my makeup may be flaking

This race was primarily to see how I responded to "Des News" type conditions. I had initially hoped to run sub 1:12 and I thought that a sub 1:10 was in play. I had all but ruled out those possibilities before the race even started however.

I got up at 4am and sat on my couch eating artisan bread with hummus and watching South Park while drinking water (traditional pre race routine). Something was not right however, I was parched. I needed to keep drinking water to stop myself from getting cotton mouth and I felt like there was no realistic way to drink enough water before the start.

I left my house at 5:25am and I remember thinking how HOT it was. I jogged through salt lake city to get to the start and I could feel my body overheating, I was not sweating at all, there was nothing to sweat out. We were bussed to the start line and I remember wishing that I wasn't decked head to foot in the Union Jack. I wanted to ask another runner if I could have some water as I was desperate.

At the starting line up the canyon it was still a little warm but it was cooler and there seemed to be very little sun. I looked around for some water but...no luck. I kind of threw my prerace plan out of the window and decided I would take it easy until the last 5k.

There were quite a few good runners there that I recognised from this summer but from talking to them I had the impression that they were making their half marathon debuts. "I want to hit 5:40s and come in under 1:20" one said. Does not compute. There was a general consensus of taking it easy at the start because it would be hot. I advised to hit the last 4 miles hard because it was a downhill finish...damn my good advice.

Anyway, after the 1st mile it was just me and one other guy at 5:34 and I was feeling very relaxed. In the 2nd mile I opened a little lead and so I started throwing in some short bursts to shake him entirely. Thanks to the surges, that mile was 5:13. I relaxed a little running 5:26 for the third mile. I looked back and could see that I had already had about a 30 second lead built up and I was starting to feel pretty confident. Mile 4 was only 5:44 as I slowed down a little to drink some water but I looked back and saw he was now close to a minute back and almost out of sight. I decided to see what I could do on the next mile and have it still feel "sensible". That turned out to be a 5:20 and at this point I was sure that the race was over. I was not cramping up badly and I had a rapidly expanding lead.

In the last canyon mile I started to become aware of the heat and my own thirst. I slowed to take water again and ran 5:41 for the 6th mile and I was on about 1:12 pace halfway through. It was at this point that I noticed the race was departing from the course map. Instead of going through this is the place we ran down sunnyside a way. I had a good idea of what was coming next, a long climb up to the shoreline trail and I was right. Suffering from the heat I climbed the hills fairly conservatively and I was certain that my pace had veered over 6 minute pace. I didn't take another split until mile 9. That was 17:19 for the 3 miles uphill which seemed plausible but I was certain I had been slower.

I climbed the little switchback on the shoreline trail that represented the last hill and now I could see a runner in blue moving very fast at the base of the climb. He couldn't have been much more than a minute behind me and he had been nowhere in sight before. I knew that, even accounting for the hills, my pace had slowed dramatically but there didn't seem to be much I could do about it. I just kind of hoped that I would be able to hit the last couple of miles fast enough that he wouldn't catch me.

Unfortunately miles 10 and 11 combined were only 12:04 despite what I perceived to be high effort. (Afterwards I thought the course might have been long, but it also might have been due to my fatigue). I still held the lead as I turned on to the final loop around city creek. It was a downhill finish and looking back I couldn't see the guy in blue anymore. Then, right as we the course doubled back I saw him about 10 seconds behind my closing very fast. We had about a mile to go and I was weakening but not completely. I found a little bit of extra juice to hold on to those final few seconds but he caught me right as we came in sight of the Capitol Building.

NOOOO! A voice yelled in my head, you cannot let this happen again! My legs were burning but I asked them "can you kick?" and they responded "just tell me when". I should add that as the guy in blue passed he gave me a nonchalant "good job". Please, don't ever do that to someone who you are about to pass in the last mile of a half marathon. It's kind of a dick thing to do, although I'm sure he meant well.

Anyway I stayed close enough and finally turned on the afterburners in the 100meters. I blew by him and then almost fell going around the final turn before sprinting again to get the win by 2 seconds. Very tough race, my first ever half marathon win.

Not sure what to make of the time. Not totally encouraging to run 1:14:54 when your goal is sub 2:30. I think with some better handling of the logistics I can do it.

A good race, ultimately quite well run with an interesting course.

I did two loops of Sugarhouse Park in the heat of they day...probably dumb.

In the evening, three loops of Sugarhouse with Chris and Allie.

Ran from my office to Sugarhouse then up to Tanner park, along the bike path and back via foothill. A nice 13 mile loop that I think will be added to the rotation.

In the evening (10pm) did two loops liberty park.

Ran with Lily, Allie, Merri and Susan around Spanish Fork on the Speedy Spaniard Speedway. I was very sore today and probably would have run slower by myself. Afterwards Breakfast at Ruths

Last 20 miler prior to Des News. Allie was kind enough to drive me all the way to the start so I could experience the Big Mountain prior to race day. In all honesty I was not expecting much from today because my legs were pretty sore from the half marathon on Monday and I had hit my biggest mileage week of the year.

Anyway, I decided that this was good practice for me as it would force me to try and run the downhill in a way that limited the damage to my quads (which complained loudly when anything was asked of them today). I found that if I took short, extremely fast step then I could avoid the braking that normally trashes the legs. This was pretty mentally challenging but I'll probably only have to do it for the first 2-2.5 miles of the race. I obviously was not cutting tangest but I reached the 1st mile mark in about 5:45 and mile 3 in 17:05. I began to stride more normally after that I got to the mile 4 mark in 22:58 and mile 5 in 28:49. These miles are all just approximate as I was sticking to the shoulder on the left hand side of the road. However, they showed that as the road flattened out, I did not slow much because I was quite fatigued.

In fact, those first couple of miles were so terrible that I found myself looking forward to climbing little mountain. Allie met me just before the turn and offered me some powerade. The plan was to have her meet me here and then every two miles starting at 14 to simulate what it would be like on the race day. The 6th mile is actually quite a climb and I made the turn toward little moutain averaging 5:48 pace.

I dug in climbing little mountain and I did start to feel "better" because I wasn't breaking but my legs were very sore and my calves were tightening up from overcompensating. I stopped briefly when I got to the top and gave them a massage before downing a GU and heading off again. Now it was time for some long, lonely, painful miles dowm Emigration before I could see Allie again. I reminded myself that once I got out of the Canyon I would almost be done, so it wasn't really that bad. I actually was only about 5 secs per mile slower then two weeks ago going down the canyon when I felt much better. Today, I didn't really try to force it, just to take what my legs could give me and I managed to hold it together down the canyon just fine running low 5:40s. At 14 miles I saw Allie again and that reinvigorated me. In the marathon, that would mean 12 miles to go. Today it meant 6 to go and that was a much easier thought mentally.

I'm very happy with how I run the last section of the canyon and today I carried that momemtum up the Crestview Drive hill. In fact, I attacked the whole Wasatch drive section very well. Besides being somewhat less than efficient with my Gu and drinking (and some construction on the sidewalks that caused several detours) I managed the same time as my last tempo. I turned on to Foothill and realized that I felt great. I was running basically 2:35 pace at this point and felt that I could have run strong through the finish. I contented myself to run the foothill section strongly and once again this proved to be a good section for me.

Once I got to Sunnyside I decided to jog down 500S to the fieldhouse to finish my run. Even though I had felt strong, stopping at the light made me realize just how much I had tired my legs out.

I think that the fatigue in my legs cost me 1 minute in the opening miles, and using the rule of thumb that the taper gives me 10-15 seconds a mile, I'm thinking that I can get 2:28-2:31 on the day.