my makeup may be flaking

Wow, what a race!

I was just hoping to use this race as a confidence booster because I've been having trouble with my half marathons.

The start of the race was a little bit of a mess. There was a guy mumbling ready set go and that seemed to be a good indication for me to start. Riddle me this race director. Why have chip times if you aren't going to have a timing mat at the start? I hate it when races do that.

I'm not sure what my first mile was because I didn't start my watch in time but I think it was something around 5:35. This didn't feel very fast (it was a bit downhill) but no one was around me. Mile 2 was 5:41 and and I took a glance behind me to see that there was one guy trailing after me. After 3 miles there was a turn off Wasatch Blvd on to a pedestrian bridge. I managed to find it because I had reviewed the course before hand. Yes there were a lot of volunteers, yes I asked them if that was the right way to go, but none of responded to me.

Anyway on the bridge I could see there was one guy about 30-40 seconds behind me and I was starting to feel kind of crappy. Mile 3 had only been a 6:11 but that was ok because it had a pretty big hill. Mile 4 was 5:46 with several sharp turns. Miles 5 and 6 were the worst for me. My legs were starting to seize up and we were making these interminable turns through this neighbourhood (a lot of up and down). I did 5 and 6 each in about 5:55-6:00, which was more a function of the terrain than me slowing down.

I knew I was going to get caught from behind but it took him so darn long. Mile 7 had more climbing before finally getting to some nice downhill and I did 5:46. Mile 8 had a ton of down but did include a big uphill. This is where I finally got passed by the eventual winner,even though that mile was 5:17 for me. My legs were seizing up like crazy at this point and there was just nothing I could do about it. The next couple of miles were straight downhill and should have been super fast but evey step was painful for me. Somehow I was managing to stay just about ten seconds back.

I got to ten mile in about 57:30, the lead now up to maybe 20 seconds. This race ended in Sugarhouse park. The course had done some sharp turns so I briefly lost sight of 1st place. There was a sign pointing me left when I got to the inner road so I followed it and started to run downhill. It was then that I saw 1st place guy (and the lead cops) had gone the OTHER way. I cut through the grass to get back on to the correct course. Then before I knew it I was finishing, about 30 seconds back of the leader.  Despite going the wrong way I had managed a sub 7:30 final 5k, but amazingly it wasn't enough to catch the leader.

It was a tough day, but it ended up being a huge PR for me.

Seriously though. This was ridiculous. This race was terrible I'm guessing around 11.2 miles and then the people at the finish line acted like it was my fault.

I'm annoyed at this race for a couple of reasons. 1st) they did a terrible job. I payed $60 which should be enough to ensure some kind of competence. 2nd) I don't understand why I keep crapping out in all of my recent half marathons. I tried my best today, but that doesn't even remotely resemble what I am capable of on a "good" day. I know this because last weekend my 10K didn't feel this bad and I was running faster over terrain that was just as hard.