Big confidence builder. I went out at about race effort as planned, my mentality was that if I can drop everyone on the way up I can cruise on the way down and stay pretty fresh for Ogden. I executed well but there happened to be a guy who took 84th at Boston last month in 2:21 who showed up and even at about race effort he was gapping me about 5 seconds per mile for the first 2 miles. I figured I either wasn't going to win or if I did I would be hosed for Ogden so I backed off 30ish seconds off the pace after mile 2. I think I could have maintained a 5-10 seconds/mile gap with the guy who won- hopefully that applies to road races too. I kept my heart rate in the 150s and 160s the rest of the race and just enjoyed the run, I got passed by another guy at about mile 6 and then another guy on the way down around mile 8. Turns out it was former footlocker finalist and fast running blogger Conner Baller who passed me at mile 8. Always an impressive turnout of fast guys for this race. Strava of the guy who ran 2:21 at Boston says his heart rate reached 180s on this run so seems like he went all out, I likely would have been within 1-2 minutes of him if I went gave max effort for this race. I think sub 70 is on the table for Ogden, even with any reduced freshness from this race a week before. Overall I ran 30 seconds faster than last year despite running at 70-80% effort for the last 11 miles and I'm very close to being able to keep with a guy who ran 2:21 at Boston. I'm pretty thrilled! |