The Renegade

Easy run this morning after and 800m warmup and stretches. Damon, Keith, Jake and I jsut ran to the end of the canal trail and back. That was a little under 5.5. Then my run home made the total 7 miles, so not bad. We have a two mile time trial tomorrow at the cross-country course, and I'm pretty excited.

I am very satisfied with today. It feels like all my hard work this summer is paying off and it makes me excited to work even harder and get great times this season. We got to the course at about 6:30 and did a quick but slow half-mile warmup. Then the rest of the team started doing a dynamic warmup but I was changing shoes so I missed that and only got a little bit in. I feel like I definetley went out at the right speed, and in the pack with me were Damon, Keith, Jake, and Davis. I was sort of in the middle of our pack for the first mile, although we were super close together. Ahead of us were Johnny, Ethan, and J.D. The grass was pretty easy to go the same speed on thanks to numerous times that I've done grass runs and strides this summer. We came through the first mile at 6:30. Some time around here was where I started to pick it up, and the rest of the pack followed. from there on I led, and the last 400 was really fast but felt amazing at the same time. I started kicking pretty early and that's when I sort of broke away from them. The end of the course was set up weird in that there was a big straight long striaghtaway and the a sharp turn followed by maybe a 25-50 meter straightaway. That made it harder to fall into the nice relaxed but quick strided sprint that I've been working on lately. I finished in 12 flat, so a PR, and it also means that we had a crazy big negative split, with a 5:30 second mile. It felt like I had energy to spare. I think it will be great if I can run under a 6:30 first mile next wednesday and then keep progressing it from there in the next 2.1 miles. After doing some yardwork on the course for a couploe hours a few of us ran back to the school. It was a nice, slow, easy feeling three miles.

Helping make the course look great for the start of the season

This morning in XC coach had us run to Merlin Olden park and them we did a 30 minutes session of core excersices with some sprints here and there. I'm geussing I geussing I got in a mile total during that, but I geuss it was pretty beneficial. Then we ran back to the school where I iced and then played some soccer. After that I ran about 5.5 miles to the river trail and then headed home along Park Avenue, just to actually get a run in. It felt pretty good. Tomorrow we have some tempo repeats I believe, plus it's our first afternoon practice because school starts also.

First day of afterschool practice was today, and the weather wasn't super cool, even though it seemed like it would be earlier. After our warmup and drills, coach had us run to the river trail and do (5 x 3 min hard w/ 2min rests). That was one of the toughest workouts we've had, just because of the less than equal recoveries, plus the heat. the other tough one we had was the 800s up at Gibbons, but that was in the morning. Most of the sets weren't too bad. I think we may have been taking them a little too fast, though. The only one where my legs really started to get tired and and I felt fatigued was the last set. At least I made an attempt at hydrating today. The run back just felt super hard. After we did some core, but it was felt pretty tough and it wasn't good to feel all gross and sweaty and have mosquitoes attacking you at the same time either. We did this front elbow plank for like 2 minutes, and that felt really hard. After that I got some pretty good full submersion icing in the canal.

The half is tommorrow!, so I decided to take it really short and easy today. After our 800m warmup, I just went 3 miles easy with the usual group, and we were told to do some strides when we got back so that's what we did, a half a miles worth on the track. They just felt amazing, the way I cold extend my stridelength. I think I'm to try to do those after most runs.

     Wooh! What a day! I had to get up at 4:30 to catch a bus up to the start line, so last night I tried going to sleep at 8:30. It took about a half hour to get to sleep (on two meletonin), and then I woke up at 10:30, got up, took another chill pill, went to the bathroom, and tried to get back to sleep. That took about 2 hours, so I wasn't as rested as I wanted to be, but it was still pretty good.

     When I got off the bus at the park in Blacksmith Fork Canyon, it was freezing cold, and I was shivering even with my sweats and warmup shirt. This was  at about 6:00, and the race started at 7. At 6:30, I stripped into my race clothes, got in a a good 10 minute warmup, and before I knew it, people were lining up to start, and the gun went off. 

     When  I lined up, I made sure to get near the 1:35 pacer, but when the race started, he was going at a pace that  I was not comfortable with, so I kind of thought sub 1:35 was off the book once he was out my sight, but as far as I new I was way ahead of the 1:40 guy. The first 7 miles (down the canyon) were super easy, just like I was told before. One of the only splits I remember is at mile 2 where I was at 14:45, and thought yes, I have good pace and I feel great. Four of my friends from XC were at the mile three aid station, which was great. I spent the whole time in the canyon basically leapfrogging with some other runners.

Me at somewhere around miles 4 or 5, fixing my posture for the camera

       I kind of started feeling it as soon as the course flattened out, but it wasn't that bad yet. So I geuss I would call most of the Hollow Road section stage 2 as far as difficulty. I was surprised when I saw the entire girls soccer team from my school at one of the stations. Once I got onto the highway and off it, the race was at maximum difficulty. Miles 11 and 12 were the worst part. That was probably where I was at the slowest pace and sloppiest form. I got passed once in the whole race and it was at the end of mile 11. It was a kid wearing a Sky View jersey and he just had a strong finish that I wish I would have had. (I found out later that he's my second cousin).

Somewhere on Hollow Road, but I don't remember where.

Realizing I'm gonna get passed and that I need to step up my game

    Once mile 13 started, it got easier, and I was able to pick up the pace. With about 800 left I passed the 1:35 pacer, who was going way slower than when he started. I figure he must be new to pacing and went out too fast, then realized it and had to slow way down. By then I could physically see the finish line, and got even easier. It felt amazing sprinting through the finish. 

  The final kick before the finish line is undoubtedly the best part of the race   

That look of exhausted, triumphant, relief when you realize when you realize you just finished your first Half-Marathon