They had 3 races, the runners 1/2, a walkers 1/2 and a 5K. The race was run on a 32 mile bike path -- actually the California International Marathon runs a bit on this course. It was pretty flat, a few short hills but nothing serious. The race got started 20 mins late - which was not fun. They told us "we will be starting late so you have time to jog around a few more minutes". What I heard was "we will be starting late so you have time to run over to the bushes for one last bathroom stop" - about 15 of use (2 women 13 men) took off to the woods ;-) it was pretty funny. They had a bagpipe procession that was pretty cool - but would have been cooler if it had happened 10 mins before when the race was supposed to start .... Finally, we took off, I started pretty close to the front, because I knew this was bike path and getting a good position was critical since there was not a lot of room. My splits: mile 1: 6:58 (way too fast - I backed off after this first mile) mile 2: 7:18 (good pace - there was a woman running next to me who was already starting to sound like she was having an asthma attack - I really felt like saying - "you do realize this is a 13 mile race don't you? -- she actually hung with me until mile 5, breathing super hard the whole time, I never saw her at the finish). mile 3: 7:18 mile 4: 7:18 mile 5: 7:18 (starting to see a trend here) mile 6: 7:18 (wow). mile 7: 7:16 (finally out of my rut ;-)) mile 8: 7:16 (new rut) mile 9: 7:19 (gu - feeling tired, but told myself I did not even have to do a fast finish, I just needed to hang on for a PR) - was running with about 4 guys, I wanted to drop them, but I was scared because I was getting tired) mile 10: 7:22 (water stop to wash down the gu, it took me two tries to grab water, both times the water spilled all over me -- it was warm so it felt good). mile 11: 7:11 (I want to stop running - tried to figure out if I could still PR if I walked in, unfortunately, I did not think so -- the wind started picking up here - headwind, of course). mile 12: 7:17 (windy - no shade, I felt bad) mile 13: 7:10 (tried really hard to get the woman in front of me, but my legs were getting pretty rubbery) 0.1: 42 (tried to do a sprint -- still couldn't catch her!!!) Very very easy cool-down jog, I was so tired ... but pretty pleased. Wished I could have found 7 more seconds to break 1:35, but a 1:30 pr is not bad so I won't complain! Congratulations to all the PROVO 1/2 bloggers - it looks like you had a great day.
GOOD LUCK in EUGENE ALLIE!!!
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