Craig's Running Blog

Got up at the ungodly hour of 3:45. Had to meet Marie & Cindy in Draper at 4:15. Fortunately, I assembled my pack the night before so there were no surprises. We met up and I rode down with them. We got there pretty early, so we had some time to relax and ride the bus up the canyon.

We saw Mark and Bill at the starting line. I also talked to Walter, who was racing it but fortunately not under his own name in our division. Mark and I got a minimal amount of warm ups in, and decided to pace each other the first part of the race since we had the same goal time of 1:18. I haven't been running as many miles this year, but I've been biking a fair amount and doing 2-a-days (running in the morning and biking in the evening). I knew that my fitness was good, and it's also comforting to be totally injury-free.

The gun went off in the usual Kurt-style chaos. Mark and I found ourselves pacing with Michelle L, who was shooting for a sub-1:18. Naturally, she pulled ahead about 1 minute while we averaged a 5:40 pace on the first 3 miles. Once we flattened out and hit the trail at mile 4, I thought we would slow down, but I was pacing miles 4 and 6, and I was keeping the pace around 5:45. Travis was doing a training run, and hooked up with us for mile 5. At the mile 6 marker, I looked back to see Mark about 15 seconds behind me, so I slowed and offered to let him pace. I told him I just felt good and relaxed, so he told me to go ahead and run a 1:16. So I pulled ahead and worked it pretty well up the hill. I came down the hill to find Michelle and a couple others within reach, so I caught up and pulled ahead of them. This tall guy who looked like a college runner pulled ahead of all of us, so I used him as a pacer the rest of the way. Travis hooked up with me again at mile 8, and ran a couple miles with me until he couldn't hang on anymore. I was still feeling strong, so I decided to maintain the pace in to the end. I almost caught the tall guy on the last mile, but there wasn't enough distance or time left. I finished it up at 1:16:46, which is the fastest I've run that course in 5 years or so. I was pleased with the time. Michelle was the next finisher, coming in at 1:17:45 and winning the race.

We'll see how Hobblecreek goes in a couple weeks.