Well, this was a really, really good race for me despite the battles with the headwind up in the canyon, and it was actually a lot of fun. In fact, this is probably a PR effort for me as I ran Hobble Creek in 1:22:04 several years back and a pretty honest Pocatello course in 1:24:23 last fall. Wasn't quite sure what to expect, but I just ran a 1:24:40 at the Provo City Half a little over a month ago and the courses are somewhat similar, although I would say that Provo City is a bit faster. I also knew that I ran a 1:25:46 in a somewhat disappointing race last year. However, the one thing I wanted more than anything was to at least push myself early in the race and if I blew up, so be it. That 6:00-6:15 pace is intimidating to me, but I wanted to go there as long as possible (I need to learn to go and stay at this pace more frequently). Here are the splits: 1 6:14 Things separated pretty quick. There was a pack of 6 that formed and flew away and then a pack of 4 that I believe included JPark from the blog and Ryan (Rob's R's friend) that separated a bit as well. Then there was our pack of about 15 or so, which included the leading women. 2 6:23 12:38 Just rolling along in our big pack. Lots of headwind up in the canyon and I tried to tuck in behind as best as possible. In all honesty, I love running in these big groups cause it is easy to get sucked in and just go with the pace, which is what I did for quite a while. It helped. 3 6:30 19:09 Big hill in here. There were some decent climbs along the way. 4 6:25 25:34 5 6:13 31:48 Seemed like right around in here are pack breaks up a bit. There were about 4-5 women and maybe 2-4 guys. 6 6:01 37:50 Things really split up here and now it was me, K. Harmon (who ended up winning the women's) Melody (didn't realize she was on the blog until I just read her report), green shirt guy who had come back to us from one of the groups ahead, and one other guy. 7 6:01 43:52 Obviously from the splits, miles 5-9 were some great miles for me. Got into a good groove and really felt good. K. Harmon and I were running right together all through here and Melody had fallen back just a bit. Green shirt guy must have started feeling better cause he gapped us pretty quickly around the end of this mile I believe. 8 6:10 50:02 9 6:01 56:03 Seems like we came out of the canyon right around here and too be honest, I didn't really notice much of the headwind from here on out. But it was pretty fierce up in the canyon. 10 6:25 1:02:29 I start struggling here and K. Harmon pulls away and Melody and her friend that jumped in with her for a few miles also passed and pulled away. Just trying to make it to the next aid station, which I make it to and walk through. 11 6:35 1:09:04 Up the hill by the golf course. Not as bad a split as I thought it was going to be. 12 6:22 1:15:27 Just trying to hold on. Legs are hurting, but still pulled off another decent split. 13 6:20 1:21:47 Longest mile ever. Felt like it went on forever. Guy behind me was a good 20-30 seconds behind. 0.10 0:50 1:22:37 I think I ended around 11th place for the men. Obviously a better than expected time, but I'll take it and keep trying to get faster. I've only ever seen 1:22:xx twice before at the end of a half, so I was pretty excited to finish where I did. I'm very happy with where I'm at right now with the running and seem to be running faster than I thought I could for this time of the year. Maybe the CrossFit is helping, although I'm sure that is up for debate with many on this blog. But overall my running mileage is down this year, but I'm supplementing things with the CrossFit....and also losing a bit of weight. Who knows. I think the plan is to run DesNews Marathon, so this is a good confidence booster, but that race is a whole different animal it seems like.
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