and wanted to use that surge and roll it into the canyon and hold close to 5 min/pace as possible. Matt came with me and held til mile 5 then I could hear footsteps getter farther away. Even though I was running solo I didnt feel comfortable in the lead. So I pushed the pace as hard and as long as I could. I soon hit the Ogden Parkway and knew that I had a chance to hold off Matt and Bret if I could just get to mile 11.5. I hit mile 11.5 and took my first look back and didnt see anyone. Thats when the stress sort of went away and I rolled into the finish with a new honest PR of 1:08:54(not counting snow canyon).
I honestly dont think that I could run this race any better and probably wouldnt have paced it any different. I still need to figure out how to hold the last 3 miles. I feel I can hit 10 miles pretty hard and hold but seem to have a difficult time holding the last 3 miles where I am losing anywhere between 10 to 20 seconds per mile.
With that said I am grateful for my health. Matt Poulsen is a great class act! My Ogden Crew is one of the best supportive, motivating group of guys I could ask to run with. Overall support from my family is Awesome and wouldnt be able to get any type of run in without my wifes permission. Love her!
Great company today with Spencer! Thanks for the awesome photos Riley! Definitely a second job. Great runs in the Marathon by Fritz, Steve, Bryant, Jace, Justin, Jason and everyone else.
splits from todays race. 5:21; 5:22; 5:26; 5:09; 4:54; 5:03; 5:10; 5:07; 5:01; 5:11; 5:25; 5:24; 5:34; 41s for last .10
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