Just five days after running Boston, I thought I would go ahead and run a new half marathon that is in the neighboring city of Lehi, Utah. It would be an interesting test to see if I have indeed recovered from Boston. 100% of the entry fees from this half go to funding a new Children's museum at Thanksgiving Point. They ended up raising $32,000. The race director is ultrarunner Kendall Wimmer. He did a fantastic job putting the course and together.
The course isn’t fast, but it isn’t terrible tough either. It winds and rolls like crazy. A cool feature is that at mile 3 in runs through the stunning Thanksgiving Point gardens. The tulips were out in force. It also runs along the Jordan River over to Willow Park and then returns. In only its first year, 630 runners started, a pretty big race. It was an impressive event, very well organized and plenty of great food at the end. They did a fantastic job pulling in sponsors and had great awards including generous cash awards.
The morning was perfect, not a cloud in the sky. The start is early, shortly after dawn at 7:00 a.m. It was about 38 degrees at the start.
My legs felt good early on and I started in the top ten for the first mile, then backed off as we ran along the golf course and through the gardens. About 8 runners passed me in that stretch but I kept them in my sights. For the bulk of the race, I held about 20th place. There were tons of aid stations, but I ran through every one without taking anything, just using my hand-held water bottle with diluted Ensure. My legs started to feel a little slow around mile seven, but I was proud that I kept the foot on the gas pedal the entire time..
My miles splits were: 6:15, 7:01, 7:10, 7:20, 6:58, 7:02, 7:27, 7:07, 7:15, 7:28, 7:23, 7:24, and that last mile was probably near 8:20, although that mile might have been a little long.My average mile pace was 7:15.
A couple guys passed me around mile ten and one of them noticed my Boston shirt and recognized that I was running just five days after Boston. I replied, “Yep, pretty crazy.” I was fading during the last mile and two runners reeled me in, but I kept pushing the entire way.
I finished in 1:34:52. Good enough for 24th place overall and first place in my age group. The 2nd place guy in my age group was more than ten minutes slower. I was shocked to see that I was only three minutes out of the money. Could have won $300 for masters champion if I would have really pushed like crazy. I ended up in 4th place in the masters.
It was nice getting to all the goodies at the finish with just a small handful of runners milling around, pretty deserted. That's a good clue that you finished well.
It was interesting to see that my pace was almost exactly the same as the first half of Boston. However, this felt much tougher because of the altitude. My lungs were really working. No cramps and I felt fine at the finish. I hung around and cheered the finishers, having fun talking to many other runners who somehow recognized me.
At awards, I received a nice trophy.
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