Striders 1/2 Marathon. Well, my only complaint was the wind. It made the second half of the race pretty ugly. Temps were ok, not bad, but combined with the wind chill it made for a rough morning. I drove with Jon and we met up with Clyde, Logan, and Andy for a bus ride to the start. We met up with more bloggers and did some warmup and stretching/waiting for the thing to start. Lots of snow still in that canyon and Ogden Valley. We finally got under way and immediately I could feel the wind. I mostly drafted through the canyon so it wasn't too bad. Plus the downhill countered it pretty good. We got a bit carried away with the first mile, but soon settled into a better pace. I felt really good until mile 10 or so. That was when the wind picked up (headwind or un-favorable crosswind the whole way). I was also in no-mans land too from mile 8 on in so it was a struggle. I felt like I had a shot at my pr (1:16) until about mile 9-10 then it was out of reach. My splits were: 1: 5:30 2: 5:41 3: 5:43 4: 5:40 5: 5:47 6: 5:51 7: 5:48 8: 5:54 9: 6:05 10: 6:06 11: 6:24 12: 6:19 13: 6:07 .1: 0:32 (5:12) 1:17:25 (5:55) 175 ave 180 max Beat my Moab time by over a minute, even with much worse conditions. I would guess the wind affected me by 1 to 1.5 minutes, but that is hard to tell. I do feel that if I had conditions like I did for my 1:16 PR (TOU half 2007) I would have PR'ed. Who knows though. 4:20 course PR over my time from last year. I am happy with the results and am now looking forward to the Ogden Marathon. Of course, we still have a battle on for 2nd place in the Striders Series. Chad added another min+ to his lead on me, but due to his sickness, I made up the time I was down to Jon and then a bit more. He ran a great race to cut his losses and gut it out. It will be a battle at the 30K! I enjoyed mingling with the other bloggers during the cool-down and after. It is always fun to catch up and talk running. I have a few medals for some of the folks who (wisely) split early. Josse, I sent yours with Tom/Kim. Walter and Steve, I have your medals. Good job guys. | 