Hobblecreek 1/2 Marahon Well, I knew the pressure was on me this year for a PR. I've been running a little better than last year, and this is probably the best year I've had since 2005. Since last year was my first Hobblecreek half, I knew what to expect and knew that the course is so fast there would be no excuse not to PR. Fortunately, I had a pretty good day. I would say about 60% of our group raced this year, which brought about 18 of the Runamoks crew down to UT county. I rode down with Bill (our coach) to get his usual good advice on race day. As expected, the race started close to 8:00, even with the buses leaving earlier this year. I was hoping heat wouldn't be a factor, because it was scheduled to be a very hot day and an 8:00 start for a summer half marathon isn't exactly early. The race started, and I knew I was moving at about a 5:30 pace over the first 5 miles. I don't wear a watch any more, so I'm racing strictly by feel. It felt good. I had Linsdey (who won for the women), Justin (who won the Ogden half but was disqualified 'cause he registered for the full), and a couple sojourners guys named Clark and Derick in my sites through most of the early miles. There was some older guy with red hair and a tucked-in shirt who didn't look like he'd be able to keep the pace with them. I passed him at mile 5 and I don't know what happened to him. Maybe he won the masters division in 1:14. Eventually, I passed Derick and Lindsey broke away, so I just had the 2 guys in my sights. The heat started getting to me around the golf course, and that's where Nan came up and passed all of us. That was pretty crazy. I mentioned something about it being a scorcher, but she wasn't in the mood to say anything. About mile 10, I saw Travis off the side doing his tempo training, and he ran a couple with me. I started feeling better around mile 11, and started picking up the gap between me and Justin/Clark. Travis bailed out at 12, but closing the gap had me surging mentally. I eventually passed Clark when he stopped & stretched with a 1/2 mile to go and caught up to Justin. He knew I was right there and he had a decent kick, so we ended up finishing together. Still, I was pretty pleased I was able to hold pace with the guy who beat Walter and ran 3-4 minutes faster than me at Ogden. Justin and I talked after the race for a while, and he gave me some decent suggestions for running flats, etc. In all, I'm pretty pleased with the race. I think hitting the bike hard this summer and keeping my running mileage at a mild base is paying off at the 1/2 marathon distance. I am not sure how it will translate at St George, but I'm going to increase the mileage over this next month to get my endurance where it needs to be. I'm not too worried, because I'm feeling pretty strong at the end of these 1/2 marathons (unlike last year). On another positive note- my training partner Jeremy came in 2nd at the Park City marathon, so he'll be good to train and race with over the next month. Mark (our other training partner) is doing the Top of Utah half this weekend, so we'll see how that goes. | 