Really good race for me today and I was very happy with how it played out. My goal was to be around 1:18:00 - 1:19:00, and I thought I could do it, but I also thought I could do it at DesNews last month and I wasn't close then.
Weather was good, I felt good, I've trained well over the last few months, I had people to run with pretty much the whole way, and all of this added up to finally having a good race. Splits (based on the course markers): 5:58, 5:42, 5:45, 11:40 (missed a marker), 5:49, 5:58, 5:47, 5:53, 5:56, 6:10, 5:51, 6:46 (for the last 1.10).
Pretty quickly after the race started I found myself running stride for stride with Devra V. She would go on to win the women's race and beat me by about 30-40 seconds, but we were together for pretty much up until mile 10 where she started pulliing away. Running with her helped me a ton. The miles were flying by pretty quickly. We talked a bit, we were picking off quite a few people, and we just seemed to be in a good rythem. Like I mentioned, this was a big help and really got me through any rough patches I was having, although I felt pretty good up until around mile 10-11. We had one guy who caught up to us around mile 8. It was then the three of us for a while until just before the water station that is before the gully part of the race around mile 10.5. Devra had separated a bit and soon after this I pulled away from the other guy. Basically was solo for the last 2 miles and just tried to hold on until the finish. I didn't have much left in the tank the last mile, but tried not to fall apart.
Anyways, I know the course is a bit short, but this was a very good confidence builder for me heading in to this last stretch of training prior to St. George. Just need to stay consistent with the training and keep plugging away and hopefully it will pay off in the marathon.
Cooled down with Matt, Mike, Reed and Justin (who all had pretty decent races) for a few miles.
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