my makeup may be flaking

Still on Mercer Island, with Allie on the South End of the Island.

Did 14.7 mile run along Jordan River trail. Not ideal conditions as i waited to run until dark and also until after I had eaten dinner. Best time on this course is 1:26:13 from about a year ago.

1:27:58 (5:59 pace)

Splits

3.8 23:00(6:03)

3.8-6.9 18:28 (5:57)

6.9-9.9 17:45 (5:55)

9.9-14.7 28:45 (5:59)

Very steady run. Effort was easy until the last couple of miles when I started to cramp up a little.

Pretty sore this morning and so my run took me 1:20:43 (8:30 pace). I find it hard to believe that I was running that slowly but I'm pretty sure the distance is correct.

In the afternoon I ran around campus and then ran the course for the alumni 5k this weekend. I ran with Andrew Egbert from the math dept and he wanted to go for an hour. I forgot to stop my watch though (7:30 pace??)

Two loops of Sugarhouse in 31:12 (7:48 per mile). First two miles 17:00 (8:30 pace). Last two miles 14:12 (7:06).

9 miles on the shoreline trail (1:10:12 =7:48 per mile).

Not really how I planned to start my day. Allie and I were almost done with our run when something bad happened to her foot. 53:40 for 6.1 (8:47 per mile)

PM Two mile warm up in 15:25. Then I alternated .75 miles fast and slow on the wood chips at liberty park.

4:18.6,5:33.7,4:13.7,5:47.4,4:06.0

Gradually got fasted for each one which is good. Effort was pretty high for the last one, but I should be able to do 5 and average close to 4:10.

Total time for the run was 50:16 (7:10 pace). 5:36 average pace for the "fast" sections 7:33 for the "slow" sections.

6.2 miles in 48:38 (7:50 per mile). I'm eerily consistent with my average pace even though it varies a lot on each run.

Felt a little bit of soreness in my glute at the end of this run. Need to watch that.

This is my third straight year doing this race, making it practically a tradition. I got 3rd (or 4th if you counted a bandit) in 2009 (16:32) and 2nd last year (16:58). The fall of 2009 culminated in my best race ever (a 1:11:15 at Seattle Half) and so I felt that if I could beat that time two weeks after a marathon then I would be really happy.

I knew that there would be some decent competition for this race as the defending champ (Kevin Smith) was running, as well as Andrew Egbert (a new grad student who ran 15:20 in college 4 years ago). Andrew is still adapting to running in Utah and Kevin and I were both coming off recent marathons so it seemed like it should be a fun race.

At the start I took off hard, making sure that my breathing was pretty uncomfortable. The last person to challenge me for the lead was actually Shayla Houlihan (a very fast woman). Throughout the first 400 to 800 meters I could hear maybe 7 or 8 people right behind me but I didn't look back until close to the mile when it looked like the only person close was Andrew. I didn't catch my mile split but I would guess that it was in the 5:15-5:20 range as we had climbed quite a bit. I figured that as long as I kept running hard, that eventually my strength would prevail, however I didn't know where Kevin was and I knew he was likely to come back strong at the end.

The second mile contains a lot of downhill and I remember pushing the downhill sections as much as I could. Each time I did this I was able to open up the lead a little bit (I could hear the footsteps behind me grow softer), but I knew that Andrew was still within striking distance. At two miles I glanced at my watch to see 10:15 meaning that I was setup to run a nice time. In the 3rd mile, however, I started to feel the affects of my lack of preparation and slowed down just a little. It also looked like I was going to win so mentally I probably relaxed a little.

The last 1.1 is tough and I finished in 16:26. The course tool says that I only slowed down a little at the end as I was on pace for about a 16:19 at 2 miles. It also says that this run is the equivalent of a 15:51. This is pretty exciting as it is certainly my best post-marathon-5k and also my best 5k-in-a-win. Combining those two with the fact that I was faster than 2009 gives me a ton of confidence moving forward.

Also, 8th win of the year!

9 mile cooldown run (66:24=7:27 pace)