The Shamrock Half Marathon is a low-key half in my home town of Saratoga Springs and Eagle Mountain. It is a tough hilly course, lots of turns and about 900 feet of climbing along the way. It even has a quarter mile of dirt. Last year I ran in just under 1:38. I hoped to improve that by at least a couple minutes this year. But the wind this year had other ideas. We had gusts of over 20 mph. Some of the flats would feel like tough hills. So I readjusted my expectations, hoping to at least beat my course PR by a minute. It seemed like there were about 200-250 runners.
The race unfolding a lot like last year. During the first couple miles I was with the front-runners but the eased back and was passed by a couple groups before mile 4. Buddy Mark Ellison passed me at about the same place as last year, and just like last year, I kept him in my sights until the finish, but never passing him.
Splits for the first half of the race were: 6:25, 7:48 (hiill), 7:27 (wind), 8:26 (hill), 7:49, 7:28. By mile five, I finally felt warmed up and felt more comfortable, able to push the speed up a little at times. No one would pass me after about mile 4.
For the next few miles, we continued to run in residental areas of the Ranches. At about mile 8, I crossed the main road and the volunteers weren't really pointing which way to go, so I started to run up the wrong road. But I no longer could see the guys in front of me, so I quickly turned around, realizing my mistake. When I did turn on the right road, I was shocked to see a pretty large group of runners within view. Where did they come from? I finallhy concluded that they had missed the turn, they were runners who had passed me about five miles earlier. I didn't feel too bad for them, they should have studied the course map, that is part of the game.
The toughest uphill is at mile 9.6 and then a nice fast dirt downhill. My legs still had some good speed in them, and I was able to find some 6:15 pace speed. My splits for miles 7-10 were: 7:33:, 7:12, 8:03, 7:43.
With just three miles to go, mostly flat and downhill, it was time to reel in some runners. I was able to pass three. I finished the race with 6:56, 7:08, and 6:24. Like last year, I wished the race had some more miles, because I was really gaining on runners ahead and didn't feel tired. I finished in 1:36:44, beating my course PR by over a minute. I again won my age group and finished 7th overall.
After finishing, I filled my bottle and immediately went out for more miles. I ran those last downhill fast miles a couple more times, great fun pushing sub-7 pace. Ended up doing six bonus miles. Fun times. | 