First time running this race, drove the course the night before to get a plan. No plan, go for it. The race within a race:
Running friends Colleen and Harry, Colleen is in the 55-59 (won her age division at St. George last year) and Harry is 71 and likely World Class in his divisioin. My last race with these two, they both beat me at the Holiday 5k by over 1 minute. The night before the race, Colleen kind of said her goal was to beat me or stay close. She is amazing, so is Harry. Collen ran a 1:38 and Harry a 1:40.
I spend much of the night before visulizing a good smooth race. No guts no glory. I had decided to try an be at 7 minute miles at the end of the big downhills, ends about 5 and 1/2 miles.
1. The race start was perfect, me and Sylvia warmed up with a half mile jog, we stayed at Ruby's Inn. We started about three or four rows back. The starting gun went off 5 times, the starter was trying to be funny. Not so funny, some of the front runners stopped, thinking it was a false start. Luckily, no one went down.
2. The first mile seemed to be a slight downhill followed by about 3/4 mile uphill at a 1 percent grade before the big downhill miles.
3. The steep downhill, does anyone run this very well? Just tryed to stay smooth and not pound the quads. A did not get my Garmin working correctly, did not know the time or the splits. At mile 6, Collen pulled up along side me and said we were on 7 min. miles. (42 minutes). Shortly after mile 6, next water stop, Colleen stopped, I quickly drank and moved along. I expected Colleen to soon pull up along side and pass me, I never seen her again. After the race she told me that she had pounded the downhill and walked thru every water stop. She still set a PR at 1:38 something. Great for her.
4. Harry, great, great, veteran runner at 71, this was his first half marathon in 15 years and he ran a 1:40 something when he is only training for 5Ks. Amazing. (Harry ran a 34:24 at Des News 10k when he was 50 years old.) The race organizers had him in the 65 and over division. (I really wonder about respect for older runners by race organizers and some younger runners.) By the time they got to Harry's division 9/10ths of the crowd had left. What a shame, he deserved as much applause as anyone in the race.
5. Back to the race, my legs were about done at mile 6, pounded the downhill pretty well to get on 7 minute miles.
6. The remaining race was hanging on, not letting the legs say no. Legs starting feeling better at about 7.5 miles, the mile from 6.5 to 7.5 felt like my slowest mile recovering from the severe downhill.
7. Hung on, averaged 7:18 pace for the half marathon, 7:17 was my pace the Murray 5k a couple of weeks ago. Very happy with the hang on effort the last 7 miles. (Talked to the first place runner in my division, he just moved to Salt Lake the last month from South Africa) I am going to need to get much faster to have a chance staying with him. He passed me at mile 8 and was cruising.
Road Kill Report: End of the Big Downhills: Had 2 runners pass me and passed 8, positive road kill 6 runners. Commando points 6.
Sylvia, she ran her best half marathon with a 1:50:26, 2nd in her division. (8:27) pace. Great race for her. Sylvia got beat by a relation to John Cahill. Sylvia hung with her the first 6 miles trading the lead back and forth. Trying to beat her likley cost Syliva some time overall.
Legs felt today like we had ran a marathon, not a half marathon.
This course is tough to compare to other half marathon courses. The legs tell me it was darn tough, the elevation drop tells me it was easier than the Prove Half, Stiders Half or Hobble Creek. I will be able to compare, we are running both Provo Half and Hobble Creek.
Good luck to all the bloggers running the DesNews Marathon or 10K.
Last note, the winner of the race, Hoby Call, won a free entry into the St. George Marathon and did not seem happy with the entry. He set a course record at the Half.
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