Last year I did this race in 1:04:14. I figured I wouldn't have any trouble beating that and thought possibly I could go under an hour. Last night I came down with some kind of bug in my lower GI track [ my wife had it for a couple days]. It was worse this morning and required numerous bathroom stops that unfortunatly didn't seem to help.
After a 1 1/2 mile warmup I started the race with a 6:05 mile. My guts were churning and my next 2 miles slowed to 6:25 and 6:27. I had hopes of keeping my pace near or under 6:20 so I picked up the pace a bit and my shoelace came undone. I stopped at an aid station that was 75 yards before the 4th mile marker and tied it. When I stopped my garmin said I was at 6:18 pace for that mile. By the time I tied it and ran the final yards I finished that mile in 6:31. I only lost 13 seconds. No big deal. Near the end of mile 5, I spotted a guy from my age group that runs a lot of races here in Cache valley. He has beat me handily in the past including last year at this race by 4 1/2 minutes. I hadn't seen him since mile 3 and figured beating him was out of the question, now he was 45 seconds ahead, still a long way. I ran miles 5 and 6 both in 6:17 and closed the gap to about 25 seconds. The last quarter mile of mile 7 starts a steep climb that goes on through the first quarter of mile 8. I did these two in 6:38 and 6:40 and I was now 15 seconds back. Now the 13 seconds lost tying my shoe seamed like a bigger deal. I couldn't seam to close the gap any more. I normally have a good last mile but only did 6:23 for mile 9. He widened the gap a bit during that mile. I ran my last .3 at 5:42 pace but he got me by 21 seconds. Maybe next time. Here are my splits
1- 6:05
2- 6:25
3- 6:27
4- 6:31 tying shoelace would have been 6:18
5- 6:17
6- 6:17
7- 6:38 last 1/4 mile steep uphill
8- 6:40 first 1/4 mile steep uphill
9- 6:23
.31- 1:44 [5:42 pace]
My guts felt terrible afterward but I felt pretty good about the race. I went under an hour at 59:32 /6:23 pace and was second in my age group to the guy I was trying to catch. I beat my last years time by 4:43.
1.2 mile cooldown
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