Well this was a pretty good race for me. I ran this race back in 2004 in 1:24:13. I figured I wouldn't have much trouble running faster than that this year, which turned out to be correct 1:18:45 (5:59 pace) 7th overall. The hardest part of the race came after the race was over and listening to Sasha telling me how fat I was. (ouch!) Anyway, I was pretty pleased with the effort and Sasha did say this course is probably about two to three minutes slower than Bryce, so that is encouraging considering I usually run Bryce in the 1:18's. I was a little upset at the start very poor placement of the porta johns, very long lines and a lot of confusion and disorganization. Also we really had no place to warm-up and tons of people trying to crowd to the front (this is one thing that really upsets me people pushing to get to the front of a race, when they aren't even fast runners.) I got stuck behind about 50 people that took off at only 9:00 minute pace. I think I started next to some grandma wearing a sweatshirt. Ok, enough complaining. Well, one more thing no real awards, they gave out a picture to the top 25 but for a race that costs $40, it would have been nice to have some decent awards and maybe a dri-fit shirt instead of cotton. Ok, now on the splits 1-5:49 Just trying to get around slow people, already mentioned that above. Actually the first mile was good especially considering I had no warm-up at all. I worked my way up to the top 25 2-5:49 (11:38) Another good mile still taking it easy, enjoying the downhill and getting warmed up 3-5:53 (17:31) I think by this point I had moved into the top 10 5K- 18:07 About the pace I've been running my 5 mile tempo 4-5:33 (23:05) I think I moved into 7th here and passed Rich for Spanish Fork? 5-5:59 (29:04) Another good mile, at this point I think I was running in 6th, I was pretty much using this younger runner to pull me along 6-5:56 (35:01) Still just using the guy in front of me, feeling good as now we are on the river trail and it is flat 10K 36:10 Things feeling pretty good 7-6:20 (41:21) Me and the guy I was running with missed the turn here and so we went a little extra and missed the water stop. The trail split and we stayed on the main trail section apparently the race was supposed to go off to the right, it was confusing especially because they had nobody there directing traffic instead 60 people down below the trail yelling at us. Of course I guess if I had ran the course before I might have known, however I have heard that this course changes about every year. It might have helped to have had a map to look at, but that would have been too much to ask for this race. This mile was also uphill and into a headwind
8-6:27 (47:49) Another part of this mile uphill and into a headwind. What I found interesting was the fact it was an honor thing at the turn around 60 people a mile before down in the parking lot yelling for us to get back on the course and nobody to even monitor the turn around. I dropped the guy I had been using now I'm alone in 5th
9-5:54 (53:43) Finally back on the trail and done dealing with the missed turn, water stop, turn around and all the other issues. Now just back to enjoying the race 10-5:57 (59:41) At this point, Michael West comes flying by me. He came by looking really strong, but really didn't put a huge gap on me, like I thought he was going to. 11-6:04 (1:05;45) Starting to notice some blisters on the toes, but still feeling pretty good 12-6:10 (1:11:55) Just hoping to not have a breakdown in the last mile, like I've had the last couple of halves 13-6:02 (1:17:58) A good last mile, I did get passed by a guy I think ran for SUU, but I was still in 7th which I felt good about. .1- .46 (1:18:44) So overall, pretty good race. In fact probably one of my better half marathons.
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