Well today's race was a pretty good experience for me. I have been working to get back into shape, still have a long ways to go, put at least I left this race feeling a little better about myself.
So far this year I've ran 1:40:16 at St. George Half and 1:32:36 at Dogtown Half, so I was really hoping to see some improvement in my half time today. I sat out with the goal of around 1:25:00 or 6:30 pace
I started off very conservative and just warmed up the first 4 miles and really didn't start picking it up until the canyon. Down the canyon I kept everything under control and I was probably most pleased with the last few miles on the trail where I thought I would struggle, but didn't too bad.
Met up with Tyler at the start and did half a lap around the Eden park and then straight to the starting line. A little chilly at the start, but once we started running very nice temps
1-7:10 Nice and easy, kept forcing myself to slow down
2-6:54 A little up hill, still warming up
3-6:44 Still having to hold myself back
4-6:46 Feeling ready for the canyon
5-5:56 Maybe a little too excited but this mile drops a lot
6-6:18
7-6:19
8-6:11
9-6:09
10-5:56 I was pretty pleased with how things were going at this point, really wanted to get in at least 6 good miles,
11-6:28
12-6:51 Lack of endurance starting to effect me.
13-6:36 Pretty decent last mile
.25- 1:26
Everyone I talked with had the course measured long on their Garmins by about.10, so if that were really the case then made you could take off 45 seconds.
Anyway my chip time was 1:26:04 (6:34 average) so I was pretty happy with that. Best thing I didn't feel totally beat up, like after most races. I was able to run 2 miles after the race. I went and helped pace Bill the last half mile of the marathon. He ran 3:13 and Mike ran 3:06. Steve Olsen did a 1:20 in the half and Tyler Shepard had a great race 1:19:11, so I was happy for him.
This race has gotten me excited for a good summer of training and racing. I'm signed up for the St. George Marathon, but plan to do 2 or 3 more halves this summer, plus some 10K's. |