Ran the race to educate half today. 1st girl, 3rd overall. Details to come.. Let me preface this race by saying it is a large loop and it has 1300 ft of elevation change and 5.5 miles are in the dirt with some spots being rocky. My training cycle for this has only been about 3-4 weeks So of course I wasn't going for a great time-but I did want to beat my time last year. Anyway, Got up Saturday morning to a brisk 35 degrees, sun shining. I decided to still run in my short sleeve shirt and shorts. Anyway, got to the course with only 5-10 minutes to spare so no time for a warm up. (That's ok I has 13 miles to warm up) we all lined up for the race and there was only around 45 runners. (Very small-most people ran the 10k and 5k) anyway, gun went off and two guys shot right to the front and took off really fast and I never saw them again. Me and a guy in my ward ran the first 4 miles together until he started falling behind on the hills. The first two miles are uphill on the pavement and then 5.5 are in the dirt, with some really good uphills/rolling hills. The last 5.5 miles are mostly downhill, with an occasional small up. After I pulled ahead of the guy in my ward I ran alone the rest of the race. I couldn't even see the two guys ahead of me so I really was alone. I felt pretty strong on the hills, in the dirt. Some of this part was muddy bc it rained really hard two days before. I had 1-2 almost falls, but it wasn't too bad, the dirt was just looser than normal. I was relieved when that part of he course was done and I was on the pavement for the last 5ish miles. I knew I could make good use of the downhill. I ran relaxed-but still pushed the pace. I feel like its hard to push when no one is around so I kept spotting objects ahead and would surge to the objects. The last two miles had people on the course running the 10k so I worked to pass them. My watch went to some random screen the last 2 miles so I don't know my splits for the last 2 miles, but I was able to stop it at the end to get my overall time. Anyway, felt really good today and i decided I miss racing and competing. I want to do another 1/2 marathon... Too bad utah is so far.. There are so many there. If I don't do another half this fall I will train for a 10k in LA when we r there in December. (It is a huge race with 10000 runners) There are also some local 5ks coming up that il will do. Hmmm I want to do a spring/early summer marathon so I will have to look into that too. I have been taking it pretty easy since having the baby-but by spring time I plan on getting back into some serious training. The fire has been lit again and I can't wait to get back Into some serious training! Anyway, I finished 3rd overall, and showed the course as being 12.92, not 13.1. I will go by my garmin. Splits were 7:12, 7:08, 7:07, 7:43, 9:16, 7:14, 7:34, 6:40, 6:14, 6:30, 6:53, 6:25, 6:15. Average pace was 7:06.. (Ran a 7:16 pace last year, so I was happy to run 706 pace) | 