Philippians 4:13

6:00am out the door for early taper week run.  I am not feeling too sharp and didn't finish this run too encouraged.  1M warmup in 6:46 then into MP miles...not nearly where I wanted them.  Only got between 6:20 and 6:02 (progressing to mile 6 as the fastest) then a 0.25 cooldown for an overall time of 39:54.  Just didn't feel like I had another gear and my form didn't feel efficient (I felt like I had to concentrate too hard to keep easy running at MP).  Hopefully the taper will leave me refreshed for Saturday. 

7M on a wonderful day at lunch...50 degrees, light breeze and sunshine (calm before the storm that is coming in tonight!).  1.5M easy warmup, then 0.25M at 5:50 pace before starting into4x0.5M repeats.  Times on the repeats:  1-2:41, 2-2:38, 3-2:43, 4-2:43.  Felt pretty good, form felt great and the effort was manageable but hard.  Thought about a couple more, but decided to let my body rest.  I did another 0.5M at MP then ran back to the office with Dan, including a sprint for about 0.2M to the end peaking at a 4:42 pace.  Overall time of 46:30 for the run.  Now full on taper!

5M in 36:38 (7:20 pace) on a decent day for running...50 degrees, overcast and a light breeze (I got in just before the rain started).  Nice easy recovery/taper run. 

Ah, taper madness!  4M in 28:28 at lunch on a warm but overcast and windy day out on the desert.  Phantom taper pains in left knee and right hip at the start but totally gone by the end of the run.  I picked it up the last 1/2 mile to focus on form, turnover and power and it felt nice and relaxed.  Looking forward to Saturday now!

My traditional day off rest 2 days before the race just to let things relax.  Easy short run tomorrow before heading down to Ogden for the race on Saturday.  Feeling good, the niggles are not there now and everything feels loose.

1 mile walk in the park at lunch just to get out and enjoy the beautiful day and keep things loose.

Early morning shake out run of 3.1M in 21:30 just to keep the legs loose.  Heading out for Ogden after lunch!  Looking forward to the race!

Got up at 3:40am to get ready and head to the start with Pam and meet Andrea for the bus ride.  I knew it was going to be a warm day when the temperature in the valley was already 50 degrees.  Got downtown, got on the buses and made our way to the start.  I said some prayers on the bus thanking God for the strength to run and asking Him to bless all the runners out there today.  I spent time just chilling and talking with a few folks and just getting inside my head to be ready for the race.  Fueled with some PowerBar GelBlasts (these are awesome!) Had to make a pit stop right before the start so I didn't get in any warmup after having to stand in line for a while.  Met Fritz, Steve, Ben, Andy and Paul at the start and got ready to go.

At the gun, Fritz was off fast and I ran for the first 1-2 miles with Ben and Steve then reeled myself back in as they were going out faster than I wanted but I kept them in touch for a while.  I was running in 5th place (a kid named Mont went out with them) and managing to hold a solid sub-5:50 through 10 miles then I hit the patient phase of the race on the rollers above the reservoir.   Around mile 10, Bryant Jensen came cruising by me (he went on to finish second and catch all but first place) at a good clip.  Fuleing was mostly good with the aid stations and my PowerBar Gels, so I was feeling ok.  I hit the half around 1:17:30 and was feeling pretty good but it was getting warm and my hips were starting to get tight. 

Up the hill at 15 in an ok pace (6:30) then the rollers to the dam were ok.  I could still see a couple of the runners in front of me so I had some hope for the canyon.  As I hit the canyon, I tried to open it up and realized that my tight hips were not going to let me and my pace down the canyon sucked...where I should have been running 5:40ish, I was only able to manage around 6:00 pace.  I was still on 6:00 average pace through 22 but I couldn't get it into another gear on the downhill sections.  

The only good thing was that 5th place guy (Mont) was coming back to me quickly.  As we hit the pathway at 23 miles (where a spectator told me to "Kick"...kick with 3 miles left?), I was right behind him.  I took some deep breaths, trailed him for about 0.25m then surged to a faster pace and dropped him as hard as I could (I was hurting, but I knew he was hurting worse) and with authority to let him know he wouldn't catch me.  The last 3 miles were the normal Ogden finish (hot, dodging and weaving through walkers 2-3 abreast with headphones).  I turned onto Grant St. and just tried to push it to the finish.

5th Overall, 2nd Master (Steve A beat me by a little over 3 minutes, congrats Steve you did awesome today!  Looking forward to running with you again soon) in 2:39:02.  I am disappointed with my time a bit as I really wanted to get closer to 2:35, but I hit my C goal and still finished in the money so that was cool.   Felt like I was better trained than the time, but it was just one of those days.  I felt good through the half but whatever I did to my hips caused me to leave about 2-3 minutes out in the canyon.  I had a great time with friends then made it back to IF in time to watch my daughter's ballet performance.  

Congrats to all the bloggers who ran (especially Fritz and Amber Green on some smokin' top performances!).  

My splits: 1-5:36, 2-5:47, 3-5:45, 4-5:45, 5-5:49, 6-5:52, 7-5:50, 8-5:54, 9-6:02, 10-6:01, 11-6:16, 12-6:07, 13-6:17, 14-6:06, 15-6:30, 16-6:10, 17-6:10, 18-5:49, 19-6:01, 20-6:07, 21-6:10, 22-6:04, 23-5:54, 24-6:12, 25-6:32, 26-6:28, 0.2(0.31)-1:58.